I reference letters by Phil Connor and Joan Lake who wrote recently concerning the sale of the Anglican Church at Burringbar.
The Anglican parishes from Tweed Heads to Port Macquarie are in the Grafton Diocese, which has faced a serious financial challenge necessitating the forfeiture of its savings and the selling of many assets including the little-used church at Burringbar.
The Anglican Church has no other assets than those that local Anglican Church members throughout the Diocese have provided to enable ministry to occur. Consequently decisions are never easy to sell a building that has been at the centre of a caring community. But the church is left with no option if it is to continue to provide ministry, which is the reason why the original Anglicans first built the church.
Alternative worship arrangements for the small group of faithful worshippers have been put in place and ministry to the wider community will continue.
At a meeting at St Michael and All Angels Church on 28 October 2011 the Diocese responded to the community concerns for the proposed sale by agreeing to keep the property off the market for three months and then extended this to the end of April to allow the community to purchase the property at a price well under its valuation.
As a matter of urgency, the Diocese must now prepare to place the church on the market but still has agreed to sell it to the community group at the reduced price if it can raise the money in a further extension of time until the end of June 2012.
Laurie Ganter
Representative of the Diocesan Independent Oversight Committee
