THE diocese of Manchester has been awarded £9.9 million by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) for the next four years, for a plan that includes the establishment of new worshipping communities and six new resource churches “representing a range of traditions”.
The diocese said that a “commitment to parish renewal” lay at the heart of its strategy, “providing specialist, practical help to ensure the missional and financial sustainability of our parishes”.
Funding will be used to establish new worshipping communities, to provide additional children’s and youth workers, and to support lay and ordained leaders to “grow in confidence and develop their skills in ministry with children and young people”.
The SMMIB funding will also be allocated to the Antioch Network, set up to plant smaller churches in deprived parts of the diocese under the Church of England’s first diocese-wide Bishop’s Mission Order (News, 14 December 2018). A new clergy lead for the network, the Revd Greg Sharples, Vicar of Widnes, was announced last month.
The 2024 diocesan annual report, published last year, sets out the challenges facing the diocese, in which only one per cent of the population attend a Church of England church — a figure that falls to 0.7 per cent in the most deprived parishes. More than half of the churches have an average adult weekly attendance of fewer than 35. The diocese is “completely focused on reversing this decline”, it says.
Since 2017, its Transformation Programme — including a move from 20 to seven deaneries, each led by a full-time area dean, and the establishment of 33 “mission communities” — has been backed by more than £20 million from the Church Commissioners. Last October, the diocesan synod agreed a 2026 budget with a projected deficit of £1.2 million — down from £2.1 million for 2025, owing mainly to additional financial support from the national Church. A reduction of the stipendiary clergy from 201 to 175 was complete by the end of 2022.
Last month, the Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, said that the SMMIB grant “gives us the means to strengthen our parishes, nurture young disciples, and grow new Christian communities. My hope is that together we will make our churches places of welcome, growth, and transformation — signs of God’s love at the heart of every community.”