THE number of standard givers within the Church of England has fallen since 2013 by 30 per cent — 172,000 — statistics published by Church House, Westminster, show.
The figures, in Parish Finance Statistics 2022, published last month, were gathered through the annual Return of Parish Finance. For the second yr, parishes’ income grew modestly, after the sharp downturn of 2020. This was “eroded by the results of inflation”, nonetheless, the statistical researcher, the Revd Dr Alan Piggott, reports.
Income from giving, fund-raising, and trading was not enough to maintain pace with inflation or recoup the losses of 2020 (during which parishes’ income fell by 15 per cent). Parishes’ real-terms income fell by 14 per cent between 2019 and 2022. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 5.4 per cent within the 12 months to December 2021.
In total, there have been 401,000 regular givers in 2021. Statistics for Mission records that, in the identical yr, total adult average weekly attendance was 567,000.
The average weekly amount from regular givers has risen annually in recent a long time; but, in 2022, for the primary time, this amount decreased in real terms: to £16.20, from £16.80 in 2021. In total, giving income was 13 per cent lower in real terms than in 2019. Fund-raising income was 31 per cent lower, and trading income was 21 per cent lower. But, in 2022, there was a £10-million rise in collections taken, at services as churches continued to open more after the pandemic.
Since 2011, parish income has exceeded expenditure (by 3.5 per cent in 2022). The total income of parishes was £1055 million, and the full expenditure was £1019 million. The largest source of income was parish giving: £586 million. The highest costs were mission and ministry.
In 2022, expenditure fell in real terms and was lower than in any of the previous 20 years: 15 per cent lower than in 2019. Diocesan parish-share contributions were 17 per cent down on pre-pandemic levels in real terms (although the 2021 downturn in contributions was reversed), falling from £383 million to £318 million. Expenditure on salaries and wages rose over the identical period by 19 per cent to £137 million. Expenditure on buildings was 25 per cent lower than 2019 levels, in real terms.
The report highlights the gulf between the richest and poorest parishes. In 2022, the ten per cent of parishes with the smallest income had a median income of £6200. For the ten per cent of parishes with the best income, it was £296,000. The median income for all 12,215 parishes was £42,200, compared with £45,800 in 2019. More than half of the ten per cent of parishes with the bottom income were in deficit (of 14 per cent).
Variation also exists across the dioceses. Dividing parishes’ total income by the full number of individuals of their worshipping communities gave a national average figure of £1090 for every person. The figure for individual dioceses, nonetheless, varied from lower than £750 to greater than £1500 for every person.
Income in some dioceses increased between 2021 and 2022 — by greater than 20 per cent within the dioceses of Chelmsford, Norwich, and Truro. In Sodor & Man, it fell by 45 per cent (the discrepancy is explained by the proven fact that, in 2021/22, one parish had a £1 million legacy recorded as income, and a few parishes didn’t submit their data on time and a few by no means). Parish share that was paid varied from a 7.8-per-cent decrease within the diocese of Canterbury to a 7.3-per-cent increase within the diocese of Lincoln (which had one in all the bottom totals in 2021).
This week, the Lincoln Diocesan Secretary, Canon David Dadswell, reported a “year-on-year increase” because the pandemic in “the boldness and capability of parishes to honour what we call covenant pledges”. This scheme “flips the thought of the parish share on its head”, he said, and was “more realistic and achievable” for churches, which were “now making manageable and informed decisions about their contributions”.
He linked the success of the initiative to the diocesan strategy, “Time to Change Together”, which “grounds us in a shared commitment to provide generously and respond faithfully to one another’s needs across the entire diocese” (Features, 18 March 2022).
Around the Church, the number of standard givers fell by 4.1 per cent. But this varied between dioceses. The number fell by greater than eight per cent within the dioceses of Birmingham, Carlisle, and Sheffield. In Sheffield, total regular giving fell by 15 per cent. The next highest fall in giving was in Manchester (down five per cent). A spokesperson for Sheffield said: “We must take a while to review this information and understand the local trends and aspects which might be at play.”
In two large dioceses — Chelmsford and Chichester — the autumn within the number of standard givers varied significantly: there was a decline of 6.6 per cent in the previous, but just 1.2 per cent within the latter.
At the tip of 2021, parishes’ aggregated money and investment balances — excluding funds held as everlasting endowments — were estimated at about £1.6 billion.
Parish funds affect diocesan funds, because parish share is a big component of dioceses’ income. Addressing the General Synod last yr, the outgoing chair of the Archbishops’ Council’s Finance Committee, John Spence, said that the mixture deficit of dioceses in 2019 was £19 million; but, within the 4 years 2024-27, with flat parish share and without sustainability funding, this was set to be £200 million (News, 14 July 2023). The number of standard givers fell by 15 per cent between 2019 and 2021.
Across dioceses, the share of worshippers who were regular givers varied between 30 and 64 per cent, while the extent of giving ranged from £8 to £26 per week, with no correlation with deprivation.
The Church Commissioners have invested £7.5 million in a national giving strategy, during which much of the funding has been used to assist dioceses to employ giving advisers. On Tuesday, the C of E’s National Adviser on Giving and Income Generation, Jonathan de Bernhardt Wood, spoke of the complexity of things behind the range of levels of giving.
Factors included the commitment of episcopal leadership, the extent to which giving was taught as a type of discipleship, the employment of giving advisers, and using types of giving which could be higher able to face up to the shock of the pandemic, equivalent to the Parish Giving Scheme. The latter scheme has grown exponentially since 2014: from 7244 people, giving £5.3 million, to 80,000 people, giving £78 million (News, 1 December 2023). In addition, several thousand churches now had contactless units, Mr de Bernhardt Wood said, which generated income far in excess of projected amounts.
Communicating to parishioners the impact of their giving was a vital a part of the reply, he said, and “ensuring that individuals fully understand that local ministry is funded by local people”.
Most Anglicans aren’t giving the five per cent of net income really helpful by the national Church. A 2020 survey of 2000 Anglicans attending church a minimum of once a month found that one third didn’t give to their church in any respect, and that only 27 per cent viewed their church’s needs as “very essential” (Features, 17 September 2021). Mr de Bernhardt Wood suggested this week that the pandemic had shifted attitudes, by way of understanding churches’ needs.
Some have argued that reducing the variety of stipendiary priests in post leads to a decline in giving. A 2012 review of the diocese of Lincoln — where giving was among the many lowest within the Church of England — suggested that this was because the availability of stipendiary clergy and support for parishes had “declined so significantly that they see no point in giving more” (28 September 2012).
