Catholic churches in South Dunedin will shut their doors this weekend.
St Bernadette's, St Brigid's and St Alphonsus will hold their final masses on Saturday and Sunday, before the congregations merge with the parish at St Patrick's Basilica.
Dunedin South pastoral area parish priest Gerard Aynsley said there were several reasons the churches were closing, but the main one was to ‘‘refocus'' on their mission to the community rather than on maintaining old church buildings.
While he did not want to focus on the issue of dwindling congregation numbers, he admitted it was ‘‘changing times'' for the Dunedin's Catholic churches.
‘‘A lot of those parishes were constructed when there were a lot more people and a lot more priests.
‘‘But we're trying to get away from saying ‘there's not as many people, so we're closing down'.
‘‘We're trying to say ‘look if we work together, if we consolidate in one place' ... and we can work outwards from there,'' Fr Aynsley said.
He thought the merger would go smoothly as the three churches had already been working together for more than 10 years and the St Patrick's congregation had been spread across the three other congregations during the basilica's renovation last year.
The churches would each host their final masses on Saturday night and Sunday morning, before special items from each of the churches were taken to St Patrick's, Fr Aynsley said.
While some people were excited about the changes, he recognised others would be saddened.
‘‘A lot of people have celebrated really significant events in their lives in those three churches.''
While the renovated St Patrick's Basilica would not be officially open until June 14, the first combined mass would be held in the building next Thursday night, Fr Aynsley said.
He hoped people would see the benefits of merging, and that each church could bring its own strengths to contribute to the new combined St Patrick's congregation.
‘‘I think most people recognise that this is something that needs to occur.''
- Greta Yeoman
