Alderman fighting to keep church from sale

A BID to keep one of Hobart’s most iconic churches in public hands will go before Hobart City Council.

Built with the proceeds of local fundraising through strawberry festivals, St Raphael’s at Fern Tree survived the devastating 1967 bushfires but is now on the list of the Anglican Church fire sale of assets across the state.

The building has been listed under the National Trust, the National Estate and is Tasmanian Heritage listed.

The Anglican Church has announced plans to sell about half its property holdings in Tasmania, in part to raise funds to compensate the victims of sexual abuse by church members.

Alderman Eva Ruzicka has given notice of an urgency motion before Hobart City Council to try to keep St Raphael’s in community hands. It will be considered on Monday week.

She said that, as a last re- sort, the counc i l should consider buying the church.

Dr Ruzicka said if t r ansferred to private ownership, public access to the building could be lost forever.

“It’s a massively important church to keep,” she said.

“It’s been in existence since 1892-93 when it was consecrated, the altar has a World War One commemoration on it, there are regular services held there every Sunday and on Christmas Day and they’ve had regular services for the past 22 years.”

As a former long-term resident of the area and chair of the council’s heritage and governance committees, Dr Ruzicka said she was determined to push to keep the church in public hands.

“We will support the com- munity in retaining it. I’m not sure how but we need to open discussions urgently in retaining this church in the community.

“I have a very strong attitude about property and churches. They think they own it, but morally they are holding it in trust for the community.

“It is their hierarchy that has caused this problem and it is their hierarchy who should be the first ones to pay and not their communities, who did not do this.”

Bishop of Tasmania Richard Condie this week released a list of 108 properties being considered for sale, including 76 churches.

He said 25 per cent of the funds would go to abuse victims and another 50 per cent would be retained by parishes.

The church expects to pay $8.6 million in redress to victims of sexual abuse and $4.7 million would come from property sales, $2.8 million from church funds and $1.1 million from contributions by congregations.

Eva Ruzicka