By Josephine Reader
Managing around $80 million dollars in deposi ted funds, overseeing property matters and managing the beneficiary fund (another $70 million) are just some of the things the Church Property Trustees do on your behalf every day.
Working through property-related requests is where parishes and the Trustees interact the most, but it is also the area that causes most confusion, says Chairperson Margaret Galt.
It is a commonly held belief that the Trustees have autonomy in how they make decisions about property requests, says Margaret. In reality, CPT’s responsibilities and decisions are governed by provisions the Presbyterian Church Property Act (1885) and various rulings by General Assembly.
By law, legal title for all property is held by the Church Property Trustees on behalf of the parish. The Trustees are also required to hold all proceeds from property sales, and are only allowed to release those funds for capital (rather than operational) spending.
Parishes sometimes feel frustrated that they can not spend the funds as they wish, but the Trustees are bound by the rules as they currently exist says Margaret. Property-related regulations are spread throughout the Book of Order, which makes it harder to know exactly what the rules are. To make things easier, the Trustees now publish a layman’s guide to the Book of Order regulations about property, The Property Handbook. This is available on the church website.
Margaret describes the Trustees’ property responsibilities as like being part of a family: “We hold your property while you are part of the family. The family - at parish, presbytery and trustee levels - all have a role to play when major decisions are being made.”
Managing the Presbyterian Investment Fund (formerly known as the Amalgamated Investment Fund) is another of the Trustees’ big tasks, says secretary Doug Langford. The investment committee meets monthly and its purpose is to maximise the return on invested funds (over $80 million currently) within a low-risk portfolio.
A full Church Property Trustees meeting occurs bi-monthly, but most of the detail work is done at committee level. There is a farm advisory committee which oversees two farms – Glen Innis and Flaxburn – that have been bequeathed to the Church; the investment committee; an audit committee; a communications committee and an executive committee, which is responsible for administering Burnett loans, ministers’ mortgages and approval of property transactions in line with Trustee policy.
For more information about the Church Property Trustees and their role, check out the Presbyterian website at http://www.presbyterian.org.nz