It was a sad day when Dungog Presbyterian Church closed its door in March.
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But it was hard to ignore dwindling number of parishioners every week and finally the decision to relocate the small congregation to Clarence Town Presbyterian Church was made.
Now, the beautiful church built in 1904 lays empty but not all hope is lost yet.
Pastor Allan Welsh, who is the pastor at Dungog and Clarence Town Presbyterian Churches, is "quietly optimistic" for the reopening of the church in a few years.
The plan will be to 'replant' the congregation once its had some time to grow in Clarence Town.
"It's sad all round but we are hoping it's not permanent. It's a temporary closure. We are closing, at this stage, for two years and then do a review of the circumstances," he said.
"We have a sister congregation in Clarence Town and we've seen fairly substantial growth there
"So all going well when we do the review we will see if we can facilitate a church planting team from the other congregation and open as a new church.
"We are hoping opening as a new church will reinvigorate the area."
The short-term plan for the heritage-protected church hasn't been confirmed yet.
But Pastor Welsh said they were looking at how to preserve it.
"We want to look after it because it has a lot of history associated with it," he said.
"It's a heritage listing so it's protected from development.
"Ultimately, we are quietly optimistic. There is definitely growth in the area, just not in Dungog right now but in Clarence Town.
"So we will review in a few years with the view to replant some of the [Clarence Town] congregation and then reach out into the community to reinvigorate a new church."
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