Green light for church selloff as Anglican Church synod approves plan to sell 108 properties

THE Anglican Church in Tasmania will proceed with a plan to sell 108 properties, including 76 churches, in a history-making move to help fund redress for survivors of child sexual abuse.

Synod members Rev Joel Nankervis, Samantha Vahedi, Amanda McAully, Rev Dr Sam Gough and Bishop Richard Condie at the Anglican Church Synod at Riverside. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

THE Anglican Church in Tasmania will proceed with a plan to sell 108 properties, including 76 churches, in a history-making move to help fund redress for survivors of child sexual abuse.

After giving in-principle support to the Redress Fund Ordinance bill, the synod, made up of clergy and laity, voted to sell the properties to provide the money to pay past victims of childhood abuse.

READ MORE: ANGLICAN CHURCH RELEASES LIST OF PROPERTIES FOR SALE

“Today is a great day for survivors of sexual abuse who have been damaged by the historic failures of the Anglican Church in Tasmania to care for children,” Bishop Richard Condie said.

The vote was passed after hours of passionate debate which appeared to be split between those from rural and city parishes. Almost all the 76 churches slated for sale are in Tasmania’s rural areas.

St Andrews church at Westbury. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

The synod was told the properties to be sold were either already surplus to needs or likely to become so because of dwindling congregations.

Bishop Condie told the synod there was no other viable way to raise the money needed. The church owns 14 commercial properties across Tasmania and has more than $34 million in shares, but money-making properties were quarantined by church authorities.

While rural parishes are set to lose their churches, city congregations will also need to contribute $250,000 to fund their share of the $8 million needed to redress the 200 victims of childhood abuse expected to come forward.

READ MORE: RURAL COMMUNITIES HOLD GRAVE FEARS

The bills are expected to start rolling in soon after the start of the National Redress Scheme on July 1.

Bishop Condie said the vote represented a momentous day.

“I feel quite emotional about what is a sacrificial decision,” he said. “I understand the emotion connected to churches as buildings. But this is about redress and that is what motivates me.

“This has been decided quite decidedly with 90 per cent of clergy and 80 per cent of laity synod members supporting the sale process.

Ron Sonners, of Hamilton, at the Anglican Church synod at Riverside. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

“It was a very amicable and peaceful meeting and a robust discussion.”

Not everyone supported the move and they were passionate in their opposition.

A parishioner from Latrobe suggested the wages paid to clergy be cut to save some regional churches, but his motion was defeated.

Another from Buckland said the Anglican Diocese should change its motto to “a church for some Tasmanians” because rural churches were being abandoned in the fundraising process. He said it was “theologically spurious” which valued some of the faithful over others.

However, a spokesman from Wellspring church — the last remaining church of six due to past rationalisations in suburban Hobart — said he would support the bill.

“We have some trust funds and rental property but our financial survival depends almost entirely on giving by the plate,” he said.

“We need to take $250,000 out of our funds because we have no buildings to sell.

Tasman Mayor Roseanne Heyward, whose god-daughter Elizabeth Howard, a Port Arthur victim, is buried at St. Alban's Church. St. Alban’s Anglican Church at Koonya on the Tasman Peninsula has been earmarked for sale by the Anglican Archdiocese.

“We will either have to increase our giving or shed staff hours or positions to make up for that loss of income. But we have already decided we are going to give more than was asked for because it is the right thing to do.”

Some clergy and parishioners had indicated “off the record” that they felt gagged in the lead-up to the vote and feared repercussions for standing up.

Bishop Condie said the Anglican Church was a democratic institution and he could not make any decisions without the synod, which includes a representative from every parish in the state.

“From this point I will be writing to all parishes and they will be invited to make submissions to have their properties excluded from sale,” he said.

The final list of properties for sale will be decided in December.

Premier Will Hodgman said he was sure the church would consider the heritage values of the churches it sells and the community connection to them.