So be alert

This is an alert for those many Tasmanian Anglicans concerned about the future of the remaining old churches of their faith: be worried.

A recent Sunday Tasmanian report on the present emphasis on the evangelical worship style had brief lines from Bishop John Harrower that should sound renewed alarm.

With 20-plus churches already closed, he said more are likely, “dwindling congregations” given as the reason. The logical question is: where? Less easy to answer is: when?

There are indications of the first, in country areas (church “rationalisation” closures already having been achieved in Hobart and Launceston).

The Anglican Missionary Diocese of Tasmania, as it is termed, has two large districts where churches can be seen as “under review” for their future. These districts have 13 churches, many rich in Tasmanian heritage history. Think 1800s, think prominent architects John Lee Archer, Alexander North and Henry Hunter.

In the south they are: St Luke’s, Judbury, St James’, Ranelagh, St John’s, Franklin, St Peter’s, Geeveston, and St Paul’s, Dover. They are in what is the Franklin/Esperance City South Mission Network.

There are more in the second “under review” area: St Peter’s, Oatlands, St Michael’s, Bagdad, St Michael and All Angels, Bothwell, St Mary’s, Kempton, St John the Evangelist, Lower Marshes, St James’, Montacute, St Oswald’s, Tunbridge, and St Mary’s Chapel, Baden. They are in the Southern Midlands South East Mission Network.

The Baden chapel is an interesting example of Anglican Church relocation, having been moved there from being the chapel of Hobart’s Jane Franklin Hall. Thus it now seems to share the same uncertain fate as the relocated chapel at Coningham’s Montgomery Park, with the Anglican Church’s decision to sell the park.

This is not to say that all the churches in the “under review” category will go. Some may well get a reprieve, but church-goers would be well advised to keep a watch on things.

And looking at these churches we also need to go back to the original Rationalisation of Church Buildings Ordinance drawn up in 1997. It had 71 churches “listed for closure” – St John’s, Franklin, St Luke’s, St Mary’s, Baden, St Michael’s, Bagdad, St John the Evangelist, St James’, Montacute, and St Oswald’s were on that list.

If the axe did eventually fall on all those “under review” then it would push the overall Tasmanian closure tally close to the half-way mark of 71.

Let me return to the Suntas remarks of John Harrower, on the permanent shutting of church doors: “The closures are initiated by the local parishes, not the bishops.” A don’t-blame-me attitude.

The church ordinances provide the procedure for closures, and technically “not the bishops” excuse applies.

But let’s backtrack a bit more, for I have been reminded of what the Mercury reported in August, 2005, when it revealed a leaked report that the bishop was proposing the merger of Hobart parishes to “unlock resources” and have “the reserves to seize opportunities”.

This disclosure followed another Mercury report that four landmark Hobart churches could be sold – North Hobart’s Holy Trinity, St George’s, Battery Point, All Saints, South Hobart, and Sandy Bay’s St Peter’s Bay West.

It didn’t happen with St George’s and All Saints, but Holy Trinity was put to the sword, sold and deconsecrated, the parish amalgamated with Bay West, which has morphed into the Wellspring Church, with its ambitious but controversial new auditorium building plan.