Avenel's Catholic church closes after 132 years

AFTER almost 132 years as the heart of the Catholic community in Avenel, St Mary’s Church is now closed due to declining congregation numbers and increasing maintenance expenses. The church was deconsecrated by the Bishop of Sandhurst, the Most Rev Shane Mackinlay, DD at a special mass last Sunday, April 21. Avenel St Mary’s folk were joined by members of St Malachy’s Nagambie folk, along with visitors who had some affiliation with St Mary’s over the years. In March this year the small congregation was informed at one service the church would close. But it was not made public reluctantly until mid-April. This did not allow the community to ask questions about the future of the church building, its furniture, donated organ, font, altar, vestments, sacramental items and so on. The Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst looked at their options and it showed that to keep it open was not practicable. Like many organisations nowadays, lack of attendance matters. If it cannot pay their clergy, insurance or maintenance costs it cannot be financially viable. The church, which was part of the Nagambie parish, had until last week been a place for Avenel Catholics to gather for mass on alternate Sundays. On the Sundays they didn’t have mass, the congregation gathered without a priest for a communion service. Some parishioners have frequented the church daily to pray by the blessed sacrament (consecrated bread and wine in the tabernacle of the church). Monsignor Frank Marriott was parish priest (as Fr Marriott) at Avenel for eight years in the 1980s. He was parish priest when the congregation joined with the other Avenel churches St Paul’s Anglican and the Avenel Uniting Church for morning teas after the services they held at the same time on Sundays. He also led a contingent of church families from the three churches to see the pope at the MCG in the 1980s. Fr Patrick Farrell was priest in charge when the township of Avenel celebrated its 150th anniversary and was involved in the blessing ceremony of the opening of the new gates at the Avenel cemetery. Fr Chris Ray then became the priest, followed by Fr Andrew Fewings, then Fr Tony Hill at Euroa was parish priest at Nagambie for over for fifteen years (until late 2023). He remembers times when St Mary’s Church was so full that people had to sit outside. “Avenel is a place where people looked after each other, so if there was a funeral or a wedding, there would be a large congregation,” he said. Fr Tony said he did his best to make sure Catholics in Avenel had access to Sunday mass; given that he also celebrated mass at Nagambie, Violet Town and Longwood, the only way he could fit Mass in at Avenel was to celebrate Sunday mass on Friday night. “We’d have a good crowd on Friday night, we’d celebrate mass then go the local pub for a meal,” Fr Tony said. “When we moved Mass to early on Sunday morning people didn’t seem so keen,” he said wryly. Monsignor Frank and Fr Tony both recall how parishioners pitched in to maintain the church. Parishioners rebuilt the altar, and the floors were restored with donated timber and labour from experienced and qualified parishioners. “I remember one Christmas the organ just died in the middle of mass,” Fr Tony said. A Melbourne based businessperson, who had a holiday house in Avenel and frequently attended mass in town, happened to be at this mass. His solution to the problem was to donate a $10,000 organ to the church – it’s magnificent. "One of our parishioners could play it very well (Fleur Smith) and she could sing very well – a 'soprano'," Fr Tony said. "The rest of us were just ‘Catholics’, and we’d try to sing as best we could, but eventually we ended up just listening,” he laughed. It is sad when a church in a small community closes and many families who had been associated with St Mary’s in Avenel attended the last mass. Many were very upset that their little parish church after 13 decades was closing. It brought back many memoires of weddings, funerals, baptisms, confirmations and other celebrations. The fellowship shared and faithful Christian worship of the St Mary’s folk will remain in their hearts forever and will not be forgotten by many whose lives were interwoven together there.