For 161 years the corner of Neill and Macarthur streets has welcomed parishioners for Sunday services in to one of three churches built and still standing on the site.

But the large red brick church that has been open for 130 years will host its last service on February 5 after a special congregational meeting a few months ago voted to close its doors for the last time.

Its owners, the Uniting Church, will then sell the historic property.

"There's grief and there's sadness and all those things as you would expect but it's just really beyond (the congregation) to meet the financial commitment and physical commitment the church requires," said Uniting Church presbytery minister Reverend Trevor Bassett.

"The bottom line is that, like a lot of our old churches and like the Neil Street church, the cost of maintaining these buildings is just horrendous ... and beyond the congregation's capacity."

In recent years the congregation has shrunk to around 20, far smaller than the hundreds that graced the pews in generations past.

Having three churches in one location - the first opened in 1861, a second larger church that opened in 1867, and the current church with its stained glass windows and pipe organ which was erected in 1892 - is believed to be unique in Australia.

What will happen to the historic Fincham pipe organ is not yet clear.

The Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields festival will showcase the pipe organ on January 17 through organist Martin Setchell for what is likely to be its last concert.

"As the church is soon to be closed, this is perhaps the last opportunity for festival audiences to hear the grand early Fincham organ which, as 19th century congregations grew, was moved from church to church in Ballarat," the festival program states.

Rev Bassett said there had been "some conversations" about the organ's future.

"I think there's some who are a little concerned about what will happen with it ... but whether a new home is sought for it or whether it remains with the property I'm not sure."

IN OTHER NEWS

The closure of the Neil Street church is symptomatic of the general trend of people in Ballarat turning away from religion.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' 2021 Census data, 47.5 per cent of Ballarat residents have no religion, well above the wider Victorian figure of 38.8 per cent.

Numbers across the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting churches all fell significantly.

Rev Bassett said it had been a decision of the congregation, not the Uniting Church, to close.

"It's an ageing and decreasing-in-number congregation and it all became too much. There are other uniting churches around and if they don't want to stay in the Uniting Church there are other denominations ... there is no shortage of good 'homes' for the congregation members to go if they want."

Several congregation members came to Neil Street following the closure and sale of the Pleasant Street Uniting Church in 2018, which had in turn taken in churchgoers from both Alfredton and St Cuthberts' Uniting churches after they had closed in previous years.

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