More than 30 people converged on the church yesterday for the deconsecration service, which was carried out by the Anglican Bishop of Dunedin, the Rt Rev Dr Kelvin Wright.
Declining numbers of parishioners led to the closure of the 99-year-old church and the Millers Flat congregation now had a ''spiritual home'' at the St James Anglican Church in Roxburgh, which has been re-named the St James Teviot Valley, Rev Jill Favel said.
She is taking services in the Teviot Valley, as there is no vicar at present. Parishioner Daphne Crawford, of Millers Flat, has links to St Johns right back to its early days. Her grandfather, Archibald Gray, was one of the people instrumental in building the church and was the first treasurer of the church committee.
''I've attended this church since shifting here in 1953 and played the organ here for years and years too - but not during the fruit season. When you're on an orchard you've got six weeks to make your living for the year.''
Mrs Crawford has had two children and three grandchildren christened in the church, a daughter married there '' and sad moments as well, with family funerals at the church''.
Bob Edwards, of Alexandra, was married in the church in 1956 and brought along some wedding photos and his marriage licence to display at the afternoon tea in the Millers Flat hall after the last service at the church yesterday. His wife Rosemary died last year.
The building is up for tender. It is made of pressed concrete, on a 733sq m section and its capital value is $76,000. One of its most distinctive features is a round stained glass window, behind the altar. The altar and other fittings have been placed in storage for now and the organ had been moved to the Roxburgh church, Rev Favel said.
Rev Boyd Wilson, of Cromwell, was vicar for the Dunstan parish in the 1990s and said Millers Flat, like all the congregations, ''had a character of its own, because of the district, the land and the people.''
Churches were changing, he said.
''They are more open and vulnerable, to an extent, and less dependent on structural things, props and buildings.''
