The congregation at Milton and at its Waihola church have been asked to comment on a Tokomairiro Co-operating Parish council suggestion that the doors close for good.
A parish meeting is expected to be held during the next two months, at which a final decision will be made.
Another Otago presbyterian church, the Iona Church at Port Chalmers, also needs expensive maintenance, which is estimated to cost $2 million. There is no talk yet of closing its doors.
If the Tokomairiro parish votes to close the historic Milton church, the next decision will be whether the building should be demolished.
The church has no formal classification with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
It was designed by Robert Arthur (R. A.) Lawson, a leading 19th century New Zealand architect who was responsible for many of Dunedin's most notable buildings.
Parish finance and works committee chairman Graeme Flett said it was ‘‘economic matters'' rather than falling parish numbers that had resulted in the present situation.
On average, about 40 people attended Sunday services, but it was too much to expect those people to provide money every time the building needed work.
‘‘It costs money to have it [the church] sitting there,'' Mr Flett said when contacted last week.
‘‘That's insurance, power. The power alone is in excess of $60 a month just to have it turned on.''
To perform improvements or maintenance on the church would be expensive.
It could cost more than $500,000 to chip off loose stone from the building and plaster it, he said.
Mr Flett said the question of whether the church should be demolished was ‘‘a whole other decision'', which would only be considered if the parish voted to close the church doors.
Iona Presbyterian Church parish clerk Margaret Innes said a five-yearly review revealed an extensive list of repairs, ranging from urgent works through to less urgent items that need to be addressed at some stage.
The church had no plans to close, but its services would be relocated to the warmer Sawyers Bay church during winter.
Mrs Innes said the parish was getting costings for all the required work and was talking to heritage officials about what could be done for the 154-yearold church, which has a category 1 classification from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
