Sunday maths
With nearly 8000 paid staff, it’s twice as large as the kiwifruit industry. Matt Nippert trawls through annual reports to build a financial picture — and audit the largest players —of New Zealand’s $11b organised religion sector
The 2018 Census for the first time saw people with “no religion” (48.6 per cent of the population) over taking those identifying as Christian (37.3 percent ). At the 2001 Census, less than a third of people lacked a religious affiliation, while Christians comprised nearly 59 per cent of the population.
But despite a decline in religious attendance and affiliation, New Zealand’ s national collection plate— whether passed around on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, or at a church, mosque or temple — still manages to raise nearly a billion dollars a year.
According to analysis by the Weekend Herald that scraped financial returns from the Charities Register for organisations describing their primary purpose as running religious services, the sector today still manages nearly $11 billion in assets — comparable to the university sector — and last year attracted $853 million in donations.
With nearly 8000 paid staff, organised religion is twice as large as the kiwifruit industry and—taking into account volunteer hours— engages as many full-time equivalents as the film industry.
The sector comprises more than 5500 individual entities. Many comprise small single congregations while others — particularly in established orders representing city, provincial or national groupings — have balance sheets running to nine figures.
When ranked by net assets, it’s a top-heavy sector dominated by established Christian denominations who have drawn donations and built churches over the past two centuries. The seven largest organisations ranked below account for a third of the entire sector’s net asset base and attract a quarter of all donations.
This methodology favours highly organised religions with consolidated structures( see: Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists), and those with a long history in New Zealand who have built substantial( mostly property) asset bases.
Ranking instead by annual donations puts a few of t he newer, largely evangelical, churches into the top 10( City Impact, Arise and Life) but growing pains typically are accompanied by ambitious construction plans and accompanying mortgages. Non-christian orders are still well-down even this list, with the first appearance being the Soka Gakkai Buddhists at 25th.
1. Roman Catholic Diocese of Auckland Group
Net assets: $1.07b Annual donations: $17.1m
Number one on this list should come as no surprise. According to the Census, Catholicism is the largest distinct individual religion in the country, and Auckland is its largest city.
This Group comprises dozens of sub-entities, largely parish-based, across a region that — due to history with the Auckland Diocese established in 1848— stretch es far beyond the city limits of what is now known as Auckland.
The vast bulk of assets are held by t he Catholic Diocese of Auckland (CDA) charity which is run from its expansive Pompallier Diocesan Centre in St Mary’ s Bay. The organisation holds $84.8 min financial investments — with Milford, Nikko, Castle Point and Harbour Asset managing t he funds—and $778 min real estate.
While donations to the group for the 2019 year — the most recent year for which accounts are available— were still healthy, in 2018 CD A received around $120 min cash classed as a legacy or bequest. The year before and after brought bequests of around $1m.
This appears to represent the largest individual donation in New Zealand history — the legacy establishing then ow-billion-do ll arDil worth School in 1894 was only $20 min today’s dollars — but for some reason was not publicised at the time.
2. The Salvation Army New Zealand Group
Net assets: $554m
Annual donations: $29.5m
An oddity on this list, the Salvation Army is less a church in a traditional sense and more a multiarmed charitable organisation that runs foodbanks, thrift stores and a social policy arm that lobbies for poverty reduction and housing reform.
Operating in New Zealand since 1883, the Salvation Army now owns $299 min property spread across the country, and another $216 min financial investments—largely shares in listed companies. A large slice of their income — $5m — was sent overseas to support their head office in the United Kingdom and also operations in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
3. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Trust Board
Net assets: $365m
Annual donations: $42m
T he largest religion with roots in the United States, Mormons first set up a congregation in New Zealand in 1855. The church has $357 min property, but is rapidly expanding.
While pulling in $42m from local donations—good for gold in the collection-plate stakes — the church here is still largely bankrolled from Salt Lake City, Utah, where the LDS head office is based. In 2019 the New Zealand branch received $71.9 min grant income from its United States parent, and the year prior it got $31m. The funds are believed to be going towards the construction of a second
temple in New Zealand, on a $27m property on Manukau’s Redoubt Rd.
4. Anglican Diocese of Wellington Group
Net assets: $311m
Annual donations: $7.8m
The size of the diocese reflects when it began — in 1858 — covering not just the capital city, but the entire lower North Island stretching from Cook Strait to Ruapehu.
The Group—comprising 117 individual entities ranging from parish es, a theology school and numerous be quest trusts—owns $257 min real estate and $41 min financial investments. During the first Covid lock down, notes to the accounts show they claimed $1.05m in wage subsidy payments.
5. Seventh Day Adventist Church in New Zealand
Net assets: $301m
Annual donations: $29.3m
Asmaller de nomination whose placement on this list is bolstered by being consolidated into a single national grouping, and also the significant commercial — but charitable — operations of its Sanitarium food empire that produces supermarket staples such as Weet-bix.
The New Zealand group owns $176 min occupied properties, and another $48 min real estate investments, and is also apartinvestor in pharmaceuticals companies Ask le pion and Ausio.
These loans to biotech companies appear to be alongside an international effort by the Seventh Day Adventists to spur medicine production— but Au si oh as stumbled and in 2018 required the New Zealand branch to write off $6.2m, or around half the value of its investment.
6. New Zealand Methodist Trust Association
Net assets: $299m
Annual donations: $0
An oddity on this list, the Methodist Trust Association is the investment management arm of the Methodist Church in New Zealand. It takes deposits from member churches, and seeks to obtain the best possible commercial returns on them.
In 2020 it had $297 min depositors’ funds under management that delivered income of $11.3m (a return on capital of 3.8 per cent), invested mainly in shares ($60m), corporate bonds ($100m) and investment property ($61m).
7. Roman Catholic Diocese Of Christchurch Group Net assets: $244m
Annual donations: $8.7m
The Christchurch branch of the Catholic Church is asset rich— with $169 min property and $40 min financial assets largely derived from insurance payouts—but has been grappling for a decade with the fallout of the Christchurch earthquakes.
Its landmark Christchurch Basilica closed after the first quake in 2010, and partly collapsed following the sequel in 2011. Debate and planning as to whether to repair or st art afresh has raged for years, but an end — and a hefty accompanying bill — is now in sight.
Accounts to June 2019 show t he church had by this point spent $29m acquiring land for a new cathedral, and by December of that year the bishop announced a total of $85m was expected to be spent on deconstructing the basilica and building a new cathedral on a different site.