Last rites for English at Australian church

English-speaking parishioners have been forced out of a church in Sydney's north with its service now to be heard solely in Korean.

Denistone East Uniting Church will hold its final English service next Sunday.

The community that has replaced bygone eras in Denistone is "delightfully Asianised", Reverend Les Pearson said, with at least 120 keen Korean Christians packing each sermon.



"At a time when church-going for Caucasian people seems to be diminishing, it is a healthy thing for our church to become more ethnic," Rev Pearson said.

"This is society dictating to the church and the church responding to that. It would have been easy to say 'This is an Aussie church' but it would have been unreasonable and wrong. We live in a land enriched by migrants."

After 57 years of Sundays, this final English service would be sad, Mr Field said, but it was better that a Korean congregation use the church than none at all.