ANGLICAN PROPERTY SALE

Sell carparks before churches

TASMANIA has a unique opportunity to preserve and enhance a very special group of buildings, at the Murray and Macquarie street intersection surroundings. The St David’s Cathedral car park is on the edge of this precinct. Orkney in Scotland has a cathedral now owned by the whole community. The Tasmanian community has an interest not only in providing redress to victims of sexual abuse, but also in preserving its architectural heritage. It needs the city council, the owners (including church and government) and State Government to find a way to fund redress claims.

Could these properties be purchased by the state? Could there be a joint enterprise to build a community centre in the car park with a hall and facilities or accommodation for the homeless? In years to come the city might be motor-vehicle free. Sydney has its Rocks. Tasmania could have this. The community centre could be called nipaluna. Better than selling country churches, that car park is an asset that could be used for us all. nify is the end of the Anglican Church in Tasmania. As an Anglican, christened, confirmed and married in the church, it is a sad day. The church keeps on saying these assets must be sold to pay for abused victims. Yet only 25 per cent covers this. What happens to the rest of the money?

Part of the mountain

THE Fern Tree Church should never have come up for sale. It is part of Mt Wellington like its walkways and waterfalls. Heritage-listed, it survived bushfires and was build on donated land, with community efforts of fundraising with strawberry festivals. It still is maintained with community efforts and donations. Believing Archangel St Raphael has guarded walkers on their journey to safety gave the idea and helped build the church, consecrated in 1893 by the Anglican bishop. St Raphael is not a property like others to be made into a souvenir or coffee shop. It has to stand for today and tomorrow for the citizens of Hobart and its visitors.

Cherished place

IT is commonplace these days to ask if a project has a social licence. Given the long list of community churches in the Anglican fire sale, I ask, not just that, but question the morality of selling country churches where the land was given by and churches built by members of the communities. Do they not have a say? Should the church not be using the yardstick of what is the right thing to do morally as opposed to the means justifies the ends? Are A new way to have your say themercury.com.au readers have a new way to have their say. It’s free to use, just register and have your say. For more details and to register, visit the website. they not committing another if lesser wrong? My local church, St Barnabas at South Arm, is not only a beautiful little church, it has a graveyard which practically reaches the steps of the building. People with loved ones there can look out at the sea and mountain and feel peace. It is the heartfelt wish of many to be buried in such a cherished place. How would that be possible if the church were converted to a home or a coffee shop?

Grace from letting go

THE sale of the Anglican churches is certainly a cause for sorrow for people who have a spiritual, social and religious connection to them. Many communities grieving the loss of their churches would understand. In 1947 the Lemko population in southeast Poland was seen as a threat to the government and in Operation Vistula some 150,000 people were forcibly removed and dispersed through western Poland and Ukraine. Only a few thousand were able to return to their homelands in the Carpathian Mountains. My Dad was not one of them. Most villages were burnt to the ground. The beautiful Greek Catholic and Orthodox wooden churches of the Lemkos were set alight.

The fires of sex abuse have ravaged the Anglican Church. Justice demands the people affected be compensated. Letting go of prized possessions is heartbreaking but can be a source of great grace from the one who says: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied”.

Bitter taste of rising costs

“HOME Sweet Home” celebrates Hobart’s steeply rising cost of housing ( Mercury, June 2). Should we now look forward to effusive praise of other essentials becoming unaffordable?

Just “Town” to me

THOSE of us who live here simply call this place “Town” (none of this silly River City nonsense, Charlie Wooley). Likewise there is also the Mountain, the River, the Brooker, the DEC, the Caz, the bridge . . .

Beauty appreciated

I THOROUGHLY enjoyed reading a well-written article by Simon Bevilacqua about our beautiful Tasmania ( Mercury, June 2). I appreciate this beauty even more when I return from my yearly overseas holiday. I agree that “We see the destruction of poorly planned tourism. We don’t want to tame the wild . . . Tourism is more than just a fancy restaurant with a view from or to a mountain or bay, and Tasmania is so much more than this narrow view suggests”.

Robbing Peter

THE Synod of the Anglican Church voted in favour to sell many of its properties. Sounds like the proverbial “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”.