Giving and Outreach

Where the money goes

Which of the following statements is true?

  • The Church of England has big portfolios of property and investments and can afford to run its operations on what they yield.
  • Church services are all ultimately funded out of taxes.
  • Most of the money given to the church is swallowed up by its bloated bureaucracy.
  • If you give money to your parish church the local diocese will spend most of it on trendy projects.
  • There’s no need to worry about the financing of your parish church–the shortfall will all be picked up by other churches in the diocese.
  • The Church is always asking for money but what do the clergy do in return apart from preaching sermons?

None of them.

The days when the Church of England drew a vast income from its capital are long gone, along with the clergy who had private incomes and collected butterflies.

The Church gets no State support.

Approximately 50% of the income of St Margaret’s goes to fund the parish share (£35,000 in 2009).

The parish share from all the parishes together accounts for about 73% of the income of the Diocese, the remainder coming from interest from investments, glebe income, and fees from weddings and funerals.

Of the total income of the Diocese, almost four-fifths (80%) is needed to pay for and support the parochial ministry.

This (the four-fifths) is made up of:

55% for the stipends and National Insurance of the clergy of the Diocese
23% for housing and associated benefits
15% for clergy pension contributions
4% for maintenance grants allowed to new clergy being trained
3% as the cost of running the glebe

(to bring in over £2m of income).

The remaining one-fifth of Diocesan income pays for

the expenses of the Bishop and his staff
extensive regular training programmes for both clergy and laity
support and advice to parishes
service to 283 church schools
contributing to the work of the national Church
and some social and outreach work in the three counties of the Diocese

4% of expenditure covers administration.

So the parish share from the churches nearly—but not quite—covers the cost of the parochial ministry of the Diocese.

By 2010 each congregation should be essentially self-financing: in other words, though the money will still be directed via the parish share to a central fund, it will have to match the cost of the clergy deployed. The budget of St Margaret’s has been set to cover our share of clergy costs by then. But of course, this depends on the church’s income, which in turn is determined by the level of giving by members of the congregation.

The paid clergy of St Margaret’s are officially 0.75 of a person (one full-time and one half-time priest shared equally with St Giles’).

Between them they spend about 100 hours per week serving the Benefice (St Giles’ and St Margaret’s together). (This makes an interesting comparison with the 35-hour week many of us take for granted.)

In St Margaret’s parish, that includes

  • planning and conducting the 10 regular services per week and the approximately 20 special services each year
  • visiting the sick
  • counselling
  • working in Phil and Jim School and alongside its governors
  • writing for the parish magazine
  • discharging PCC business
  • planning and leading discussion groups
  • praying for each of us individually
  • writing sermons.

The achievement of St Margaret’s mission depends on our commitment to giving of prayer, time, and money.