by Caroline Perryman and Scott Levi
The Little White Church is in the hands of the community.
()
A much-loved church on the New South Wales Central Coast has been saved thanks to a hard-fought battle by locals and two high-profile Australians.
The picturesque building at Mangrove Mountain, fondly known as the Little White Church, has been a central meeting place in the remote area since it was built in 1912.
Not only is it used for prayer, it is also a popular venue for weddings and community events.
In April 2021, it emerged the church would be put up for sale after the trustees decided to wind up the trust due to increasing costs and "little or no support from the locals".
Comments on social media at the time summed up how many people felt about possibly losing the church:
The church was then placed into liquidation and handed over to an administrator.
Upset locals rallied and formed the Mangrove Mountain Christian Group (MMCG) to fight the sale.
One of the members, Ryan Howard, said they spent hours poring through documents hoping to find a way to prevent the sale and eventually found the smoking gun.
"Finding the original trust deed and reading through the legalities of it and proving it couldn't be sold cost a lot of money [in] legal fees," Mr Howard said.
"It has cost over $130,000 in legal and liquidator fees to get the church back."
Mr Howard said the community support was "just amazing".
Prominent Central Coast businessman John Singleton contributed thousands of dollars to the legal campaign as did the high-profile FitzSimons family.
Former Wallaby and author Peter FitzSimons went to Sunday school at the church and his sister Cathy was married there.
 |
| Peter FitzSimons. Photo copyright Peter Morris |
He said while many Australians were not attending church like they used to, they had started to realise what precious community assets these churches were.
"Ideally if they're not going to fill up on Sundays with worshippers, they should be able to fill up on Thursday nights with P&C meetings or yoga classes or whatever," Mr FitzSimons said.
Liquidator Barry Taylor said that faced with two options, either to appoint a new trustee or obtain judicial advice to justify selling the church, he decided on the former.
The new agreement has recently been signed by MMCG president Robert Meggs.
 |
| Mangrove Mountain Christian Group is now the trustee.(Supplied MMCG) |
"So after two-and-a-half years of difficult and laborious negotiation [the] liquidator's fees [have been] paid and the keys … handed over," he said.
The group said services had resumed at the church which will soon be available again for hire.
"It's such an exciting time that we now have it back and we can welcome community groups," Mr Howard said.
"… And people can hold their weddings there again."
First published at ABC Central Coast, September 12, 2023
No comments:
Post a Comment