AFTER over 85 years serving Cavendish, the local Uniting Church closed its doors recently with a celebratory service held and many travelling from out of town to be part of the occasion.

Chairperson, Roger Edwards said he was pleased at the turnout on December 3, but admitted the feeling was mixed in with one of sadness at the culmination of the associated inevitability.

“There were no tears in any eyes or anything like that,” he said.

“We’ve been resigned to this for quite a long time and we’ve been preparing for it for 12 months, basically.

“At the service itself we had about 50 or 60 there … and we had the new Uniting Church minister, Reverend Fiona Hill – she took the service.

“Then (it was) completed with a nice shared lunch.”

Earlier in the year, the decision was taken that the congregation could no longer financially support the old building in the current era of more stringent regulations.

Mr Edwards wrote then in the Cavendish Chronicle of how the building dated back to 1938, and subsequently expanded its facilities with a parsonage in 1954 and Sunday School Hall eight years later.

In 1977 the Methodist Church became a Uniting Church after the merger of Methodist, Congregational and Presbyterian churches nationally, but in the last three decades the level of local activity has been in slow decline.

“Although it’s probably a sad occasion for some, it’s just a sign of the times,” he said.

However, he was still upbeat about the opportunity for congregants to gather for services.

“We have very good ecumenical services happening in Cavendish,” Mr Edwards said.

As for the future of the building, he said it was likely the Uniting Church “synod will want to sell it” but despite also lamenting “we will possibly lose an asset the community could use occasionally”, he was hopeful there might still be a bright future for it.

“You never know, we might get a nice young family come in,” he said cheerfully.