Anglican Church excludes top sites from compensation fire sale

Popular parishes in the north and south will be excluded from the Anglican Church’s mass sell-off program

The Anglican Bishop of Tasmania, Dr Richard Condie. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

THE  Anglican Church’s Tasmanian property sale to finance its $8 million sex abuse redress program will not include popular churches with “more contemporary services”.

Bishop Richard Condie said the diocese would not close Wellspring at Sandy Bay, St Clement’s at Kingston, St John’s at Launceston and St Barnabas’ at North Launceston.

“We are judging properties on their viability, the sustainability of the current congregation and their proximity to other sustainable congregations,” Bishop Condie said.

“Right across Tasmania I can point to the churches that are doing well and almost invariably, with maybe two exceptions, they are churches that have a more contemporary style. The music is upbeat, you don’t see robes and there’s a liveliness to them.”

MORE: CHURCH TO SELL 120 PROPERTIES TO PAY ABUSE VICTIMS

Bishop Condie will today announce more than 120 Tasmanian church properties that are being targeted for sale to finance compensation to childhood victims of sexual abuse within the church.

Critics of the plan believe it is an opportunistic strategy that punishes parishioners for the crimes of church leaders.

Bishop Condie estimates 100 to 200 survivors of child sexual abuse will step forward seeking redress of up to $150,000 each from July, with the start of the Federal Government’s national redress scheme.

So far, the Tasmanian church has paid $1.7 million in redress to 55 people through its own support scheme.

“There’s no question that those are shocking numbers,” said author Chris McGillion, who has written about child sexual abuse in Australian churches.

“[But] for the institution to spread the blame is absolute nonsense. It’s smoke and mirrors,” McGillion said.

“Those kinds of messages about collective responsibility have been coming out of the Catholic Church, too, as the Royal Commission [into institutional responses to child sexual abuse] was held. What it says is the institutional leaders haven’t learnt the lessons.

“The problem lies in the organisation structure and the culture of the church. The churches are in a real cultural bind — the significance, role and status they once had have basically collapsed.”

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The church’s redress projections were made by Finity Actuarial Consultants, based on the royal commission’s findings and the pattern of abuse in the Anglican Church in Tasmania.

Although the church intends to sell $20 million worth of property, only $5 million of that has been earmarked for redress.

The additional $3 million will come from diocese trusts. The rest will go to the New Ministry Development Fund to seed things such as new ministries, and will remain in trusts for parishioners.

“We want to make sure some of the funds that are raised through the sale of properties are still retained for Christians around Tasmania,” Bishop Condie said.