Tuesday 22 April 2008

No Comment.

Please accept my apologies for not bringing this to everyone’s attention earlier, but I’ve just discovered an article on your.sydneyanglicans.net announcing that the Sydney Anglican public health network Hope Healthcare, formally a wholly owned subsidiary of The Anglican Deaconess Institution Sydney Limited, has been sold to Hammond Care - "an independent Christian charity with no official connection with any denomination."

Not stated is how much money changed hands: readers are told "the sale price has not been made public”. Hammond Care CEO Dr Stephen Judd describes the acquisition as “a strategic move for Hammond Care."

Nor does the article mention (as of the time this was posted) that Dr Stephen Judd is also a member of the Sydney Anglican Diocesan Secretariat.

9 comments:

Lapinbizarre said...

Kind of confirms the "power" image I got a couple of weeks back from the group photograph of the Sydney Secretariat, doesn't it? Do all Australian Anglican archdioceses have a "secretariat"? Sounds so Stalinist.

Wormwood's Doxy said...

How conveeeeeeenient! (as the Church Lady liked to say...)

I guess they take to heart that bit about "let not your left hand know what your right hand is doing" (or something like that...)

Doorman-Priest said...

Maybe they'll pay my college fees if I ask nicely.

Alcibiades said...

As certain lawyer (who also happens to be my wife) has advised I be very careful in making and/or responding to any comments here ... ;-)

"Secretariat" is used in a number of Anglican organisations, but , as far as I can tell, only Sydney uses it in Australia. Certainly the only other organisation I know to embrace it with the same awe and esteem was the Soviet Union - particularly under Stalin.

... and further discussion, jokes and speculation must be left until we meet privately - preferably over wine and in a room first checked for bugs ;-)

Anonymous said...

[Jeremy Halcrow said:]

Hi,

I'm not convinced you've got this factually correct.

Stephen Judd was the founder of the 'moderate' Blue Ticket which supported Robert Forsyth against the ACL-backed candidate Peter Jensen at the previous episcopal election.

He was a member of Standing Committee - the key decision making body of Sydney Diocese - at that time but resigned soon after.

The Sydney Diocesan Secretariat (SDS) refers to the bean counters that manage the Diocese's sizable financial assets. To use an analogy - its the Treasury Dept. It is not either of the three policy making bodies:
The annual-meeting Synod or the monthly-meeting Standing Committee (ie Parliament) or the Diocesan Mission Board (ie Cabinet).

In fact, if anything this sale could be argued as the exact opposite - offloading assets to a non-Diocesan entity.

Hammondcare - although founded by an Anglican way back in the Great Depression - is now a non-denominational aged care provider - whose CEO just happens to attend an Anglican church in Sydney.

Hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

[Jeremy Halcrow:]

Mind you the existence of the 'Secretariat' explains why Southern Cross has been known as 'Pravda' for many years.;)

Alcibiades said...

”In fact, if anything this sale could be argued as the exact opposite - offloading assets to a non-Diocesan entity.”

That’s exactly my point, although technically speaking the asset belonged not to the Diocese, but to a private company called "The Anglican Deaconess Institution Sydney Limited" - the directors of which include some very prominent Diocesan names, but whose ownership is something of which I’m unaware (basically I couldn’t find this free on the web, and I can think of more important things to do with $40 than spend it on an ASIC search).

The Hammondcare CEO does more than just attend a Sydney Anglican church: he’s also listed on the SDS site here as a member of the group comprising "the bean counters that manage the Diocese's sizable financial assets"

So which part of the post is “factually not correct”? And when will Southern Cross publish how much these substantial assets were sold for, and reveal by whom and how were due diligence processes undertaken to establish their value?

Anonymous said...

Yes Alci, but SDS has absolutely nothing to do with the matter.. that's my point.. ie I can't see that there is any conflict of interest whatsoever.

It was a sale negotiated between the board of the 'Anglican' ADSL company to the non-denominational charity Hammondcare. Judd is CEO of Hammondcare but has no involvement or influence over the ADSL board.

Both are entirely independent entities from SDS.

Furthermore, the other potential buyer was Anglican Retirement Villages (ARV). So which is more in 'the family'?

On your question - We asked ADSL about the sale price and were told it was 'commercial in confidence'. I have no special access to info that you don't have.

Alcibiades said...

I'm not for a moment suggesting the entities are not entirely independant from SDS. Just that they share some key personnel.

Neither am I suggesting you might know something not told to Mr. & Mrs. Jones-in-the-pew. But I'm not comfortable with the fact that assets accumulated through the generosity and hard work of ordinary Anglicans have been sold without those same ordinary people being told the whole story of what has become of the assets they helped create.

Given their prayers and involvement over many decades it seems to me they deserve a better answer and more details than just "it's commercial in confidence". Somehow that's just not a phrase I can imagine Jesus using.