It is almost 153 years since St Paul’s Church of England in Avenel was opened.
The foundation stone of the first church was laid in June 1872 and the church was opened in November 1872 near the old Hume Highway.
In November 1913 a new church was built in Queen Street, directly opposite the St Mary’s Catholic Church, which sadly closed in April 2024 for ongoing lack of attendance and lack of funds to maintain the church. It was then sold.
Unfortunately St Paul’s Anglican Church is to follow the same fate, due also to lack of attendance due to declining numbers and the cost of keeping the church open becoming untenable.
Sadly the parish only held joint parish services in St Paul’s over the past few years on the 5th Sunday of the months that it fell in or Easter and Christmas and the odd Mother’s Union service.
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The information was given at the parish congregational meeting for parishioners from Seymour Christ Church, St John’s Nagambie, and St Paul’s Avenel, following the church service on Sunday 29 June.
It was announced by the Locum priest Rev Andre Du Plooy to the small congregation in attendance that the Anglican Diocese of Wangaratta has decided that Avenel church will no longer offer Christian services of any kind to the community, except home communions, home church, or bible study.
One Avenel parishioner and resident spoke on the lack of services held at Avenel and said the closure was a shame as members of the community could have attended more if the church was open more than just a handful of Sundays in the year.
Unfortunately there was a lack of consultation by the Diocese and the members of the parish centres with the community, and the challenge of trying to reach out to the growing Avenel community was not met.
Closing the church doors is like closing the door of faith for the community. The church building has been an integral part of the Avenel community, and has always been a symbol of Christian faith and worship.
It now looks like it is closing its back on its community, leaving only the Seymour-Avenel Uniting Church to provide Christian services in the town.
This devastating news comes after 15 decades of St Paul’s providing Sunday worship eucharists or morning prayer services, baptisms, weddings and funerals, Christmas and Easter services, communion, and combined parish ecumenical services held with the other Avenel churches.
These 15 decades of continual challenge and change for this small-town church has stood as a testament to their faith story in the Avenel community and within the Anglican Diocese of Wangaratta since its inception in the early 1900’s.
However, it is a sign of the current times with no Sunday schools, Church Kids Clubs, regular church services, and no school religious education observed in small towns. Families no longer worship in small town churches together and elderly parishioners are the only faithful ones left sharing their Christian faith and fellowship at church and are trying to pay for the upkeep of their clergy, buildings, and maintenance costs.
Anglican ministry and worship is available at the Anglican Church in Seymour, Nagambie, or Longwood or by request as a home communion.
It is sad to see another Christian Church having a 'use by' date decreed upon it.
Diane Grant is a former parish member of both St Paul’s and Christ Church Seymour, and is now at St John’s Nagambie in the Parish of Central Goulburn. She began her involvement in 1974 and taught Sunday School, Kids club, RE at Avenel school, and was involved with church concerts, camps, and fetes at St Paul’s from 1981 to 1990.
