The Anglican Church has revised its sale list

Some Anglican Church properties earmarked for sale in Tasmania have been saved — including some high-profile churches that communities have been fighting to protect. The full list of properties to be sold is expected to be announced at noon today.

SOME Anglican Church properties earmarked for sale in Tasmania have been saved — including some high-profile churches that communities have been fighting to protect.

The Tasmanian Diocese Council met yesterday to decide which properties will be sold.

The Church accepted the Appeals Panel’s recommendations and removed a third of the properties under review from the proposed sale list.

After the meeting, Anglican Bishop Richard Condie told the S unday Tasmanian the Church had heard the concerns of the community.

“The Church has listened,” Bishop Condie said.

“This has been a difficult process and we believe we have struck the right balance between fulfilling our redress obligations and ensuring sustainability of the Church.”

MORE ON THE REDRESS:

ANGLICAN CHURCH TO CLOSE OLD CEMETERIES

ANGLICAN CHURCH SALE CONSULTATION EXTENDED

RODNEY CROOME: VALUE THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH

The Anglican Church in Tasmania had originally proposed to sell 107 properties, including 76 churches.

The property sales are intended to help fund the $8.6 million needed in Tasmania for the National Redress Scheme for survivors of childhood sexual abuse.

The Diocese received submissions from parishes, councils and the public in regard to protecting 34 properties.

An official announcement about which properties have been saved, and which are still to be sold, will be made today. The Diocesan Council said some high-profile churches that had been the subject of community concern had been exempted from sale.

However, there were no further details about which churches.

Communities around the state have been anxiously waiting to see if their churches and graveyards will be removed from the sell-off list.

A group formed to fight the sale process, called Save our Community Soul, welcomed the news that a third of the properties on appeal had been removed from proposed sale.

“It’s great news that some have been taken off the list,” the group’s chairman David Downie said.

“But it would be interesting to know the ones that are still on [the sale list], and what the communities’ thoughts are about the churches they plan to sell.”

He said the group would continue to support any community that wanted to protect its church.

“If there are churches that people want to keep, we believe they shouldn’t be sold off,” he said.

“We’re trying to give strength and help people where they want to keep their local church, because these are assets that have been built and maintained by the local communities.”

Mr Downie said some communities might take stronger action when they learn the final short-list of churches to be sold.

Former Southern Midlands mayor Tony Bisdee, who is also with Save Our Community Soul, said many in his municipality were worried about the final short-list of properties for sale.

He said eight of the nine Anglican churches in his municipality were on the original sale list.

“It’s not just the churches we are concerned about, but also the cemeteries,” he said.

Labor Member for Lyons Jen Butler said new laws that went through Parliament last week should protect three historic churches.

Presumed perpetuity was legislated in Parliament on Thursday night, preventing Tasmanian graves or burial sites from being disturbed from 100 years of the last interment instead of 30 years.

Ms Butler said the outcome would also pave the way for the protection of three historic churches — the Church of the Good Shepherd at Hadspen, St Marys Church at Hagley and St John the Baptist Church in Ouse.

Under the new laws, Ms Butler said those churches would be regulated as cemeteries — “meaning actions to sell the churches are almost impossible”.

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