AMID warnings that the Church of England faces an “existential” crisis on multiple levels — falling clergy numbers, a slump in vocations, and low morale in parishes — the General Synod voted on Saturday against radical measures to redistribute the Church Commissioners’ wealth.
Members of the Commissioners issued stark warnings about the results of approving a proposal moved by the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Dr Michael Beasley, which might have committed one per cent of Commissioners’ funds to diocesan stipend funds in perpetuity (News, 11 July).
In a debate that pitted national interests against the local, several speeches were made in defence of the prevailing method by which the Archbishops’ Council disburse funds through grants. The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, told Synod members that a “no-strings subsidy” would “encourage torpor and disincentivise missional imagination”.
Other members lamented a perceived lack of trust placed in local expertise, and the “exhausting” demands made by the grant system.
The Synod eventually voted by a big majority in favour of an amendment by the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, which called for a “greater level of stakeholder engagement” in national spending plans.
The original motion, carried over from February, called on the Church Commissioners to transfer to diocesan stipend funds a sum based on the quantity that diocesan boards of finance (DBFs) could have gained had they invested the sums that they’ve contributed to clergy pensions since 1998: an estimated £2.6 billion (News, 31 January).
Moving the motion on Saturday morning, the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Revd Richard Jackson, said that the unique plan was “unrealistic” and he due to this fact welcomed the amendment from Dr Beasley.
Bishop Jackson spoke of the “parlous state of diocesan funds” that had produced “a cut in variety of stipendiary posts, the amalgamation of parishes, increased clergy stress, reduced morale, and a collapse in vocations. Undoable jobs with a commensurate increase within the length of vacancies”. He said: “This is an existential threat to the Church of England.”
In a speech echoed by others, he suggested that the controversy underway was about where decision-making power lay when it got here to one of the simplest ways of distributing the Church Commissioners’ fund.
“Is it local decision-makers in parish and dioceses . . . or is the determination higher made by experts within the NCIs . . . often as the results of an exhaustive and exhausting process?” He told Synod members that a small grant of £450,000 for Hereford diocese had required greater than 500 working hours.
“I urge you to place your faith within the local,” he said. “Do we still think about the parish system — or are we going to let it wither on the vine, to get replaced with regional centres and a number of forlorn empty buildings? That is where the present trajectory will take us.”
Bishop Jackson’s plea was echoed by Dr Beasley, who told members: “Let’s not accept more conversation as an alternative choice to motion. It simply lets the identical small circle determine and deliver more of the identical.”
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, supported him, echoing her colleagues’ concern concerning the state of parish ministry. “Stress levels are high amongst clergy,” she said, “a few of whom, especially in smaller churches, feel like they’re failing, and it’s difficult to see how we are able to increase vocations to ordained ministry if people see that we don’t have the funds to pay the stipends.”
Accessing grant money, she said, was “enormously time consuming and comes with restrictions which crucially mean appointments need to be time-limited.
“Nine years may appear to be an extended time, but parish churches have been built on the religious and spiritual capital of centuries, and the Holy Spirit can’t be expected to act throughout the scope of our pre-determined time scales,” she said.
The Revd Dr Ian Paul (Southwell and Nottingham), a member of the Archbishops’ Council, questioned putting faith in local decision-making. He said: “We could simply release the cash, assuming that across the dioceses we’d reach the purpose where we’re all equally sharing a passionate and disciplined commitment to mission and growth. The hard truth is that we aren’t there yet.”
The First Church Estates Commissioner, Alan Smith, warned that a statutory requirement to pay out one per cent of the worth of the Commissioners’ fund in perpetuity would “crowd out” almost every other area of discretionary spending, requiring the ring-fencing of £3.5 billion. This would also result in “sub-optimal asset allocation” necessitating the moving of funds to lower-yield assets with greater liquidity, and lower returns. Such a move could potentially put the Commissioners’ credit standing in danger, he warned.
Dr Wilcox agreed that the Church had a “funding crisis” and said that stipendiary clergy — “praying, creative, missionary” — were “the best asset in revitalising our dioceses”. But, as a Commissioner, he echoed Mr Smith’s warnings, and suggested that the Ecclesiastical Committee in Parliament might reject the laws.
His amendment called on the Business Committee to schedule a “full debate that may enable Synod to specific its view on the approach to disbursing funding”.
Several speeches suggested that parish ministry was becoming, because the Revd Vincent Whitworth (Manchester) put it, “unattainable”.
The Archdeacon of West Cumberland, the Ven. Stewart Fyfe (Carlisle) warned that, since 2015, parish ministry had been “underfunded to a dangerous point”. Clergy jobs in rural areas were unmanageable, he said. “What makes us distinctive because the Church of England is [that] we maintain a Christian presence in every community and that is rarely going to pay for itself, however it is a correct charitable priority for Church Commissioners’ redistribution.”
Canon Kate Massey (Coventry), who, until six weeks ago, was serving alone in a parish of 15,000 in Coventry, found it “bittersweet” to listen to about growth in churches in receipt of huge grants. She had served a “faithful community of believers who’re chasing an ever-receding horizon of cost-of-ministry payments”. Those without resources were “made to feel like they’re failing”, she said.
Others defended the prevailing approach to disbursement.
The Revd Andrew Hargreaves (Portsmouth), a Team Vicar in a bunch of parishes revitalised by a Holy Trinity, Brompton church-plant, said that Strategic Development Funding and Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board funding had made a “profound difference” for these parishes, generating vocations and growing numbers of youngsters and young people. He, and others, suggested that, even were more funding to be made available for stipendiary posts, falling numbers of clergy and vocations forged doubt on whether or not they can be filled. A complete of 660 priests had retired last yr, replaced by only 370 deacons.
Responding to the controversy, Bishop Jackson regretted that so few speeches from the laity had been heard — these were the voices that had been filling up his inbox, he said.
The Synod voted in favour of the amended motion, 361 to seven with 14 recorded abstentions.
