It’s business as usual at Holy Trinity

The heritage-listed Holy Trinity Anglican Church may be fenced off for safety, but Father Mal Dunnett, wishes to assure the public that the church itself is open for business.

In late August, church leaders made the decision to fence off the 140-year-old building on the corner of Anson and Byng Streets due to an increase in incidents of slate tiles coming loose, which posed a serious hazard to people entering and leaving the church.

“It became actually quite dangerous, so we had to make sure we made it safe for everyone,” said Fr Dunnett.

Repairing the roof will cost more than $400,000, but Fr Dunnett said they are hopeful work could commence as early as March next year.

“The process that is involved in keeping a heritage-listed building up to scratch is extremely expensive so what we are doing at the moment is we are working through how that is going to happen,” he said.

“We have a proposal in with the diocese and we are very confident the proposal we have will work. So, we are very confident we can get the roof fixed and we will then be at a stage where — unless Mount Canobolas explodes — it will last another 100 years so it would well and truly outlive me!”

But with construction fencing surrounding the old church very prominent in public view, Fr Dunnett said some people have mistakenly thought the work of the church has stopped too.”

“We’ve found, with the fence around, everybody has automatically thought the church has closed down, but it has not,” he said.

“We are not only going, we are going strong! All our services are being held in the memorial hall which has been revamped quite substantially. All our Christmas Services, everything is going ahead as per normal.”

Fr Dunnett said the work the Parish does is actually quite significant. Parish members are involved in court support, volunteering at schools and hospitals, and are partnered with Rotary to deliver school resources and build sanitary blocks for schools in the Solomon Islands.

“So, we don't want people to think we've stopped any of those things; they are still happening… it has actually been quite distressing for a lot of our people, because they are being asked why did the church close down.”

For information on service times and other happenings in the Holy Trinity Parish visit www.holytrinityorange.com.au or call the Parish Office on 6363 1623