At first glance, St George and St James church seem a spitting image of one another.
Both were built in fertile farming districts in Tasmania's north-west, both have a 150-year-old Anglican tradition.
They are less than 10 kilometres apart but today only one is still part of the Anglican church.
The tale of these two churches is emblematic of the strain and splintering within organised religion.
The 2021 census revealed the Anglican community had shrunk from 3.1 million to 2.5 million in the past five years amid growth in atheism and smaller sects.
St George at Moriarty near Latrobe, and St James started to diverge in 2018, when the Tasmania diocese flagged plans to sell more than 100 churches to help fund the redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse.
But parishes could stop the sale if they had a strong case or a cash contribution.
Sticking with the status quo
St George parish councillor Brian Stewart said it was "a very difficult time" but there was little doubt about what needed to be done.
"We lost the school, lots of other things have been lost," he said.
"And if we lost the church, then there's nothing left to hold us together."
"It's all very well saying, 'go to another church.' But you're going into somebody else's community and additionally of course, you're an outsider."
For the sake of their community and their ancestors buried in the adjoining graveyard, along with elderly residents unable to go elsewhere, the congregation scraped together enough money to save the church.
"That's money that could have been used elsewhere but that's just what it is," Mr Stewart said.
"It's the ongoing future of this church, the church for the community."
Save the church on our terms
As the reality of the church sell off sunk in, similar discussions were happening a few paddocks away at St James.
Chair David Chaplin said many people were "quite anxious" that "just someone" might take over the church.
But this was not the first time closure had been on the cards and some were not convinced it would be permanently off the table even if they had the money to stop the sale.
So they decided to buy out the diocese and establish an independent "community church".
"The actual church has been de-consecrated from the Anglican diocese, and so we're not under their umbrella at all."
Many churchgoers still identify as Anglican but community ownerships means the congregation is free to make "our own rules, rather than having to be dictated by somebody else".
Church secretary Tricia Chaplin said very little had changed following the change of ownership but now they had certainty the church would "continue as it always has".
"It's been going for nearly 150 years. And so hopefully, it can go for another 150," she said.
Bishop unfazed by census stats
While many small communities retain strong cultural links to their local church, plenty of Australians are cutting ties with centralised religion.
Tasmania is traditionally an Anglican stronghold, but census data shows the community has shrunk from about 130,000 to 80,000 in the past decade.
Only a fraction of those attend church regularly, with diocese data showing just 4,500 parishioners attend church in a given month.
At the same time, the number of people with "no religion" has almost doubled to 276,300.
But the Anglican Bishop of Tasmania Richard Condie isn't alarmed.
He says the census data depicts "the right correction of Australia being a secular nation" and not a decline in "the Christian commitment to the Anglican faith".
"It's actually a true reflection of what we have understood for a long time," he says.
"Of course there are shifting patterns of church attendance in Australia, the Pentecostal churches in Australia are growing at a great rate.
"Even though some of our denominations are in serious decline in their Sunday attendances that's certainly not the case for Anglicans in Tasmania."
Sexual abuse scandals, the church sell off and division over same-sex marriage have all caused serious reputational damage to the church.
But Bishop Condie said Jesus was still "good news" for many.
"The institutional church is on the nose for many people, but Jesus is not on the nose. He's still very attractive," he said.
"And we are growing in people's confidence in us that this is a safe place to be and we're really growing people's trust in us."
