Property sales proceeds

New South Wales Council of Synod in March clarified regulations to specify that sales proceeds could be used for new mission initiatives, including ministry and leadership, only if those funds were likely to retain capital value by producing an effective missional outcome that added lasting value to the Uniting Church’s core business.

Sales proceeds would not be available to “prop up” faltering or failing congregations.

The term “capital works” was defined as “projects which produce, expand or refine durable resources that will better facilitate the church’s service delivery and mission, resources which in themselves have a lasting value”.

That included (but was not limited to) expenditure on land, buildings, construction and major additions or alterations, capital equipment, intellectual property, ministry and leadership, discipleship training, a new mission program developed by a congregation according to its presbytery-approved mission plan, a church-owned business activity, a new community service, and research and development.

After receiving the recommendation of the relevant presbytery, the Synod Mission Resource Funding Committee will be the body to approve applications for the use of sales proceeds for purposes other than expenditure on land, buildings, construction and major additions or alterations and expenditure on business activities.

In the rationale for the submission to Council of Synod, the Rev. Paul Swadling, Mission Finance Consultant, said capital as real estate was not the church’s “trading stock” or core business. It was infrastructure, a tool the church used to deliver its service.

That service involved not only human well being, community building and justice (hence community services, education, mission) but also matters of the spirit and eternity.

The purpose of capital as real estate was to facilitate living with Jesus in the world, proclaiming the good news to the whole creation, Mr Swadling said. “It has no other purpose.”

He said the sacred place through which Jesus made himself present was the community of two or three, Christian people gathered in worship and service. That could happen anywhere.

“The Uniting Church needs to find ways of converting some of its sales proceeds into trading stock equivalent. The church’s stock in trade is the information, knowledge and expertise, the energy and dedication, the techniques, data and tools it uses in service delivery and mission,” he said.