One historic Dunedin church is about to go on the market and another looks set to stay closed for the foreseeable future as earthquake fears continue to cause problems for small congregations.
The Andersons Bay Presbyterian Church, recognised late last year by Heritage New Zealand as a category two historic place, was expected to go on the market soon, Southern Presbytery executive officer Alan Judge said.
The church, opened in 1914, has been empty since 2015, when the parish was dissolved due to dwindling numbers and finances, and an earthquake assessment that meant repair costs for the building could not be covered.
Mr Judge said yesterday the Anderson's Bay Community Kindergarten that used the hall next door decided not to buy the property.
''It will probably be on the market soon. Hopefully, in the next few months we'll get some progress there.''
Mr Judge said that would create questions for people who wanted to maintain the church building. There was opposition from some when it was suggested in 2015 the building might be demolished.
The Kaikorai Presbyterian Church closed its 1907 building mid-last year after it received a report that showed it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring it up to standard.
Session clerk Philip Dunn said that figure was too much for a congregation of 60 or 70 people. Services had moved into a hall next door, which would also need work, but not as much.
''We just faced the decision there was no way we were going to raise, with a congregation that size, maybe half a million dollars to reinstate both.''
The church faced the issue it may not be able to earthquake-proof the hall and not the church, as both were on the same title.
It had permission from the Dunedin City Council to work on the hall, as long as it received an engineers' report saying ''if the church fell down it wouldn't kill everybody in the hall''.
It would also be required to keep the church building closed, with no public access.
The church was still waiting for the report to be finished.
Once it was received, the congregation would raise funds to get the hall up to earthquake standards.
No decision would be made on the church building until then.
Mr Dunn said he thought if the building was left standing, the next generation would have a historic building on a prime site, and perhaps ''find the money somehow''.
