The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne expects to pay up to $21 million over the next decade to people sexually abused as children by clergy but it's confident it will be able to honour the redress payments.
Melbourne Archbishop Philip Freier says the diocese's budget will be significantly affected by the cost of redress.
The diocese's redress liability has been estimated at between $12.2 million and $21 million.
Addressing the annual Melbourne synod or parliament on Wednesday night, Archbishop Freier said the Anglican diocese's budget situation was tight.
He said $8 million in initial capital will be set aside for redress with $2.5 million to be added annually over the next five years "to give confidence that redress payments can be honoured".
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"It will be clear to us all that the large amount of redress payments that we expect to make over the next 10 years will have an impact on our budget as well as our operational planning," Archbishop Freier told the synod.
He said the complete shape of the financial plan that will be needed over the next decade was still being developed.
He did not specify if properties would need to be sold to help cover the cost of redress, as is occurring in Anglican Diocese of Tasmania.
Archbishop Freier said the redress scheme set up by the Melbourne diocese for victims of clergy child sexual abuse was receiving positive feedback from survivors and advocacy groups.
"Our scheme, which takes a trauma-informed approach, provides access to care and contact as required by the survivor across their lifetime," he said.
"The national scheme, as it currently operates, has a more limited opportunity for counselling support."
The independent company Kooyoora set up to handle redress, misconduct complaints and professional standards issues for the Melbourne and Bendigo Anglican dioceses has been consulted about 35 redress matters over the past year.
It has settled nine of 12 redress applications, Kooyoora executive director Fiona Boyle told AAP.
Ms Boyle said Kooyoora will continue to offer redress services alongside the federal government's national redress scheme, which began on July 1.
The Anglican Church has agreed to join the national redress scheme but the process of getting its dioceses, schools and agencies on as official participants is continuing.
Archbishop Freier also revealed there has been an increase in complaints of bullying "arising out of parish ministry contexts".
He said there was likely to be a greater emphasis on preventing conflict and disputes in parishes escalating into bullying complaints.
