According to census data, Wagga was slowly moving away from the church with 2071 Anglicans leaving the faith between 2011 and 2016, while the Uniting, Presbyterian and Catholic churches all experienced declines of between 456 and 654 people.

Father Brendan Lee from the Catholic diocese of Wagga said people were more indifferent about faith than ever before.

“Whether or not you believe doesn’t matter as much as it did 50 or 60 years ago,” Father Brendan said. “I think the scandals have had a big part in it and a much bigger impact on the young than the old.”

The average parishioners was also getting older, Father Brendan said, which combined with a lack of outreach meant shrinking churches.

“The congregations have clearly gotten older, you only need to open your eyes to see they’re getting much older,” he said. “Religion’s a bigger deal for older people but they’re slowly dying out and it’s not pushed as hard with the younger generation.”

Charles Sturt University theology lecturer Bernard Doherty said religion’s role in society and public institutions had been waning for a long time.

“There’s still a lot of church influence in some sectors, particularly education, but we’ve seen the general trend less a moving away from religion than to a different kind of spirituality,” Dr Doherty said.

“There’s a suspicion of institutions generally (but) the role of the Royal Commission (into Child Sexual Abuse) can’t be underestimated in its impact on the social capital of the three major churches – the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting churches. In general, religion is on the nose in a lot of quarters (and) you’ll find the association of religion with reactionary politics hasn’t helped with young people.”

However, the evangelical branch of Christianity appeared to be bucking the trend, boosting their numbers while traditional churches declined.

Pastor Bobby Gardner from Inspire Church Wagga said their numbers had grown and the key was staying relevant to people.

“What’s important is that the message of Jesus Christ is still being preached and how we do that changes but the word of God never does,” Pastor Bobby said.

“Our approach is one of community as well, we don’t stay in the confines of the church but do projects that help us to remain in the community… serve the community and make the church a friendly place for people.”