AMID warnings that the Church of England faced an “existential” crisis on several levels — falling clergy numbers, a slump in vocations, and low morale in parishes — the General Synod on Saturday voted against redistributing a portion of the Church Commissioners’ funds.
Church Commissioners present for the debate advised strongly against approving a proposal in an amendment from the Bishop of Bath & Wells, Dr Michael Beasley, to commit one per cent of the Commissioners’ funds to diocesan stipend funds in perpetuity (News, 11 July).
Several speeches were made in defence of the existing method by which the Archbishops’ Council disburses 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 in local expertise, and the “exhausting” demands made by the grant system.
The Synod eventually voted by a large majority for an amendment by the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Pete Wilcox, which calls for a “greater level of stakeholder engagement” in national spending plans.
The original motion, carried over from February, called on the Commissioners to transfer to diocesan stipend funds a sum based on the amount that diocesan boards of finance (DBFs) could have gained had they invested the sums that they had 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 original plan had been “unrealistic”, and he therefore welcomed Dr Beasley’s amendment.
Bishop Jackson spoke of the “parlous state of diocesan finances” that had produced “a cut in the number of stipendiary posts, the amalgamation of parishes, increased clergy stress, reduced morale, and a collapse in vocations; undoable jobs with a commensurate increase in 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 debate under way was about where decision-making power lay when it came to the best way of distributing the Commissioners’ funds. “I urge you to put your faith in the local,” he said. “Do we still have faith in the parish system — or are we going to let it wither on the vine, to be replaced with regional centres and lots of forlorn empty buildings? That is where the current trajectory will take us.”
Bishop Jackson’s plea was echoed by Dr Beasley, who told members: “Let’s not accept more conversation as a substitute for action. It simply lets the same small circle decide and deliver more of the same.”
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, supported him, echoing her colleagues’ concern about the state of parish ministry. “Stress levels are high among clergy,” she said, “some of whom, especially in smaller churches, feel like they are failing, and it is difficult to see how we can 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 resulted in time-limited appointments. “Nine years may seem like a long time, but parish churches have been built on the religious and spiritual capital of centuries, and the Holy Spirit cannot be expected to act within the scope of our pre-determined time scales,” she said.
The Revd Dr Ian Paul (Southwell & Nottingham), a member of the Archbishops’ Council, questioned putting faith in local decision-making. He said: “We could simply release the money, assuming that across the dioceses we would reach the point where we are all equally sharing a passionate and disciplined commitment to mission and growth. The hard truth is that we are not there yet.”
The First Church Estates Commissioner, Alan Smith, warned that a statutory requirement to pay out one per cent of the value 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 lead to “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 rating at risk, he said.
Dr Wilcox agreed that the Church had a “funding crisis” and said that stipendiary clergy — “praying, creative, missionary” — were “the greatest 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 legislation.
His amendment called on the Business Committee to schedule a “full debate that will enable Synod to express its view on the approach to disbursing funding”.
The Synod carried the amended motion by 361-7 with 14 recorded abstentions.