After some concerns in Vestry last year, the Wardens and I indicated to the Diocese that the long-term finances of the Parish do not look healthy. We met with the Bishop, the Diocesan manager and CPT manager early this year. They indicated that the Parish could continue a little longer under the current administrative and ministry set-up, but long-term this might need to change. They suggested that in the middle of the year, we could have a financial review, which might then suggest a different ministry model. This could include reducing the role of the vicar from full-time to part-time, merging parishes or office functions and various other options. With Bishop Peter away and a new Diocesan Manager this financial review has been delayed a little. In the meantime, a quick review has been done by CPT and the following response has been received:

“I’ve reviewed the parish financials and note:

• Offertories have grown from $70k to $74k to $90k [2023,2024, Sept 2025].
• The parish has funded $23k in prep costs for sale of the tennis court land in 2025 [$17k in 2024?].  This is reimbursable to the parish form the sale proceeds.  CPT has offered instead to pay such costs via a loan to be reimbursed from the sale proceeds.
• The current account has dropped from $25k to $12k to $3.5k [2023,2024, Sept 2025].
• The parish has a General Purpose Fund invested in the Income Fund – has gone from $105k to $70k to $33k [2023,2024, Oct 2025 – after a pending $20k withdrawal].

Preparations for the sale of the tennis court land are advanced, and the property will be listed soon.  Marketing should take place in the coming month or two, with tenders hopefully received by then end of January 2026.  Settlement [assuming an acceptable offer is received] would likely be mid to the end of 2026.

In general, I view the parish as having managed its finances prudently and that the remaining General Purpose Fund, along with the option to receive a loan from CPT for property sales costs [including reimbursement of sale prep costs to date], provide an adequate financial buffer for the parish until sale proceeds are received [and consequently the parish is reimbursed any relevant/remaining costs].  From there the parish would be able to follow the CPT/SC approved funds rationalisation process to assist funding/cash flowing.

I would recommend that the appropriate time for a review regarding financial sustainability would be once we have an accepted offer go unconditional and have some certainty of the funds as a key input to any analysis.”

At the time of the brief review we were still planning to list the tennis court land for sale in October 2025. Unfortunately, a change of plan by our surveyor means that the change of property boundaries will now not be finalised until December. That means that the property will probably be listed in January 2026 with tenders received in March 2026. That delays the sale process by 3 months. We are not sure what the property market might look like next year, whether this delay is advantageous or not.