With only $100,000 to go before the historic St Paul's Anglican Church can be purchased by the Carcoar community the sole TV program that has vested its time and interest in the cause, A Current Affair, has returned to help out.
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Reporter Brady Halls and his camera crew landed in Carcoar to help rally the locals and shed light on the project again, as the community continues its bid to purchase the historic building before it goes to market publicly.
The Carcoar community has raised around $350,000 of the $450,000 needed to purchase the church and locals spoke passionately to the program's crew, calling on the rest of the country to help as their deadline of March 16 looms.
Now's the time for healing and where can they do that if they're selling the churches in these small communities?"
- Carcoar's Tim Hansen
Mr Halls and the crew recruited those locals to wander up and down the main street for dramatic, supplementary shots to accompany the package as well. Carcoar's Nick Lee, a former 60 Minutes cameraman, helped wrangle the group into action.
The sale of the church was forced after it was revealed Bathurst Anglican Diocese was in a $40 million hole, the debt racked up going back to 2007.
The subsequent firesale of properties - churches, schools and others - left little in reserve to meet an estimated $6.5 million in redress payments for historic sexual assault claims.
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Everyone donating funds has a different reason to do so from family members being buried at the church to a desire to see such an important building kept by the public.
"There are a lot of people leaving the church because of the child sexual abuse because they felt so disgusted or abandoned and it no longer represented their values anymore," said Tim Hansen.
"Now that that's out in the open now's the time for healing and where can they do that if they're selling the churches in these small communities?"
Farmer Phil Black said that the Anglican church needs to look at financing the redress of child sexual assault victims in another way.
"I'm a farmer and there are always ups and downs and rather than going to the wall there are ways to go around it," he said.
"One of the easiest ways now is that seeing as interest rates have never been as low as they are now, why can't they simply borrow at about 2.5 per cent and be done with it. Surely a church is a safe investment."
St Paul's Association Carcoar organiser George King is in awe of the support that the community has shown.
"I'm incredibly impressed with Carcoar, what a great community to rally like they have," he said.
For those wishing to donate the details are:
St Paul's Association Carcoar Inc
BSB: 082441
Acc: 441762238
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