‘A moral injustice’: a small Victorian town is fighting to save its 130-year-old church

‘This site helps facilitate a spiritual connection to this community’: Carngham Uniting church congregation member Elissa Callahan lights candles below the altar. She is involved in the community effort to save the church – in Snake Valley, Victoria – from sale. Photograph: Steve Womersley/The Guardian

Elissa Callahan and her family moved to Snake Valley, population 800, in western Victoria last year. Their new home overlooked the local Uniting church.

“Our back kitchen looks out on to the church spire,” Callahan says. “I’d always loved the building and the feeling around it but never felt like there was an opportunity to go inside.”