The church, built in 1890, is one of several historic Dunedin Presbyterian churches facing demolition, partly because of earthquake rules and diminishing congregations.
Dunedin South Presbyterian Church interim moderator the Rev Geoffrey Skilton said the congregation there had previously decided not to continue using the church, and had not done so since June last year.
The congregation of 30 to 36 people, the vast majority of whom were retired, now worshipped in the nearby church hall.
In late February, Mr Skilton said ''a very clear majority'' at the parish's annual meeting had voted not to spend more money on the church building.
Permission had been sought from the Southern Presbytery and the Synod of Otago and Southland, the trustees of the building, to go ahead.
And an application had been made to the Synod for permission to demolish the church.
The Synod had since responded to the Southern Presbytery, which had asked the St James congregation to consider a ''very simple motion'' on whether the church should be demolished, Mr Skilton said.
The wish to demolish the church had been ''implicit'' in considerations at previous meetings, but the Southern Presbytery had asked for ''a clear motion, sitting on its own''.
Part of the space could provide ''an offsite car park'' and a new church to replace the current church building, which was no longer ''fit for the purpose''.
Mr Skilton said he would chair the weekend meeting, for which the usual two weeks' notice had been given.
It was to be held at 11am on Sunday, after the weekly service in the church hall.
The plan was to work on building a new chapel space at the back of the section using some materials from the old building. That would be a smaller space that could take up to 80 people.
The church would try to retain the stained glass windows for the new building.
The current church building had ''engineering, water and earthquake issues'', although making it earthquake proof was the major problem.
Mr Skilton said ''there are funds available''.
The congregation was ''quite excited'' about the possibility of having another, more suitable space ''in which to worship''.
It was hoped there would also be another community use of the church.
