Since becoming Rural Dean, I've been approached by many members of Chelmsford South churches who want to talk about the way parish share is levied. Sometimes they say that we are wasting time talking about vision when we should be finding the right way to apportion the parish share. My answer is always that parish share is a vision thing.
As far as I know, there are two basic means by which parish shares are levied: on the basis of average attendance and on the basis of the cost of a parish's ministry. Let's call these the "attendance model" and the "ministry cost" model.
The Ministry Cost model
A parish with 1 stipendiary clergyperson pays around £35 000 for her/him, plus something towards diocesan and area team costs; parishes with two stipendiary clergy pay double this, those with "half a priest" pay £17 500, etc.
This is the system used in London and Europe Dioceses, and by most free churches.
Compared to our present system, this would be financially advantageous for parishes like West Hanningfield without stipendiary clergy, and parishes like Great Baddow with relatively few stipendiary clergy (less than about 1:85) per average weekly attender.
The Attendance model
A parish pays around £650 per average weekly attender per year, adjusted for the affluence of the area.
This is the system used in Southwark Diocese.
Compared to our present system, this would be financially advantageous for parishes like South Woodham Ferrars with relatively few average weekly attenders (less than around 85) per clergyperson.
We in Chelmsford South, on the other hand,
presently use a formula about halfway between these two models, with each parish paying 50% of its ministry costs plus a pooled amount depending on average attendance, adjusted for the affluence of the area. The formula was agreed by the deanery in 2003, and Harry, our Deanery Treasurer, is entirely impartial in the way he applies it to the present situation.
In 2008, we will revisit this subject, and deal with it as a vision issue. For example, if our vision is accepted by synod next week, it says that one of our values is "a longing for more disciples for Jesus" - I would expect proponents of the ministry cost model to argue that the attendance model penalises churches for gathering more disciples! (A sizeable number of large Southwark churches refuse to pay their parish share because it constitutes, in their view, a "tax on church growth"). At the same time, I would expect proponents of the attendance model to argue that another of our values is "working together across parish boundaries", and that therefore churches with high attendance should be expected financially to help out churches with low attendance. Either way, it's a vision thing, and we need to make the decision based on our common vision; then we can ask Harry and our hardworking Treasurers to come up with a formula that will work in practice!
The following comments have already been made below - please add to them when your PCC has discussed this issue!
1. It may perhaps be true to say that the role of Christian leadership is to prepare God's people for works of service (Ephesians 4). But realistically the role of deaneries is to manage meagre resources of finance and personnel, persuading the parishes to give more and more and receive less and less. Facing up to this issue and being honest about having to close or amalgamate parishes in the near future would be much more effective than debates on women as bishops or gay divorcees as clergy.
2. I just wanted to say how refreshing I find this kind of simple, visionary document. It has a capacity to inspire and my vote is for not only adopting it but living it out in every aspect of our discipleship.
3. Comment 1, I'm sure you aren't saying that Ephesians 4 has no relevance at deanery level, but I do agree completely that we need to be honest about the issues that face us on the ground.
4. In that case, why is the next synod debating women in the episcopate, a subject that neither relates to the "vision" nor has anything to do with the local realities in the parishes of the area? Sorry - I'm a grumpy old man.
5. Am I alone in noting that this statement makes no mention of inclusion or creation care? At a time when these issues are highly controversial in Anglicanism worldwide, the draft mission statement above seems to me to be unbalanced in its individualism and "evangelical" feel. This deanery has not been explicitly evangelical in the last few years, and I would hate it to become so under new leadership.
6. First line of values should read
"affirmation of God's delight in, and love for, all creation" -
otherwise the preposition is wrong.
I'm a paid-up pedant. Other than that, I'm very supportive of this statement (as long as it gets acted on).
7. Roger (comment 5) would hate the deanery to become uniformly evangelical, and others would hate it to become uniformly any one other thing. But the problem with the whole concept of a deanery vision statement is that it pushes the deanery towards uniformity, unless of course that statement is so broad as to be meaningless. Perhaps we ought instead to recognise the variety within the deanery of visions for the church, and agree to respect one another's visions.
(ordinary member of Meadgate, Great Baddow)
8. (Andy) Thank you all for your comments so far - I hope there'll be plenty more.
Roger and Peter, I promise you that I have absolutely no interest in making the deanery uniformly anything at all, and the vision really did flow naturally from the parish submissions from churches of all ecclesiatical bents. Yes, we should certainly respect each church's vision and not try to "push" one another.
On the other hand, the entity called "Chelmsford South deanery" does, for better or worse, exist. It's part of the decision-making structures of the Church of England, it has responsibilities for oversight, and it is expected to use its influence. I for one am the sort of person who needs to be clear about why am doing what I'm doing, and needs to be inspired by a sense that God is calling me to something beyond my natural inclinations - for me, the draft deanery vision provides exactly that sort of clarity and inspiration.
One example: synods for next year. Of course, Christine and I and the standing committee could just invite a random set of speakers and have a random selection of debates. But if this vision is adopted, we will be accountable to make sure that synods deal with how to equip every member to serve their local community and how to equip every member to tell of God's love, with a balance between these two aims and with nothing that does not contribute to them.
Another example: levying the parish share. I'm determined that this needs to be a "vision thing"; we have hundreds of thousands to collect, and we need to do it fairly and in line with our purposes as a deanery.
What do others think?
9. (Andy) Roger, your point above was taken into consideration by the subcommittee, and we have added a new line to the "values" section accordingly - we hope you like the new version more than you did the old one!
Every PCC in the deanery has been asked to discuss the admission of women to the episcopate. Civil comments on this topic can be added here.
CAM reports that "the Chelmsford Diocesan Synod decided on Saturday 10th November not to vote on a motion from Braintree Deanery urging the bishops to uphold Lambeth Resolution 1.10 (a statement which speaks in favour of listening to the experience of those with same-sex attraction, but against accepting same-sex relatationships as compatible with Christian discipleship).
A procedural motion to move on without voting was passed by 65 votes to 60 on a second count.
The same Synod saw a number of questions put to Bishop John Gladwin about his patronage of the campaign group Changing Attitude, and the effect this was having on the Diocese."
Statistics from the Church of England reveal that the average weekly giving by parishioners in 2005 increased to £5.08, and more clergy are being trained and ordained now compared with 10 years ago.
According to Church Statistics 2005/6, which this year is only available on the web, direct giving to parish churches averaged £5.08 per electoral roll member per week and tax-efficient giving increased to an average of £8.26 per subscriber per week. The number of parishioners subscribing to tax-efficient regular giving through Gift Aid rose to a further record of 523,200.
“Achieving £5 a week was quite a milestone and the latest figures show a further increase of 4% in total tax-efficient giving,” said John Preston, the Church’s National Stewardship and Resources Officer.
“Church members continue to give generously to charitable causes compared with the population at large. Average giving to the church is around 3% of average incomes, still somewhere short of the 5% of disposable income recommended by the General Synod since 1978.
“The 5% aim was based on the Christian tradition of tithing or giving away 10% of income and the recommendation was to give half of that to the Church in thanks for God's gifts and half to other charitable works.”
The total income of Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) in 2005, the figures show, rose to £792 million. Total expenditure rose to £779 million, of which more than £50 million was devoted to charitable giving by the PCCs to other charities and mission organisations, 8% of their recurring expenditure of £568 million.
The statistics also show increases in the number of clergy being trained and numbers being ordained. The Church recommended 594 future clergy for ordination training in 2005, the greatest number for more than a decade and maintaining the upward trend since the mid-90s. In 1994, 408 candidates were recommended for training.
The Church ordained 478 new clergy in 2006, a drop on the 505 ordained in 2005, the highest number since 2002, but more than the 469 in 2004.
Overall, more women (244) than men (234) were ordained in 2006, though the majority of these were ordained to non-stipendiary ministry. Of those ordained to full-time stipendiary ministry, 128 were men and 95 were women.
At the end of 2006, there were 20,354 ministers licensed by Church of England dioceses, including clergy, readers and Church Army officers: one minister for every 2,500 people in England.
“The nation continues to enjoy the spiritual ministry of an increasing variety of Church of England ministers, many of whom contribute to the health of their local community in a voluntary capacity,” observed Revd Lynda Barley, Head of Research and Statistics.
The total does not include some 1,600 chaplains to prisons, hospitals, the armed forces and in education, nor around 6,600 retired ministers with permission to officiate.
Attendance figures for 2005 were provisionally issued in January and have not changed. Regular Sunday attendance fell by 2%, while weekly and monthly attendance fell by 1% or less. This follows two years in which the numbers increased or held steady.
Meanwhile, Christmas Eve/Christmas Day attendance increased by 6%, the number of children and young people attending at least monthly increased by 1% and more than half the parishes reported running or planning a ‘fresh expression of church’.
The new statistics confirm that around 1.7 million people attend Church of England church and cathedral worship each month, while around 1.2 million attend services each week – on Sunday or during the week - and just under one million each Sunday.
The Rev Keith Magee has agreed to be Chapter Clerk for the deanery - this task primarily involves arranging dates, venues, formats and (where appropriate) speakers for the Chapter, a regular gathering of clergy from the deanery.
Our quiet day this year will be led by the Revds Charlie and Ann Kosla, and take place at Pleshey on Tuesday December 11. For more details talk to Andy.
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