The first ever Anglican-linked church designed specifically for multicultural Green Valley in South-West Sydney opened its doors yesterday afternoon.
The new "Easy English" church service launched at 5pm on Sunday, February 7 in Green Valley Public School.
Aptly the congregation is being led the Rev Alex Purnomo who describes himself as "possibly the first ever ordained non-Anglo in Green Valley”.
“I am Indonesian-born Chinese, trained in Germany, but now an Australian citizen."
Mr Purnomo says the congregation grew out of a realisation that the local area was changing rapidly.
“According to 2006 census, Anglicans only represent about 11 percent of the population in our 2168 postcode, equal to the Buddhists and the Muslims,” he said.
Followers of Islam grew by over 22 percent from 2001 to 2006, Buddhists by over 12 percent while the number of Anglicans fell by 19.5 percent. This fall is almost 3 times as high as the fall on Sydney average.
Three in every four residents of Green Valley do not speak English at home.
“It seems clear that while Anglicans have been moving out of the area, Buddhists and Muslims have moved into it,” Mr Purnomo says.
"In order to welcome people from all cultural backgrounds, we are using the name "Green Valley International Church', although St Mark's, Sadleir, is our mother church," he says.
The core team planting the new service includes people of Indonesian and Sri Lankan background.
