Church donates $1m to No campaign

The Coalition for Marriage has confirmed the No campaign received a $1m donation from the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.

The Coalition for Marriage has confirmed the No campaign received a $1 million donation from the Anglican Diocese of Sydney to help fund the case against same sex marriage. Picture: AAP

The Coalition for Marriage has confirmed the No campaign received a $1 million donation from the Anglican Diocese of Sydney to help fund the case against same sex marriage.

The donation was publicly announced by Archbishop Glenn Davies in his address to the 51st Synod earlier today -- a meeting of all the churches in the Sydney Diocese -- but was made about a month ago.

READ MORE: ‘Debate religious protections after the survey’

Dr Davies said he would make “no apology” for encouraging all Australians to vote against same sex marriage in Malcolm Turnbull’s $122 million postal survey.

“I consider the consequences of removing gender from the marriage construct will have irreparable consequences for our society, for our freedom of speech, our freedom of conscience and freedom of religion,” he said.

“It is disingenuous to think otherwise.”

“We find ourselves being moved in a more libertarian direction under the influence of those who want to abandon the mores of the past.”

“These permissive forces who espouse the virtue of tolerance are seeking to impose restrictions upon those who wish to maintain the values on which our nation has been founded.”

“This has become nowhere more apparent than in the current debate surrounding the postal survey on same-sex marriage.”

The Anglican Diocese of Sydney is one of the key members and founding partners of the Coalition for Marriage.

Dr Davies said the Sydney Diocese had received approval from its standing committee to take the “bold step” of drawing down one million dollars from the “Diocesan Endowment” to promote the No case.

The endowment is a fund which earns money for the operation of the central office of the Archbishop as well as for Church administration in Sydney. The standing committee is delegated authority by the roughly 400 congregations in the Sydney Diocese to take key decisions.

“The cause is just and it is a consequence of our discipleship to uphold the gift of marriage as God has designed it—a creation ordinance for all people,” Dr Davies said.

Both the Yes and No campaigns have argued they are being outspent in the same sex marriage survey, playing down the amount of funds coming through in the form of donations.

Executive director of the Equality Campaign, Tiernan Brady, seized on the donation. He told The Australian: “We’ve always known opponents of equality have radically outspent the Yes side.”

“But what they have in buckets of cash, we make up with in hundreds of thousands of Australians making the case for a fairer, more just and inclusive society.”

However, it was revealed last month that Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce had personally donated $1 million to the Yes campaign in support of same sex marriage.