Church of England finances: a 'shocking imbalance between parishes and "Head Office"'

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 Save The Parish's steering committee member Admiral Sir James Burnell-Nugent writes:

You may find it helpful to know that we have just published Church of England financial data updated for 2023 on the Save The Parish website.  This is the most recent financial data that has become available through the annual publishing of accounts.  Our methodology has been shared with and is supported by the central Church of England finance staff.
 

The Finances of the Church of England as a whole  


 The accounts reveal a shocking imbalance between Parishes and ‘Head Office’.
  • The Parishes have very few assets but, mainly thanks to parishioners’ generosity, they pull in a colossal annual income of £1bn
  • The Parishes paid £315m (in 2023) to their Dioceses through the Parish Share scheme
  • The Dioceses spent £348m on parish ministry (also 2023) and £47m on clergy pension contributions, making £395m in total.
  • The difference between parish share ‘income’ and parish ministry expenditure (£315m-£395m) is £80m (2022 was similar at £84m).  Dividing that into the £574m Head Office investment income, it represents 14%. This tells us that only 14% of Head Office investment income goes directly to parishes; 86% goes elsewhere!
  • Moreover, large amounts of ‘diocese’ investment income come from glebe land, which was originally donated to parishes, but transferred to dioceses for administrative reasons in the 1970s.   So it should be managed by them to produce the best outcome for parishes.
You can read more about the overall finances of the Church of England here.  There is a diagram shown below, which you can download, showing how money flows inefficiently and ineffectively around the Church of England, with most of the money flowing down to parishes originating from parishes in the first place.

 

Finances by Diocese


You can learn more about your own diocese’s finances here.   On that web page you will find a link to download a spreadsheet which summarises every set of diocesan accounts for 2023.  Each diocese presents its accounts in a slightly different way but STP has drawn up the figures so you can make comparisons between dioceses and see the trends in each diocese since 2019.

Over the last 2 years there has been a decrease of 3% in overall Church of England expenditure on ‘Parish Ministry’ and a 2% increase in ‘Diocesan Support, Training & Admin.’  So parish support is down and overheads are up.  The imbalance between Parishes and ‘Head Office’ continues to get worse year by year.  In our Planet Normal podcast we highlight this difference between the ‘downstairs church’ and the ‘upstairs church’.  You can see what is happening under those headings in your own diocese.
 

Diocesan Stipends Funds


We have posted the 2023 information diocese by diocese on Diocesan Stipends Funds (DSF) here.  Diocesan Stipends Funds were established in every diocese in 1949.  The purposes for which DSF could be used were further defined under the Diocesan Stipends Fund Measure 1953; this measure states that income from DSF can only be used to ‘pay clergy stipends, national insurance, pension contributions and repair and maintenance of clergy houses’.  Until 1976 many incumbents received income from parish glebe assets which belonged to the incumbent for as long as they were in post.  Inevitably some parishes were much wealthier than others in respect of glebe so it was decided that by the Endowment and Glebe Measure 1976 all glebe assets would be transferred into the care and management of the dioceses as endowment funds within the DSF, the intention being that the income could be spread equitably amongst the clergy.  DSF then became the responsibility of Diocesan Boards of Finance (DBFs) rather than the Church Commissioners.  DSF is by far the largest endowment held by most dioceses and should be an important source of funds – restricted funds - for paying parish clergy stipends.  Many dioceses are underperforming in their management of these funds, which total some £1.6 billion.
 
I hope you find this information valuable.  We are very grateful to our Financial Scrutiny Team for all their hard work in analysing diocesan accounts.  All this information is in the public domain, so please feel free to deploy it in your conversations with your Deanery, Archdeacon, Bishop’s staff or the Bishops themselves.

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