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More than bricks and mortar
As a Church, we have over over $500 million invested in property. Josephine Reader examines the factors affecting decisions to keep or sell church buildings.
The church is beautiful - its brickwork is gorgeous but the intricate stained glass windows need a bit of a polish to bring them back to their former glory. The building sits in a paddock on the outskirts of town, and locals take turns at cleaning. While there is no minister here, a service is held once a month for a few locals.
This description of a much-loved building that holds memories of baptisms, weddings and funerals is an all-too-familiar sight around the country, and could describe scores of buildings within the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand . As parishes face increasing costs to maintain these buildings, particularly for those that are recognised as historic places, more than ever before congregations are faced with decisions about whether to keep or sell the buildings they love.
The Church’s annual statistics show that as a proportion of total expenditure, property-related expenses have increased from 11 percent in 1995 to 15 percent in 2005 (in dollar terms this is an increase of around $3 million). This trend is likely to continue as our buildings get older and compliance costs increase.
Money spent on property is not available for mission or ministry programmes. The financial strain of maintenance costs, coupled with the effort needed to comply with building-related regulations, means that some buildings have the potential to become burdens rather than tools of mission and ministry. Parishes around the country are crying out for more resources and the reality is that the Church (overall) is blessed with enormous financial resources with which it can do God’s work – however, much of the resources are tied up in investments and property. Parish buildings alone (churches, halls and manses) are insured for almost $500 million (excluding the value of the land itself).
“Imagine what we [the Church] could do with just 10 percent of that money,” says the Rev Martin Baker, who believes that some rationalisation of this property could result in significant resources for mission today, while still leaving plenty invested for the benefit of future generations. Martin also believes that income from property is sustaining the lives of an increasing number of parishes, and that it is important for all congregations to consider their mission and ministry priorities, or ongoing expenditure on buildings may undermine their ability to fulfil their mission.
Resource Sub-committee co-convener John Trainor confirms that the Council of Assembly has asked the Sub-committee to advise on a way forward in relation to the Church’s property resources. He confirms that the sub-committee will be looking at how it can become constructively involved. “While Resource and its predecessor, the Administration and Finance Policy Group, have in recent times been exclusively focused on General Assembly property and finance issues, it believes wider Church property use should become a priority.
“Resource is concerned that the considerable amount of property held by all the various parts of the Presbyterian Church is not being put to best use. Property is often under-utilised or the income used to prop up existing structures, rather than the properties being available to facilitate much-needed initiatives,” he says .
How sale proceeds should be used is one of the factors that parishes consider when deciding whether to keep or sell property. Current Book of Order regulations and Acts of parliament (for instance, the Presbyterian Property Act 1885) stipulate that proceeds from property sales may only be used for capital purposes.
How the funds are to be used is only one challenge – the emotional attachment to parish buildings is also a factor to be considered says John Preston, property officer for the Victoria Synod of Uniting Church of Australia. In Victoria , the community response to property sales “was like we switched off God in the community” he says, and likens the negative community reaction to the grief associated with a divorce. The sense of loss is just as real for the community, whether they are actively involved with the parish or not, as seen by the Mangatangi-Pokeno congregation and its sale of Kaiaua church hall (see story below).
The Victoria Synod actively encouraged property rationalisation, which was driven by an Assembly decision to this effect, and the financial viability of parishes, particularly in rural areas, together with the desire to give expression to the Synod’s uniting environment.
New Zealand faces a similar situation. Decreasing church membership has led to numerous parish mergers in recent years, and often the property associated with the former entities is retained. It is not uncommon to have three or four worship centres associated with one parish. The Synod of Otago and Southland reports that 30 of 51 property sales made since January 2001 were made because the properties were unused or because of merger.
The Synod has a policy of encouraging parishes to rationalise their buildings and its approach to considering applications for building projects reflects this philosophy, says Clerk Heather McKenzie. “We look at the cost-effectiveness. And our funding application forms require parishes to state how many hours a month a church or hall is used, and by how many people,” she says.
Heather goes on to say that there are often opportunities for parishes to be more effective in mission if their resources were pooled. She says that one of the functions of the Synod’s mission advisor, Bruce Fraser, is to help parishes focus more clearly on how their resources can be used to serve the needs of its community.
John from the Victoria Synod agrees that a focus on mission is fundamental to parish discussions about how property can be used, saying “property decisions are relatively simple provided you know what you want to achieve”. He has worked with parishes and presbyteries throughout Victoria , helping them find answers to the question about how their current space and place can be used to serve community needs. He says that often when parishes consider these questions, they realise that their current building may not be suited to the type of ministries they wish to offer.
Deciding whether to sell property is not a decision congregations enter into lightly; often it takes many years of deliberation. In John’s experience, the time taken to come to a decision can be cut by more than half if the congregation addresses mission questions.
The environment in which the Church operates is changing. At a time when parishes are crying out for more resources, a genuine opportunity exists to consider whether existing buildings serve their mission. In some cases this may mean retaining buildings or modifying them to suit today’s context; in other cases it may mean taking the hard decision to sell that much-loved building.
Community outraged at sale
The parish of Mangatangi-Pokeno had been deliberating for approximately five years about the fate of one of its small halls about 10km away from the congregation’s main worship centre.
In late 2004, the decision to sell was made and the congregation decided that sale proceeds would be used to fund development at the main worship centre. This updated centre, it was felt, would offer better facilities and better serve the needs of the community.
The Kaiaua hall, built in the late 1960s, was erected on donated land using donated labour and materials. A constitution drawn up at the time the hall was built indicated that ownership was retained by the Church and identified its purpose and the groups that could use the hall.
At the time the proposed sale was announced, the hall was used by a few groups for a few hours a week. A committee of local people, including representatives from the Mangatangi- Pokeno congregation, oversaw management of the hall. This group took bookings for the hall’s use, issued keys and coordinated maintenance, although the maintenance, insurance and related costs were largely covered by the parish.
The community was advised of the intention to sell through its representatives on the hall committee, about six months before the property went up sale. However, the sale of the property galvanised the small Kaiaua community and opponents to the sale expressed their concerns through local and national media. A petition organised to oppose the sale attracted over 300 signatures, and it was argued that the Church had no moral right to sell the hall because it was built with donated labour and materials.
The sale attracted extensive media attention including The New Zealand Herald and television's Fair Go programme. The group opposing the sale also initiated legal action, and although the property was sold following a tender in March 06, they have indicated they will continue to fight for the hall.
The congregation has been surprised by the extent to which members of the community expressed their grief, given the small number of people using the facility in recent years.