Anglican Bishop Richard Condie says selling churches a last resort

ANGLICAN Bishop Richard Condie has said the sale of church property was a last resort over which he had agonised.

ANGLICAN Bishop Richard Condie has said the sale of church property was a last resort over which he had agonised.

In April, the Tasmanian Anglican Synod overwhelmingly adopted the Redress Ordinance, which will see some proceeds of the sale of 108 properties, including more than 70 churches, directed towards the redress fund.

Some communities where churches are earmarked for sale are rallying to raise money to fund their input to the redress scheme without selling their church, while others are appealing to the diocese, which will make its final decision on which properties are sold in December.

Tasmanian Anglican Bishop Richard Condie. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

A new fighting group has been established to challenge the legality of selling community property with public meetings held in Ouse, Jericho and Bothwell this week.

“No-one in the Synod was unaware of the difficulty and pain that this decision will cause in the lives and parishes and the wider community,” Bishop Condie says in the latest edition of Tasmanian Anglican. “I have spent many hours hoping to discover an alternative plan, where we don’t have to sell property, especially churches, but no such plan has emerged.”

Bishop Condie said he had been reflecting on media reporting of the Synod’s decision.

“While I am grateful for the opportunity that they have given us to tell our story, there is also some unease with the angles they take. A recent article would have left the impression that the Bishop was going to sell property just to offload some unwanted buildings,” he said. “This is unfair on so many levels.

“First, it has never been my decision alone, but the fruit of work of the Diocesan Council and now the Synod.

“And secondly, it has nothing at all to do with the disposal of unwanted assets. There is not a single asset or investment that is unwanted — all are useful to us.

“But it is driven out of compassion to do the right thing by survivors of sexual abuse.”

Bishop Condie said questions were being asked about why the church was not selling its income-producing property investments.

“It would not be a wise decision to sell a property and thereby make one of our sustainable parishes unsustainable so that we might avoid selling property in unsustainable parishes.

“We want the strongest possible outcome at the end of this painful exercise.”