John Preston National Stewardship Officer Church of England

1. John PrestonNational Stewardship Officer Church of England

2. Parish Share across the country….. • Contributes £325 million to dioceses… who spend £352 million on clergy stipends, pensions and housing costs. • Across the church was 33% of income, and 34% of expenditure in 2013; and 41% of unrestricted income, and 41% of regular expenditure (i.e excluding ‘capital’ spend on buildings). • Contributions are determined in various ways in different dioceses. • Nationally, 94.5% of parish share requested is contributed.

3. Starting in the wrong place… How can I reduce my parish’s contribution? It just needs to be fair and simple.

4. What is fair?  Every church pays the same  Same contribution per person  According to cost  According to wealth

5. Five theological perspectives • Community is at the heart of mission: God graciously invites his church to participate in his mission and we are ‘fellow workers’ in God’s service (1 Cor 3) • All that we have belongs to God: we are not owners but stewards (creation, parable of the talents). • Mutual support. (2 Cor 8&9) Paul commends the principles of equality and supporting one another. (Applies to individuals and to churches) • Sharing enables multiplication - wealth, possessions time or skills. Feeding of 10,000 followed the sharing of a packed lunch! (John 6:9). • Ministry costs! Paul moves from being self-supporting to being released for full time ministry. (Acts 18)

6. Types of System: Cost based 12 dioceses allocate parish share in proportion to the costs of ministry allocated to a parish, benefice or deanery. Benefits and Weaknesses • simple and transparent. • If no wealth factor, this system has the lowest degree of mutual support. • If no wealth factor, risk of congregationalism as parishes focus on meeting their own costs.

7. Types of System: Offering or Gift 11 dioceses inform deaneries or benefices of the cost of their stipendiary ministry, and invite offerings to meet these costs. Benefits and Weaknesses • Requires Christian maturity. • emphasises at a parish level the generosity and spirit of offering that we seek to nurture in individual giving. • Works best where less mutual support required. • High % of offers contributed, but no control over total level of offers.

8. Types of System: ‘Potential’ based 8 dioceses allocate in proportion to the “potential” ability of donors in a parish to give, combining measures of membership and wealth/incomes. Benefits and Weaknesses • Underlying concept is simple, but formulae can be complex. • This type of system probably generates the largest amount of mutual support. • Can be an issue for large parishes with local staffing if all costs are allocated through this.

9. Types of System: Formula based 5 dioceses allocate according to a formula which may include Parish or investment Incomes, Attendance or Membership levels, and Ministry resource. Benefits and Weaknesses • Seeks to be fair, but can lack transparency. • Often misunderstood. • If allocate to deaneries can be complex if another system then used to allocate to parishes.

10. Types of System: Wealth Adjustment Several approaches to modifying a system to incorporate relative wealth/prosperity: • Church family anonymous income survey. • Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Statistics • Self-assessment • Council tax banding of homes of Electoral Roll members • External data such as Mosaic data from Experian.

11. But the system isn’t the most important thing…. Unity Transparency Accountability