The Anglican Church is sitting on a commercial property portfolio, likely to be worth millions of dollars, which it has quarantined from a sale to fund-raise for its contribution to the national redress scheme.
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The church instead has identified 108 other properties, of which 76 are churches, that will be considered for sale at a Synod meeting on Friday.
The church owns 14 commercial properties – two of which are occupied by a service station on Mount Street in Burnie and the neighbouring Beachfront Voyager Motor Inn.
It also owns farm land and buildings which are leased to other organisations for non-commercial purposes.
Tasmanian Anglican Bishop Richard Condie said the commercial properties were not earmarked for sale because they generated income.
”The properties which are proposed for sale are surplus to use, not funding ministry, or are considered unsustainable for ministry in the long term,” he said.
Twenty-five per cent of the proceeds from the property sales will be used to fund the Tasmanian Anglican Church’s $8 million contribution to the national redress scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse.
After Friday’s meeting, parishes will have until October 1 to put in a submission the prospective sales which will be considered by the Diocesan Council in December.
The sales of churches and graveyards has led to widespread community concern, prompting the government to review the Burial and Cremation Act.
Under the act, if there have been no burials in a cemetery for 30 years or more, or where a tombstone has been erected, the cemetery can be closed.
If an old cemetery is purchased, the owner becomes a cemetery manager and may move monuments and grave markers to another part of the land.
There has also been concerns about visitation rights for living relatives to grave sites and fulfillment of their wishes to be buried alongside their dead loved ones.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has announced on Wednesday it would commit to the national redress scheme.
Catholic Archbishop Julian Porteous said he had strongly advocated for the implementation of a national redress scheme.
“It is my fervent hope that this announcement will offer a degree of healing to victims,” he said.
The church has not provided details on how much money it will contribute.
It has previously committed to not fund its contribution by selling off churches.
The Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse estimated there were at least 2200 survivors in Tasmania.
