Assets debate as church seeks donations

This week’s plea for Anglican parishioners to help fund Christ Church Cathedral’s restoration comes amid ongoing debate on how the church should use its own assets.

With tax-free property, cash, investments and trust across New Zealand estimated in 2020 to be worth close to $3 billion, the church has been under pressure to use its wealth.

Bishop Peter Carrell launched the diocese’s fundraising campaign this week, which asks Anglicans to contribute generously, preferably as ongoing payments over several years.

“With all of our hands the roof of our cathedral will rise again,” is the campaign slogan.

Restoration of the earthquake-damaged cathedral faces a shortfall of tens of millions of dollars. Ratepayers are already chipping in $10 million through a 10-year levy, and taxpayers have given $10m plus a $15m loan which may not require repayment.

In 2017, the church said its contribution to the cathedral project would be limited to its $53m insurance settlement, and ongoing fundaising was necessary.

A 2020 report commissioned by the Anglican General Synod estimated the value of the church’s assets in New Zealand at more than $2.87b, recommending the wealth be used for social good.

The report, He waka eke noa, relied on self-reported figures and noted some assets might be unaccounted for. Some of the sums will have risen with real estate prices since then. “It has proved difficult, in practice, to get a reliable picture of the total assets of the Anglican Church,” the report says.

One of the report’s authors, Paul Gilberd, himself a member of the Anglican community, said calls to access the assets are complicated by the way the church has structured its organisation, decision-making and finances.

Dr Michael Gousmett, an adjunct fellow at Canterbury University and an expert in charity finances, said many Anglican parishioners in the Christchurch diocese would be “horrified” if they had the full picture.

“The poor Anglican parishioners, they are being asked to fork out now. A lot of them are not young people, they are on the pension and they’re being asked for money.”

The Anglican Church easily had enough property and money to fund the cathedral restoration if it wanted to, he said.

He said the project required “a lot of dosh”, and the shortfall calculated at $50m last year could end up being $80m now.

Like many charities, the Anglican Church’s wealth rose year-by-year because it paid no taxes on investments and other assets, Gousmett said.

“That’s why we are seeing all this huge wealth being accumulated. And at the same time they say they need money for this, that and the other.”

He has calculated the church’s nationwide assets include $411m of cash and bank investments, $86m of investment property, and $892m of property and equipment in church use, and $55m in endowment and special purpose funds.

The wealth of the Anglican Church inside the Christchurch diocese is spread across multiple charitable entities.

The church’s local property investments – owned under the banner of The Church Property Trustees, which has its own Act of Parliament - were valued at $270m at the end of 2022.

Other trusts or entities with assets include the diocese itself, the Bishopric Estate, Christ Church Cathedral Trust, Dean and Chapter Estate, General Trust Estate, and dozens of parishes across Canterbury, Westland and the Chatham Islands.

Anglican schools and other institutions in the city are also collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Recent sales of surplus land and buildings in Canterbury have also triggered discussion on where proceeds will go. Former parishioners of now-demolished St Luke’s wanted to put their money into a central city chaplaincy, but it will now go to the cathedral project.

St Saviours in Beckenham was recently sold, with the Ascension Church in Mt Pleasant to follow and the future of the Transitional Cathedral property under discussion.

One Cathedral parishioner at this week’s fundraising launch told The Press she was prepared to support the late fundraising campaign.

“It’s our cathedral, I think we have a responsibility, and it’s one which I willingly embrace.”

Parishioner Mark Belton said Anglicans should be asked to pay, and the diocese should also be contributing money from other property sales.

Rev Craig Dixon, who has commented previously that church attendances are declining while their assets are growing said this week it should try to sell the cathedral to the Crown, or share it with the Catholic diocese.

“It seems to be a substantial amount of money they are short of. It’s a difficult position and I don’t know how they are going to get out of it.

“The diocese went into it a little bit blind Now the situation people feared has come to pass.”