The Barneys community has reached a decision to rebuild on the historic Mount Street site with facilities that could include a 600-seat auditorium, new offices and two levels of underground parking.
Barneys' members have been working double time since a fire destroyed the St Barnabas' church building and severely damaged the Church Hall and Vestry building on May 10, 2006.
As the congregation has relocated to meeting at the Moore College lecture theatre in Newtown, some members have been maintaining existing ministries while others have been focussed on developing plans for the new building.
The rector of St Barnabas', the Rev Ian Powell says after months of meetings and discussions the congregation has decided on a way forward for the construction of the new Barneys building.
"A magnificent Christian facilitator helped us as a church community to work through the various issues," Mr Powell says.
Mr Powell says the overwhelming majority reached the unforeseen conclusion that the new Barneys should "look like a church'.
"Some churches are proudly "not church' in the look of their building but we wanted people to see Barney's as a building with a special purpose," Mr Powell says.
"The building should be attractive and wisely built environmentally speaking."
Church members want the new Barneys building to be functional for ministry many years into the future with a main worship space holding between 500 and 600 people, double the church's previous capacity.
"We want a building flexible enough to be restructured internally so in 50 or 100 years time when life and ministry is unimaginably different the building has the ability to adapt to meet new needs," Mr Powell says.
"There is no point rebuilding something as it was in the 1850s. That was a different era and it would be strange to recreate a building purpose built for one-hundred and fifty years ago."
Mr Powell says the new Barneys church will still maintain something of the original's history.
"Parts of the original building like the bell tower and other various objects still exist so aspects of the new building will acknowledge the past," he says.
Mr Powell says the time that the Barney's congregations have spent meeting at the Moore College lecture hall in Newtown has been valuable.
"It has worked better for the congregation then the old site. Because there is more foyer space, people who never used to hang around now do. It's given us ideas for what we want in a new building."
Two levels of parking spaces beneath the church will particularly help cater for families with children and make up for the surrounding street parking that has been lost in recent years.
Mr Powell says he has been supported by a generous church through in the months since the fire.
"We lost $70,000 a year in rent and after we explained this to the congregations there has been a brilliant increase in giving. People have doubled their giving in some cases," he says.
Mr Powell says the new building will help Barneys go forward with new ministries in the new year.
"We have lots of good stuff going on in 2007. We want to find new ways to better serve our community in areas of need that haven't been addressed yet."
St Barnabas', Broadway is holding Carols in the Park this Saturday night, December 9 at 7pm in Victoria Park, Ultimo.
Read a detailed press release.
