Father Ray Chapman, parish priest of Sydney's St Brigid's Church, confirmed on Tuesday that Australia's oldest Catholic place of worship will remain open and services will continue.
The reassurance was in response to parishioners who raised concerns over falling attendance at Sunday Mass.
"There are no plans to close the church and there are no plans to stop Masses ... There has been a decline because people have moved but to indicate that the church is going to close or Masses will be reduced is totally incorrect," Fr Chapman told reporters.
The mass relocation is part of the outcome of the Baird government's decision to sell public housing in the area after an assessment found that maintenance costs were too high. Family and Community Services Minister Gabrielle Upton explained on Tuesday that "For every house sold in Millers Point, you could build three houses in many other suburbs in Sydney."
According to the state government, the $500 million revenue from the sale of the 293 properties at Millers Point, as well as the Rocks, will be reinvested back into the New South Wales public housing system to assist the 58,000 applicants currently on the social housing waiting list. The Sydney Morning Herald noted that the exact nature of this reinvestment has not been made clear.
The media spoke with longtime St Brigid's Church worshippers who recalled a time when the congregation numbers were healthier. Parishioner and Miller's Point homeowner Kelli Haynes has been an active parishioner for over 10 years, and said that she has seen the attendance at Sunday mass drop from 50 people to less than 20.
In terms of the effect of the public housing sale, Father Chapman said that "maybe ten people have left." The parish priest explained that St Brigid's Church "is a small congregation but has been for a number of years." About 600 public housing tenants from the Miller's Point suburb where the church is located will be transferred to other suburbs.