Sydney Anglican officials are seeking to clarify if restrictions on alcohol will prevent drinks being consumed on church property.
The Diocese has launched a formal review in response to a report from a six-member legal committee set up to investigate the matter, which said the Church's policy on alcohol is unclear.
Anecdotal evidence points to an increase in churches wanting to serve alcohol for "good ministry reasons' such as evangelistic dinners and pre-evangelistic beer and wine-tasting nights, says Philip Gerber, Director of Sydney Diocese's Professional Standards Unit and a member of the committee.
"People want to have [alcohol] at things," Mr Gerber says.
"I think many, many parishes are struggling with it " it's a great issue to be discussing and a real issue for the community."
He believes moral concerns as well as the legal issues need to be tackled to strike a balance between the "weaker brother' and "Christian freedom' arguments.
"There's clearly no biblical mandate that you can't drink alcohol," he says.
"The most important thing is to work out what our default position is…on what churches can and cannot do. We're trying to figure out the right way forward."
The current diocesan ruling restricts the sale or consumption of alcohol on Church Trust property except where alcohol is sold and consumed on premises with food.
The committee noted that it is not clear if this applies in a limited way or more generally to all Church Trust property, such as commercial buildings, schools, retirement villages and rectories.
The diocesan Standing Committee has requested the Property Trust and the Glebe Administration Board to advise the committee "as to any problems experienced with or arising from the inclusion of the various "social' covenants in leases, including any difficulty experienced with enforcement'.
The committee also requested the Social Issues Executive, based at Moore College, to review the various forms of "social' covenants used by the Property Trust and the Glebe Board in leases.
"Legally, there are problems and I think they're virtually insurmountable if we want to enforce a no alcohol policy," Mr Gerber says.
A debate will be held at a future meeting of the Standing Committee to discuss the matters arising from the report and the advice of the different bodies.
The Bishop of North Sydney Dr Glenn Davies and the Rev Neil Flower, rector of Thornleigh-Pennant Hills first raised the issue at the Standing Committee in 2004..
