Historic building: The final service at the Tongala Uniting Church will be held on April 24.
Tongala Uniting Church’s final Sunday service will be conducted just a week after the Easter celebration, on Sunday, April 24.
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The 10am service will be a bittersweet celebration of the Tongala church and its service to the community, with everyone invited to attend the event.
Those that can’t make it to the church are encouraged to watch the service live on Zoom.
The church will be sold along with the contents. The Uniting Church owns the property next door, with the current renters of the property being there for nearly 15 years. They will be given the opportunity to make the first offer for the property.
“It saves them having to move and us trying to find an auctioneer and get the property valued,” Church Council treasurer Beryl Anderson said.
The Uniting Church was founded on the merger of the Methodist, Presbyterian and congregational churches in the 1970s.
Ms Anderson and Lyn Taylor, who is the secretary of the Uniting Church, said that due to their age they could no longer have the responsibility of managing the church.
“We are the only two left running it. I’m on a walker about to turn 82 and Beryl will 84 in August,” Ms Taylor said.
“We can’t keep going any longer. We must face the facts we are getting older; we don’t want to close the church. Most of our congregation is in aged care so they can’t do it.
“We didn’t want it to happen. After all these years to be the ones to have to close it down is terrible but what can we do?”
For the past couple of years the majority of the services have been conducted through Zoom, which forced Ms Anderson to reskill and learn how to live stream services.
“I was proud of myself, because I looked it up on Google and went in to learn how to do it,” she said.
Before the Tongala Uniting Church was built, congregations would switch between meeting at either the Methodist or Presbyterian churches.
Ms Taylor discussed her memories of being involved in the construction of the church, saying she even helped pour concrete.
“I brought my shovel and my rake,” she said.
“I came out here with my gumboots and poured the foundations.
“The fellas, they looked twice when I rocked up and I said ‘I can work too’.”
People with memories of life in the Tongala church congregations, photos or items of interest are urged to contact Beryl Anderson (040137635) to make them available for the celebration.
End of an era: Beryl Anderson and Lyn Taylor are part of the Uniting Church executive at Tongala.
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