Old church overhauled for community use

FOR the past few months, the managing team behind the decommissioned Sebastopol Uniting Church has been at work to overhaul the site as an all-purpose community space.

With redevelopment nearing completion, project manager Marcia Eveland said the idea of the initiative is to open the central hall up to anyone.

“We want people to come and use this space,” she said. “We have two teachers, one in tai chi and the other in zen meditation, interested as well as a multicultural group.

“It can be used for anything from knitting groups to groups that are having some overflow, even art exhibitions and concerts.

“There’s a lot happening inside and we want to get people from outside.”

Run under Ballarat South Uniting, the church has been dormant as a Christian place of worship for roughly a decade, while still being used as an op shop and workshop site.

All Christian iconography like the hall’s cross and pews have been removed, while an accessible ramp is being fitted to a side entrance in order to make the space more inviting.

Signalling the church’s future potential as an interfaith space, a celebration circle event open to people of all religions is set to take place weekly from Tuesday 3 October at 10am.

Lyn King has been managing the op shop for more than two decades, and said she’d been asking for the church to be repurposed for years.

“It’s all coming together,” she said. “I’d been trying to get people to use this space for years and years.

“It’ll be good to be using this space rather than have it as an unused church because that’s what it was known as.

“This will be a real community meeting place as well, and it can improve the op shop to no end.”

To express interest in using the space, contact Ms Eveland on 0476 374 297.