The Wendouree Uniting Church on Grevillea Road will close next weekend.
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Sunday's 9.30am service will be its last, with a final closing service at 2pm following a noon lunch on Sunday, August 11.
Faced with an ageing and shrinking congregation and increasing financial pressures, the church also lost its minister last month.
A spokesperson for the Uniting Church Victoria and Tasmania Synod said the decision was made last year.
"These decisions were driven by the local congregation and the Presbytery has been working with them for many years to identify alternatives to closure including repurposing for use by another part of the church," they said.
"There was no single reason for closure, ultimately this was a case of local people acting responsibly."
The entire precinct is up for sale, including the original Three Crosses church hall from 1964, and the more recent extensions like the chapel, built in 1999.
A portion of the proceeds of the sale will go to Ballarat Regional Healthcare Chaplaincy, and to a new meals program for Uniting Ballarat to combat social isolation.
It's the latest church in the district to be put on the market - the Pleasant Street Uniting Church, which closed last year, is also up for sale, while the Catholic Church in Springdallah held its last service in January.
For Wendouree parishioner Cheryl Coulter, it's a sad occasion.
Initially, services in Wendouree were held in a building donated by the Chinese Presbyterian Church on Howitt Street, but population growth to the north, and a generous offer for the land, led to the church moving.
The new Presbyterian church was built on Grevillea Street, on land donated by the directors of the Webbcona company.
Ms Coulter first joined the congregation in the early 1970s, she said, when there were dozens of children packing out Sunday School each week.
"This was a growing area for young families, it was a good opportunity to build a new church here," she said.
"I think it was the Church of Three Crosses when we came, and later the Community Church, then Wendouree Uniting."
However, growth in Wendouree slowed, and young families grew up - lifestyles continued to change, which left less time for parish life.
This took its toll on the increasingly smaller group of volunteers who would coordinate fundraisers, socials, and outreach work.
Ms Coulter said it completely changed the dynamic.
"Where it used to be Sunday would be a religious day, or children would come to Sunday School and their parents would come to church, sports started to take over," she said.
"By the time the kids were getting close to teenage, they were playing football, and the parents got involved in the sporting side of things."
Jan Dimond said once the church does close, they'll be welcomed at other Uniting churches across Ballarat, but it's still an unfortunate ending after years of engaging in a tightly-knit community.
"It's very hard when you've been in a congregation for so long that you have to up your roots and find another church," she said.
"We'll be scattered - we're down to about 35, 40 at the most (but) we've been very strong, this congregation, on mission outreach."
The longest-serving member of the congregation, 91-year-old Heather McClure, has been at Wendouree for 56 years.
"My young family came to Sunday School, my husband was an elder on the board of management, I taught Sunday School, my girls taught Sunday School when they were older, and I had two married here," she said.
"It's been part of our lives."
A silver lining is that the church facilities could help other denominations or community groups establish a base in town.
There's no heritage overlay on the Grevillea Road church, which sits within a general residential zone - this provides more flexibility.
In Pleasant Street, the City of Ballarat confirmed there is a heritage overlay among others on the precinct.
That still leaves plenty of options, according to Colliers managing director Andrew Lewis.
"There's a number of uses - dance studio, judo, whatever," he said.
"Council would be unlikely to allow demolition, the point is you can refurbish it and add to it, but you can't put a bulldozer through it."
The Uniting Church spokesperson added a new minister will be coming to Ballarat soon, with a new Delacombe congregation, and Ballarat Central's youth program is thriving.
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