At the Erskineville Village Anglican Church things are busy pretty much seven days a week. On top of regular church activities, events, clubs and Sunday services there are dance classes in the hall (with “ballet café” espressos for mums made by the minister, Roger Fitzhardinge) and even yoga in the church.

“There’s a constant stream of humanity through our doors,” Mr Fitzhardinge says.

It’s a far cry from a few years ago, when the former Holy Trinity church had a tiny, faithful congregation of six to 10 people plus the Mar Thoma Indian ministry, which drew people from all over Sydney.

Breathing new life into the church with the goal of reaching the local community was very much an issue for Peter Rodgers, the rector of St Stephen’s, Newtown, after he also became the acting curate-in-charge of Erskineville — then a separate parish — in 2002.

“Because it was my responsibility I’ve thought for a long time, ‘What am I going to do?’” he recalls. “So in 2008 we amalgamated [Erskineville] with St Stephen’s because it was going to be hard for us to reinvigorate Erskineville if we weren’t part of the one parish council.”

At the beginning of 2008 Mr Fitzhardinge arrived as student minister, becoming assistant minister the following year. His family set up home in the Erskineville rectory and he began planning and praying about how to revitalise the church. His core team involved four couples from the 10am service at St Stephen’s and another from its Cottage Church, plus “a bunch of Christians who lived in the area and were keen to be part of their local church”.

The locals who weren’t already part of the church found out about the revitalisation through God’s providence, Mr Fitzhardinge says.

“We prayed and they appeared. For example, I was in the Macquarie Centre food court [in Ryde] on a day off and ran into a guy I used to lead on camps with. They’d just bought a house in Alexandria so I said, ‘What are you doing for church?’.”

The first thing the core team wanted to do, Mr Fitzhardinge says, was honour the long-term members of Holy Trinity, “so we invited them and included them in all our planning, and asked them what they thought the possibilities were for how the church might grow”.

Next on the list was working out how to become part of the “Erko” community again. This was one of the reasons for the church’s name change, as locals think of Erskineville as a village.

So, with financial and personnel backing from St Stephen’s, Erskineville Village Anglican Church launched its 10am service in February last year with 35 people in the church hall. Less than 18 months later, Mr Fitzhardinge says, 60 adults and 20 kids are meeting in the now-renovated church — “which is just magnificent. God is very gracious”.

And while St Stephen’s has had to give up some people to help make this happen, the mood in Newtown is one of rejoicing.

“I’ve never heard a negative thing,” Mr Rodgers says. “The parish is very excited about what’s happened down there — and we’re now looking to employ another full-time minister so Roger can be [at Erskineville] full-time and the parish is behind that. They’re very happy it’s been such a success.”