New southwest land purchase

Judy Adamson

After a 12-month search, another site has been secured for a future Anglican church in southwestern Sydney, with the Anglican Church Growth Corporation’s purchase of land in Catherine Field (located between Oran Park and Leppington).

The 1.88-hectare site is on Camden Valley Way, opposite the rapidly growing Gledswood Hills housing estate, in an area that is already home to tens of thousands of people.

“It’s so significant for the work of the gospel in the fast-growing southwest ,” says the Bishop of the South Western Region, Peter Lin. “Every parish in the Diocese has partnered in this missional advance and it should be considered an extension of our collective gospel outreach.”

The purchase was made possible by last year’s Synod decision to continue the 2 per cent Land Acquisition Levy paid by each parish for another decade. Growth Corp CEO Ross Jones says this makes the difference between buying and not buying a piece of land when it becomes available.

“We used to save up money over a number of years and then pay for a property outright, but if you use the cost of Catherine Field [$6.4 million] as an example, having just bought to pray big prayers and engage with the key overseas aid and development projects that the organisation supports.

“Many of our Anglican Aid staff are parents and grandparents,” says the Rev Canon Tim Swan, CEO of Anglican Aid. “Even with my kids, I struggle to explain the big things going on in our world – and I’m leading an aid organisation! We came up with this idea together to help grownups pray for global issues with their kids.

“The cards reflect the nature of our international work, which cares for families and children facing poverty and hardship. While many adults pray for these projects using the prayer diary and PrayerMate app, the cards allow children to participate, too.”

Canon Swan adds that often it is children overseas, and their families, who are being supported through education, clean water and disability inclusion projects. “We’d love families here to be praying for their brothers and sisters in Christ overseas.”

Designing a resource that encouraged families to prioritise praying together was key for Canon Swan. “God works through families. In fact, his promises are to ‘you and your children’ [Gen 17:7]. When we learn from Jesus and pray, ‘Our Father…’, we model to each other that we are all alike as dependent children before God, and we model what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Let the children come

“Together we find refuge in our Father and, as we pray for his kingdom to come, we lift our vision and participate together in shaping the world, as God uses our prayers to bring about his glorious purposes. Family prayer helps bring the right perspective to all of life.”

While being committed to praying together as a family for global issues, previously Canon Swan found some missionary prayer letters and situations around the world too complex for young children to grasp.

“These Big Prayers for Little People cards help keep prayer points manageably simple, while also lifting our vision to pray around the world, and helping us to have soft hearts towards the poor,” he says.

“I hope these prayer cards will help families to care for the poor and needy as God cares for the poor and needy, and ultimately strengthen relationships between Sydney Christians and our brothers and sisters around the world.” SC some land we’d need three years before we could buy the next one,” he says.

“With Synod approving the levy to be locked in for 10 years, that allows us to borrow to fund a purchase when we need it and the 2 per cent levy pays that back. It gives us a lot more flexibility.”

This flexibility enabled the purchase of the Catherine Field site only six months after Growth Corp bought 2.3ha in the northwestern suburb of Box Hill, which lies between Rouse Hill and Pitt Town – and where the population is expected to more than double by 2036.

Each of the purchases made by Growth Corp includes extra land that can be subdivided and sold later to fund the church’s construction or the purchase of more land. This strategy, combined with the levy, provides about 90 per cent of the cost of each new land parcel.

The church facilities to be built at Catherine Field will be used by Grace Anglican Churches,

Camden Valley, led by the Rev Jonathan Squire.

He knows it will take some years for a physical church building to be established but is already excited by the opportunities it will provide to serve an area that, over the past 20 years, he has watched transform from paddocks into suburbs.

“The purchase of this land is a wonderful answer to prayer... it will provide a centre for ministry to this new growth area, which has already grown to 50,000 people, with significantly more growth to come,” he says.

“We need to continue to plant and grow churches wherever we can, but the purchase of this brilliantly located land wonderfully provides a stable, long-term centre for ministry for both now and many years to come. We’re very grateful for God’s provision through the fellowship of Anglican churches and the work of ACGC.”

Growth Corp’s updated Greenfields Strategy includes the top 10 areas where it would like to buy land, with the highest priority given to three other sites in Camden Valley parish, three within the parish of Rosemeadow, and one apiece in the parishes of Glenmore Park with Mulgoa, Picton-Wilton and Kingswood.

Mr Jones encourages people to pray for the future ministries at these sites, and to consider their own potential for living and serving in such places.

“Our vision is all about providing excellent ministry and evangelism infrastructure for our parishes,” he says. “We can do that, but they’re all white elephants if people aren’t in those buildings and on those sites looking for ways to share Jesus with the people around them. What parishioners do in sharing the gospel is more important – we just provide a roof over their heads!” SC

Those interested in supporting the continuing work in greenfields areas of the Diocese can give through New Churches for New Communities at https://ncnc.org.au

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