Emmanuel Anglican Church in Glenhaven has been granted provisional parish status after ministering as a branch church of St Paul's, Castle Hill for 130 years.

"With the recent growth in the church, it made sense for us to become a provisional parish and take additional responsibility for the spiritual welfare of the Glenhaven community," said the Rev John Hooton, minister of Emmanuel Church.

"We've been given our "P plates' for at least three years… we will need to continue to demonstrate the effectiveness and viability of the parish."

Due to its growth, the church plans to employ a part-time assistant minister, a part-time administration assistant as well as increase the hours of the current part-time children's worker next year.

Mr Hooton said that the church had "embraced change with enormous grace" so as to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of ministry to the community.

"The long-time members of the parish wanted to ensure that their legacy to the community was a vibrant, growing, gospel-focused church " not a dying one," he said.

With three retirement villages in the new Glenhaven parish, Mr Hooton believes the church will embrace its ministry to retirees.

"We can be more intentional in our strategies to reach the Glenhaven community," he said.