There are some things that you read in the newspaper which make your brain break twice. The following is from the Sydney Morning Herald from about a month ago and I just couldn't let this go.
Hillsong heiress Laura Toggs and Laser Clinics Australia co-founder Kate Champion aren't the only society figures reselling clothes online...
- Sydney Morning Herald, 5th Jun 2022
In the first instance, I was genuinely confused by this statement. The words "Hillsong heiress" were either being used incorrectly because of the ignorance of the writer or perhaps with very exacting precision because the writer did due diligence and checked this fact before they committed it to print.
Perhaps you can see the problem with this statement. Exactly how does one inherit a church? Or perhaps, is Hillsong actually not a church and as such may be inherited? Questions like these have been buzzing around in my head for more than a decade when during my time as a court recorder, the question of what Hillsong is, was being asked by the Australian Taxation Office and rattling through institutions like the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. He we are more than a decade and a half later and this legal question, if not the spiritual question, has dared to be asked yet again.
Before we even get to the answers of these questions, we need to set aside all notions of faith. An old saying that may be instructive is that "God does not have any grandchildren". That is that faith itself is not something that can be inherited since one's conception about the universe is ultimately something which people have to arrive at themselves. The grand delusion or not delusion, the last final deception or undeception, can only properly be ultimately proved once someone has popped off this mortal coil, taken a giant gulp of eternity, and has crossed into the unknown forever. The Destroying Angel, a.k.a. The Grim Reaper, a.k.a. The Ferry Man, a.k.a. Mr Death, has an appointment with everyone and because he hates doing paperwork, he only needs to visit everyone once. I think that after Tim Reaper has paid you a visit, that you do get to see the big G looking at his books. Opinions will vary. If I am wrong, then nothing of consequence happens. God might not play dice as Einstein suggested but I am very much playing dice games with Pascal and betting on the outcome.
Setting all of that aside, what we have here is a corporate question and a legal one.
I suspect that the general consensus is that churches generally are not-for-profit and not subscribed corporations. A local church body is likely to either be part of a federation where the local branch is itself its own body, or a sub-branch of a bigger denominational wide body.
A church is likely to be of the form of corporation sole or something similar, just like the Crown. The Crown is of course the classic example of corporation sole, being founded by constitution and having members (that is the citizens) who vote for the executive of the corporation (the parliament). A local church is likely to vote for and appoint officers such as the Pastor/Reverend, Treasurer, as well as Deacons and Elders.
This in principle is why I am incredibly confused by this article. Granted that Laura Toggs is the daughter of Hillsong church's founder Brian Houston but by calling her an "heiress" that assumes that the corporation structure of Hillsong has shares which can be inherited.
Shares of normal companies, be they proprietary or listed corporations, may be bought and sold like any other pieces of property, even though they are not real. Those shares may or may not have entitlements attached to them, such as the right to vote or the right to receive dividends, or may in fact be specifically excluded from those rights. What I do not understand, as probably most of the attendees to Hillsong also do not understand, is what the nature of the corporate structure is; much less if it has shares that may be bought and sold and inherited.
I am led to a very strange question. In most genuine churches, due to the nature of them being corporation sole, they are not heritable. Quite apart from the statement of fact that it is literally impossible to inherit someone else's faith or buy or sell it, they idea that someone can buy a church, just seems like a logical stupidity to me. Thus, this became a matter of looking through public record.
Details in the registers for both ASIC and ABR indicate that Hillsong Ltd is a Public Company which is limited by Guarantee. Some organisations prefer to use companies limited by guarantee because they are particularly suited for conducting non-profit activities. Specifically:
- they cannot pay dividends
- they cannot issue shares and therefore no person can acquire a controlling interest or profit from a share sale
- each member of the company has a single vote
Immediately we have a contradiction being played out here. Churches generally are corporation sole and can not be bought or sold. In addition to not being able to be bought or sold, title of the single non-subscribed share also can not be traded, transferred, or inherited.
Hillsong however is in fact a corporation, which is limited by Guarantee. That means that it has a Guarantor and some Settled Sum which stands as the opening proprietary capital. Hillsong has shares which may be bought and sold and inherited. As this is a matter of public record, I am even more inclined to ask the question of fact. That is, is Hillsong actually a church, or is it a corporation which operates a record label?
As far the ATO, ASIC and the ABR are concerned, that might be enough to prove that the thing is in fact a church. Legally the corporate structure of Hillsong appears to be some kind of corporation limited by Guarantee; which may or may not be heritable.
You can even sprinkle around some appropriate words like "Jesus" and "Holy" and probably as far most people are concerned, the thing looks like a church. I suspect that people do come to Christ through Hillsong and that it might be a useful tool in God's box of bits, however I am still not necessarily convinced that the thing which has managed to manipulate government policy, which has parachuted people into positions of power, is completely what it says on the tin.
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