Finance
The Finance Team’s key objectives are to support the Trustees in ensuring that annual budgets are set on a break-even basis (subject to maintaining free reserves at a preagreed target level) and to keep increases in Parish Share to a minimum so that funds can be spent on local mission activity.
The broad strategy for achieving these objectives is to maintain the sound financial structure needed to enable the continued support of clergy through the payment of stipends, managing parsonages and ministerial housing, and by providing other facilities and resources in support of the ministry of both clergy and lay people in parishes across the diocese.
The challenge to your parish
With the credit crunch hitting every community, your church will face difficult decisions over the next two years. There are still bills to pay: making sure the church is warm, that worship and outreach are resourced.
There is also the need to continue to offer mutual support: sharing riches with poorer parishes and paying for the costs of clergy and ministry through the Parish Share system.
Church House is working hard to reduce costs, to secure more grants for the diocese, and making sure our investments produce as much money as possible, to subsidise parishes even more.
You need to appeal
Other charities will be appealing to their donors to keep supporting them financially during the economic difficulties. Your church needs to do the same before the summer.
Church House staff have produced resources to help communicate the need. These resources are designed to complement parish initiatives.
Remember
73% of church members do not object to finance being mentioned in church services, so we can deal with this subject as a spiritual issue.
The approach
We will communicate diocesan finance as having three pillars, each working to support and fund a whole range of items for parishes and the diocese, now and for the future.
The pillars are:
1. Church Finances
- Supporting local expenditure
- Encouraging people to continue to support their local church.
- Costs of supporting ALL clergy (not just stipendiary)
- Parish Share (mechanism to deliver mutual support)
- Support from Church House officers.
- The role of Church House in managing investments and grants which subside each congregation by over £12,000 a year.
This section of the website contains information and Resources to help you communicate the three pillars effectively.
