By Ethan Benedicto
As local residents’ sentiments for the proposed church at 67 Shrives Road remain on rough waters, Immanuel Mar Thoma Church’s building convener acknowledged the concerns but is steadfast in the church’s right to belong on the property.
Alex Varghese, who became the IMTC’s building convener in 2022, is confident in the current plan’s accommodations, having gone through multiple changes, Casey Council considerations and several meetings with the church’s planning group.
The current issues raised by residents have already been addressed prior, he said, with the current plans addressing said concerns.
However, he added that information on the proposal has not been relayed to the residents by the council in a proper, informative way and that complaints or concerns should be voiced to the appropriate body; that being Casey Council which “has the right people to explain things the right way”.
“There is strong opposition to this project, I’m aware, so somebody has to explain this one.
“The church or building company cannot explain it, because even if I said anything I may be biased when I explain things.
“It has to be the truth and nothing but the truth [and] there are no hidden agendas here.
“So my understanding and my belief, everybody who has an issue has to discuss with the council,” Mr Varghese said.
In addition, according to him and the planning committee, the church will not only serve as a place of worship but will also be registered with the council as a community centre, where if no services are ongoing, will be available to be rented out for functions and other events.
Mr Varghese added that the IMTC has also been actively involved with a wide variety of charity works and community-centric events, such as blood donations with the Red Cross, a toy drive program with Be For Victoria Kids (B4VK), and bushfire assistance where they received the Holt Australia Day Award for between 2019-2020.
These are initiatives which the church aims to continue in Narre Warren and surrounds if the proposal is approved, with Mr Varghese saying that “whatever we are gaining, we put it out to the community as well”.
Touching back on the initial plans for the church, it originally included a parsonage at the rear, with the church itself situated more in the centre and parking in the front.
After consideration from Casey Council, the parsonage was removed for being “too bulky” with a high probability of impacting views of neighbouring homes.
Likewise, the church has since moved forward, closer to Shrives Road and further from the homes and boundary fences.
“We compromised that, we removed the parsonage behind the church,” Mr Varghese said.
“It was going through the council’s first RFI, then the second, we fulfilled everything, and over that period we had four planners involved from the date we submitted.
“It came to a stage where we fulfilled all their [council’s] requirements since there were a lot of issues with traffic.”
The traffic issue would be addressed by a “left in, left out” principle; where the only access allowed into the property would be traffic from Narre Warren passing through Shrives Road, to prevent any sort of congestion from the opposite lane.
“Vic Roads put that proposal forward, they endorsed it and we agreed again; it’s not a crossing, nobody is going to stop at any moment.
“Every member of the church knows, planners know, and of course Vic Roads know,” Mr Varghese said.
Addressing the letter attached to the council plans, he expressed that those points made do not reflect the majority decision made by the church itself, adding that “it’s not one person’s decision”.
“Normally when the church gets bigger they go for another suburb or another new church, and that’s what we did,” he said.
Originally, the IMTC purchased a church in Melbourne City, but after patronage grew to around 1500 members, they expanded to the City of Greater Dandenong; now experiencing more growth a site has been chosen in Casey, where Mr Varghese said a large portion of their members reside.
“There is an attendance book, so based on that, based on the facts on how many people come on an average day is what we have applied for; 58 car parks and a 200-seat capacity,” he said.
He emphasised further that from what he had seen on the Facebook pages, there was a growing sentiment that the church was “going to be an everyday business”.
“But no, we do our prayers on Sunday, which is a very quiet day; we were supposed to start at eight o’clock but the report opposed that.
“It said ‘you cannot do anything before nine o’clock’, so again we changed the time from nine to 12 o’clock or one o’clock.
“The church has a register, and on an average day, there are around 140 to 180 people who attend, these are the members including the kids; so 45 to 55 or 60 cars is the max you have on a normal Sunday,” Mr Varghese said.
The two busiest days of the year, he said, would only be Good Friday and Christmas Day, where even then he added that “it doesn’t matter where you go, everywhere is busy”.
When the IMTC building committee first received notice of the site’s objections, they relayed their concerns to the council which also involved the subject of privacy to the current residents of 67 Shrives Road.
“We don’t want to go there and fight with people,” Mr Varghese said.
“People are coming to the priest’s house and harassing him, that’s not Australia.
“That’s the reason I called on council, they said that it’s a process, so when we get all the information, all the complaints against this project, we will just have a meeting and we’ll let them know afterwards,” Mr Varghese said.
Looking ahead, he and the church committee are waiting for the council’s decision on the proposal, and while he is unsure of what the outcome would be, he is “hoping for the best”.
“Council will not support any project which is going to be a problem for the neighbours and the local people,” he said.
“As a church you know, if we do get a permit on it, we will appoint a qualified builder, a commercial builder to do the job.
“We never thought that it would be hurting somebody this bad,” Mr Varghese said.
