Was driving through Pakenham, a south east suburb of Melbourne (Victoria) Australia and saw a for sale sign on the Pakenham ward building. I had no idea the church rented large buildings. I knew they rented some of the smaller facilities when there wasn't the membership but this ward once met at the stake centre at Narre Warren so I'd assumed that moving a ward called Pakenham into its own suburb/town would have meant they moved to their own permanent ward building.

The advert is at http://gerardcollins.com.au/property/show-property/?listing_id=418703 and while you can't see a sign stating it is an LDS ward I can confirm it is. Looks like the church is paying $180,000 a year rent and it is for sale for $3mil so a yield of 6% plus the church pays outgoings. The church is renting it until May 2021 so no idea what they will do then.

Pakenham is not an affluent town so I can't imagine they'd even bring in that much in tithing to cover rent. No idea why they would have relocated from a rent free location unless too many people were complaining about the 25km trip to the stake centre.

Anyway, just thought it was interesting the church was paying so much for the building

Hmmm...interesting. Definitely does house the Pakenham Ward even though it does not look like your standard LDS cookie cutter type chapel and I too am surprised that the very money focused so called church would pay out such a large sum annually. Looks like it might have been a reception venue at some stage so am wondering if it might not have been owned by some rich church member who rented it out to the church. After all $180,000 a year is only $162,000 after they get back $18,000 in tithing.

Hmm, that looks very similar to a church meeting house used in upstate New York, near Palmyra.

http://www.geneseony.com/business/photos/LatterDaySaints.jpg

This one didn't always feature the steeple. Picture it without the steeple, and they look very much the same. The steeple was an add-on.

Compare that to the Palmyra temple, that's a short distance away.

https://www.lds.org/bc/content/church/temples/palmyra-new-york/images/palmyra-new-york-808x480-0002096.jpg

I spy an LDS hymnal.

Currently leased until 2021? That's planning ahead, I'll give them that much.

Someone needs to turn it into a pub with a large FOSTERS sign on the steeple!

RB

Isn't the Q-15 wise in the use of our resources?