From the Revd Dr W. S. Monkhouse
Sir, — Here is a huge 19th-century church with a 123-foot tower, funded by the Bass family for brewery workers, and, doubtless, to show off. It is now in the midst of a substantially Muslim area. It spends £140 a week more than it brings in and will, the treasurer tells me, be broke in five years. Up to now, it has paid the share in full, but only by raiding reserves.
My advice to the PCC is to cut expenditure, though there is not a great deal that can be cut, and stop paying the full share, so that no more is taken from reserves. To do anything else would hardly be acting in the best interests of the charity, which, as trustees, PCC members are required to do.
Diocesan budgets should be set on the basis of what actually came in last year, not what is hoped for this.
W. S. MONKHOUSE
The Vicarage, Rangemore Street
Burton upon Trent DE14 2ED