This suggestion was made yesterday by outspoken real estate agent, social commentator and evangelist Dr Gordon Matthews.
He was commenting on Bishop Dr John Holder's statement on Sunday that wherever possible, the Anglican Church would continue to make plots available for the public from its glebe land.
Matthews said the Bishop's commitment did not go far enough.
"The Anglican Church did not pay a cent for the lands it now controls in Barbados," Matthews said. "The lands were given by the state.
"Bishop Holder should graciously hand them over to the state. If I had the power, I would go to Parliament and compulsorily acquire them at a reasonable price, not at the inflated land prices now existing in Barbados.
"They would keep the churches and the graveyards, the rectories and the vicarages. But they would have not more than 30 000 square feet each for the residences, the rectories and the vicarages. All other lands I would compulsorily acquire at a fair market price."
Noting the Bishop's statement that there was no vast amount of church land available for housing, Matthews called on the church leader to "let us know exactly how much land the Anglican Church controls".
He said he was not diametrically opposedto the Anglican Church but thought it was time Barbadians got a better deal from the institution.
He also urged another religious institution, Codrington College, to put its lands into housing.
The Bishop gave the commitment to making plots available during his charge to the annual Diocesan Synod at St Michael's Cathedral, in Bridgetown.
He said the church had taken the position in an effort to address the demand for housing.
However, he said the property owned by the church was not "vast tracts of land out there that we can distribute to all who need".