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1913
2009
27 Septmeber 2009
Congregation incensed
The Anglican congregation of Wollar is outraged over an announcement that the diocese intends to sell the community’s church building.
Margaret Reid, a long-time warden of St Luke’s Anglican Church in Wollar, learned the church would be sold when she discovered a notice attached to the building’s door.
A week later, residents found that the church’s stained glass windows had been removed, along with furnishings such as the altar, organ and pews.
Ms Reid said she was hurt and confused to discover that the building, built and furnished through donations from the Wollar community, was “just going to be stripped and sold.”
Archdeacon Robert Howell, head of the property trust of the Diocese of Bathurst, said dwindling use of the church had led the diocese to look at selling it, and had also led to the decision to remove the church’s fittings to protect them from acts of vandalism, such as the recent theft of a bell, which was later returned.
Although the building is heritage listed with Mid-Western Regional Council, council’s planning department confirmed it would not pursue the reinstatement of the “windows and other items” while the church was likely to pass into private ownership.
When she demanded a meeting with the diocese authorities, Mrs Reid was told that the building needed $80,000 worth of repairs, which the church could not afford. Mrs Reid sought advice from an architect experienced in heritage restoration, and was told the building had no problems that a working bee couldn’t repair.
Archdeacon Howell said the final decision had been put off following the strong response from the people of Wollar, and he could not say when he would decide on the building’s future.
He invited the people of Wollar to purchase the church if they wished to enable its continued use.
“They didn’t fund it in the first place so why should we be buying it back?” Mrs Reid asked1 .
11 October 2011
Congregation asks for council support in fight for building
The congregation of St Luke’s Anglican Church in Wollar has asked for council’s support in its dispute with the Bathurst diocese over the building’s future.
Margaret Reid, a former warden of St Luke’s, approached council because the parish council had removed the stained glass windows and interior fittings from the heritage-listed church, contravening council’s Local Environment Plan.
The congregation has vocally opposed the diocese of Bathurst over the removal of the church’s contents and proposals that the building should be sold.
Council’s general manager Warwick Bennett confirmed that council had written to diocese representatives three times regarding the return of the church’s pews, organs and windows, but had received no response.
In the only letter between council and the diocese that has so far been made public, manager of planning and development Catherine Van Laeren advised the church’s property trust that the items’ removal indeed breached council’s Local Environment Plan.
However, Ms Van Laeren added that council would not yet pursue their reinstatement because the building’s sale would lead to its passing from public use.
“Should the property remain in public use, council would like to discuss with you the re-installment of the windows,” Ms Van Laeren wrote.
Councillors will consider putting local heritage assistance funding towards the church’s preservation if it remains in public use, and Cr John Webb has already pledged $1000 of his discretionary fund towards the project. Ms Reid has contacted the Bishop of Bathurst, seeking a public meeting to put the Wollar congregation’s case and openly discuss the matter of St Luke’s church2 .
22 October 2009
__St Luke’The Bishop of Bathurst Richard Hurford has declined to meet with the people of Wollar over the dispute surrounding St Luke’s Anglican Church.
The Wollar Anglican community attempted to arrange a public meeting with the bishop over the diocese’s proposed sale of the building and the land on which it stands.
Bishop Hurford said the decision over whether to sell the historic stone church was not in his hands, but lay with the diocese property trust.
He said he would attend the trust’s next meeting, after which more information may become available.
“We are finding it very difficult to get a response both from the Mudgee Anglican parish and the diocese about where things are up to,” said Margaret Reid, former warden of St Luke’s and spokesperson for the newly formed Friends of St Luke’s.
When Mrs Reid visited the church on Monday, she found the locks had been newly changed and her key would no longer open the doors.
The head of the property trust of the Diocese of Bathurst was unavailable for comment this week.
Mrs Reid said the ordinance covering a church’s closure and sale required the parish council to convene a “general meeting of the parish to ascertain the views of the parishioners, including inviting written objections to the proposed closure.”
“The supporters of St Luke’s are now asking the church to respond to questions about the due process that has been followed that allowed the church to be closed and the entire furniture and stained glass windows to be removed,” Mrs Reid said3 .
2010
16 March 2010
Council stymies church sale
Mid-Western Regional Council has rejected a call from the Anglican Church to rezone the site of the St Luke’s Church at Wollar to allow the land to be subdivided and the building sold.
In a submission to Mid-Western Regional Council on the comprehensive land use strategy, the Anglican Property Trust of the Diocese of Bathurst urged Council to rezone the church land as “village”.
Rezoning would allow the Diocese to subdivide and sell the one-acre block on which the church stands, as well as a half acre block originally intended for a rectory.
The Anglican Church would maintain the cemetery as long as there was proper access for mourners and a hearse.
St Luke’s Anglican Church was closed suddenly last year and stripped of its furniture, memorial plaques and stained glass windows.
In its submission to Council through solicitors Dear Loneragan & Hogan, the Anglican Property Trust said it had no option but to sell the church in view of its deteriorating condition of the church, the dwindling local population and number of parishioners, and the cost of restoring and maintaining the building.
“The local Parish of St John the Baptist and, for that matter, the Anglican Diocese of Bathurst, is not financially in a position to spend the required $200,000 in bringing the building up to a safe state and condition of repair and to preserve it from further deterioration,” the submission said.
“Although the church building may be identified as having heritage value and on the list within the Mid-Western Regional Council interim Local Environment Plan (LEP) it is not considered reasonable to have an obligation to maintain the heritage building without Council or State or Federal funds, which are very unlikely to be forthcoming.”
Subdivision of the church site is prohibited under its current agricultural zoning.
The Property Trust argued that it was only by accident that the church lands are just outside the village boundary, and requested that the land be rezoned in the new LEP to allow subdivision down to 2000 square metres.
Council also considered a submission from St Luke’s warden Margaret Reid, opposing a change to the zoning.
Mrs Reid said St Luke’s was built by Harold Harwick in 1914 using local standstone. Headstones in the graveyard date back to the 1870s.
“There are at least 50 gravestones in the graveyard,” she said.
“All the money to build the church was raised by the local community at Wollar.
“Due to the historical significance of the sandstone building and proximity to the cemetery, it should not be possible for the church to be sold, or used as a dwelling.”
Mid-Western Regional Council staff noted that St Luke’s was isolated from the village zone and the desire to sell the property was not planning justification to rezone it.
Council’s planning and development committee agreed that the draft land use strategy should not be amended4 .