After several months of serious deliberations and a recent meeting, it is my intention to fix the damage and reopen the church.

Recent inspections were carried out by the various skilled trades people and the preferred builder has been appointed to assess the damage, quote and undertake the repairs required to fix and reopen the Church. The Inspections of the building revealed that there is extensive deterioration of the roofing tiles. The roof tiles are made of terra cotta and are deteriorating, crumbling through age and various weather elements and (likely impacts of tropical Cyclone Seroja included) the tiles need replacing to make the repair works effective and long lasting.

The total cost of the repairs to the entire interior of the church ceiling, entire exterior roof tiles including replacing the tile battens and electrical rewiring, has been estimated to be in the vicinity of $500,000.

To meet the large costs of the necessary repair works, a financial loan will be required (to supplement the CCI insurance payout of $81,000) to commence the works. As there is insufficient funds at present to maintain such a large debt, the diocesan financial manager and the diocesan finance team have put together ideas of proven methods of servicing the loan repayments, taken from examples of various other churches who’ve faced the same or similar situations.  

Options proposed are, the buildings at St John’s Church, Rangeway, that is the Presbytery, Family Room and the Church itself could become sources of income by converting them into multipurpose use in ways of the following suggestions/options as an example:

The Church building

This can become a multipurpose use building when the church is not being used for church/religious reasons. (e.g.  outside of Sunday Mass, funerals, baptisms and school liturgies etc.)

The interior can be modified by screening off the current front area where the altar / sanctuary area is, will be kept for religious purposes and accessible only to the church community.

The gradient floor can be improved and an architect will be called in, to assess the possibilities of repurposing the building.

Removing the church pews to open up the floor space to create a versatile area by replacing the pews with movable and stackable chairs and adding in some storable, stackable trestles etc.

This floor area can then be hired out (when not in use for church reasons, (e.g. Mass etc.) to various external groups (management approved) and managed by the parish/ diocesan office staff.

The Sacristy could be converted into a functional kitchen/ servery area to further enhance the use of the building for hire to external users.

Presbytery

When the presbytery is made vacant, it can be rented out as a home (to vetted tenants) for an estimated rental of $600 per week. This approximate rental income could bring in a total of $31,200 per annum. It will be adequate to service the loan repayments over a period of 10 or 15 years. There would need to be some upgrades made to the presbytery interior to bring it to a rentable standard e.g. carpets replaced with new, a front fence erected to define the rented area etc.

Family Room

There is potential to also rent out the family room space to approved tenants e.g. clubs for meetings or family day care groups. (Some upgrades will be needed to the building). The rental income again, is another financial source to service the loan debt.

Even though it has taken a long time to get to this point, it is my intention to fix St John’s church and reopen it as soon as possible, and the above options are to give an example of ways and means of securing a regular income from the property which will help service the loan without burdening the  parishioners who contribute via Planned Giving program and with fundraising in having to repay the loan off.

The financial loan is needed to commence the repairs to the church building so that it can reopen and function again.  The purpose of renting the buildings out is also a better way of having an active and constant presence on the Rangeway church premises which then brings benefits of deterring the constant vandalism that occurs due to low activity and the vacant buildings that attract those passersby with intent to cause damage, misuse and vagrancy.

I hope this gives a good example of what is possible and how we can meet the needs of our church community of Rangeway and the Parishes of Geraldton, the school, and various community needs by making these building assets multipurpose and has the potential to bring in a substantial income to meet the financial needs and maintenance.

†  Bishop Michael Morrissey