What if parishes saw church property not simply as an asset to protect, but as a resource to multiply?
Across Sydney and the Illawarra, the gospel continues to take root in new and growing communities. But church planting and greenfield development come with significant costs. The good news? Some parishes are modelling a mission-minded approach to property, choosing to invest beyond their own walls for the sake of helping more people to meet Jesus.
At the heart of this vision is the idea that churches can support churches, not just in prayer and encouragement, but in tangible, financial ways. Whether through the sale of assets, the sharing of lease income, or generous giving, these churches are demonstrating what it looks like to steward well the resources entrusted to them.
Church Hill Anglican: Giving it all away
A striking recent example comes from Church Hill Anglican in the heart of Sydney’s CBD, which recently made a remarkable decision. After unexpectedly unlocking an additional $3.5 million from its commercial property at 1 York Street, the parish could have absorbed the funds to bolster its own ministries or buildings. Instead, they chose to give it all away.
Senior Minister Justin Moffatt explains, “St Philip’s, Church Hill, sits in the shadow of an income-producing asset that in many ways belongs to all of us. With such a resource comes the responsibility to steward it well. Our church is keen to see gospel ministry funded throughout the Diocese in the decades to come.”
In addition to a significant contribution to delivering a new greenfields church at Marsden Park, the funds have also helped secure both a ministry home and a long-awaited permanent site for the Shoalhaven Aboriginal Community Church (ShACC)—a 2,200m² former pre-school site in Bomaderry that includes gathering spaces, and accommodation that can sustain future ministry.
A local Aboriginal man visiting Church Hill heard about the gift to ShACC and said, “This [Church Hill] is the church for me.” It’s a beautiful picture of Australia’s first church resourcing gospel ministry among Australia’s first peoples.
Other generous parishes
Church Hill’s decision is remarkable, but not isolated.
Under the Diocese’s Large Property Sale Receipts Policy, a parish which makes a significant property sale first addresses its own direct needs before releasing an agreed percentage of any surplus funds for gospel purposes beyond the parish. This policy alone has resulted in, on average, around $800,000 per year being directed to diocesan growth efforts over the last seven years.
But many parishes have gone well beyond the minimum.
Homebush-Strathfield Anglican (St Anne’s Strathfield)
After the sale of a church property, the parish was initially permitted to retain all funds for a future replacement church or residence. However, in a voluntary and sacrificial decision, they chose to allocate $2.5 million to the Marsden Park church plant, retaining a much smaller proportion to repair and improve their existing buildings.
South Head Anglican (formerly Watsons Bay)
Inspired by a Synod presentation in 2016 on the urgent need for greenfield funding, the parish donated $900,000 from the subsequent sale of Wentworth Memorial Church to help fund construction of the new church at Leppington.
Building on a historic legacy
These generous recent examples follow in the footsteps of a historical emphasis on inter-church generosity and partnership. In 2004, for example, Neutral Bay Anglican voluntarily gave proceeds from the sale of St Chad’s, Cremorne Point, to support the Hoxton Park building project.
And as far back as 1985, the Longueville, Mowbray and Lane Cove parishes each determined to sell branch churches in order to contribute to the Vision for Growth strategy, which was the result of a 1984 Synod call for churches in developed areas to release resources for growing regions.
The Land Acquisition Levy
While these one-off gifts are a powerful example of gospel partnership, the Synod has also established a more systemic way for all parishes to contribute generously to gospel work in high-growth areas: the Land Acquisition Levy (LAL).
Through the LAL, two per cent of each parish’s net operating receipts is pooled and invested into the acquisition of land in Sydney’s rapidly-growing greenfield areas. With around $2.5 million per year in contributions, Sydney Anglican Property (SAP) has been able to buy strategic sites in Sydney’s urban release areas. In 2022, the Synod resolved to ‘lock in’ the levy for a further ten years. This guarantee has enabled Sydney Anglican Property to establish a Greenfields Loan Facility that is proving a real game changer for greenfield land purchases. Rather than having to wait until sufficient funds have been received to enable a purchase, the LAL funds can be used to pay down the loan facility, meaning ideal sites can be secured when they hit the market and before prices soar. In some cases, this innovative approach has also enabled more than one purchase at a time, something that simply would not have been possible previously.
Inspired by the opportunity for gospel growth across the Diocese, some parishes (like St John’s Parramatta) have even chosen to give above and beyond the required 2 per cent each year. Others – motivated by the desire to see land banked during the COVID-19 pandemic so that the delivery of new gospel communities could begin again in earnest once lock downs had lifted – generously continued to contribute funds during the pandemic even though the requirement to do so had been suspended. Still others, like St Matthew’s Manly, have chosen a greenfields church plant (Cornerstone Anglican at Box Hill) as one of its targeted mission partners.
This combination of long-term strategies and parish generosity not only allows the Diocese to acquire land and establish churches at just the right time, it also creates a virtuous cycle that delivers the next church, and the one after that…
For example, land purchased years ago at Stanhope Gardens eventually birthed a new congregation and ministry centre, which today is flourishing as Stanhope Anglican Church. However, the original parcel of land purchased was intentionally larger than needed for a church and its associated infrastructure. This approach, which is replicated where possible across all greenfield purchases, ensures there is surplus land available that can be subdivided once the land has increased in value (due to rezoning for example) and sold to fund the construction of the next greenfields church. In the case of Stanhope Anglican, its surplus land helped fund the construction of Hope Anglican Church at Leppington, continuing a gospel growth cycle made possible by shared investment.
The Property Receipts Levy
Like the LAL, the Property Receipts Levy (PRL) is a systemic way of parishes contributing to the wider buildings and property needs of the Diocese from the surplus of their property earnings. Parishes which earn more than $50,000 per year from property earnings such as rental income, share a percentage of this excess. A major aim of SAP’s urban renewal initiatives is to multiply the number of parishes earning annuity incomes that will contribute to buildings and property needs across the Diocese.
What could your property do?
These stories raise a question for every parish: How might your property serve God’s mission beyond your postcode? Even with all of the above generous contributions, we will struggle to keep pace with building the churches needed to cater for the projected population growth across the Diocese over the next 30 years. Whether it’s an underused hall, an inherited property, lease income, or surplus land, your church could play a part in building the next generation of gospel communities.
As Archbishop Kanishka Raffel said at the Marsden Park sod-turning, “There is a deep and beautiful connection across our diocesan fellowship… as we come together for a gospel purpose.”
It’s a connection worth celebrating, and expanding.
Does your parish have a property-related story of generosity that has contributed to gospel ministry in another part of the Diocese? We’d love to hear it! You can email it to adminSAP@sydney.anglican.asn.au
This is the first in a three-part series of articles. You can read articles 2 and 3 below: