MMF - a Fact Sheet. Key questions to ask

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MMF (Mission and Ministry Fund) - a headache for many PCCs. Meetings are currently underway in the Diocese of Truro discussing MMF payments for 2025.  We've had many questions from around Cornwall about this, so have compiled a Fact Sheet. Click here to download the Fact Sheet.  Please circulate widely.

In passing - and separately - please be aware that the Diocese is launching a consultation on revising the MMF formula from 2026. This does not impinge on your discussions around your current call.

Read on for a transcript of the Fact Sheet:

MISSION AND MINISTRY FUND (MMF): KEY QUESTIONS TO ASK

 

There is no legal or contractual obligation for Parochial Church Councils (PCCs) to pay MMF contributions. This payment is discretionary. PCCs have the right to withhold it.  We are not suggesting that PCCs do withhold MMF payments. But PCCs should ask pertinent questions and insist on detailed answers – particularly if the call for MMF is rising.

A PCC is a charitable trust. Legally the PCC members are charitable trustees and therefore they have a legal duty/obligation to do what is in the best interests purely of that trust – particularly regarding financial matters.

The purpose of MMF is to refund costs incurred by Church House that cannot be covered by income - particularly for clergy stipends and clergy housing.  It is not to bankroll a pet diocesan project, or to do anything that does not directly affect or benefit your PCC.  

Dioceses across England now employ so many people that, on average, there is one administrator to every three and a half priests. In extreme cases such as Truro, there are as many as 39 diocesan officers to 41 clerics. Truro Diocese is extremely top heavy – more so than most of the country.  Click here to read a list of the Church House team.

Yet sadly, very many of our churches now have no dedicated vicar. As we know, benefices have team ministries and lay ministers take many services. But there are still demands for increased MMF contributions, which add considerably to PCCs’ burdens. If your MMF is increasing, you must ask why.

1. If you have no incumbent vicar

QUESTION: Where specifically is this money going? The diocese used to say that MMF was to pay for your priest. But it’s highly likely you’ve only got part of one now.

Church House says that allocation of the call will be by deanery.  You need to ask:  how has the call been subdivided within the deanery into benefices, and from there into parishes?  By what criteria?

Specifically for your church: how exactly was it decided what your MMF share should be? This figure will have been divided up in the benefice and agreed with each PCC treasurer and the benefice clergy.  Ask for the calculations: you have the right to know.  

If you have no vicar will there be no call?  Or will parishes still be expected to pay the ‘shared costs’?  You can – and should - ask for more information.


2.If you have a vicar/priest in charge

QUESTION: What precisely is the PCC paying for? Could the detailed costs of stipendiary clergy AND other types of ministry that it covers please be disclosed?

It is highly unlikely all of your MMF call will be spent on ministry-associated costs. A significant amount will be going to Church House overheads and projects - how much? Are you getting value for your PCC?

Why have new ‘shared costs’ increased so much compared to the old ‘benefice charge’?  e.g. Kerrier up from £15,228 to £25,873 (70% increase).  What extra/new support is being provided?

3. If you used to have a vicar/priest in charge of your church/cluster and now are part of a larger benefice with only an oversight minister

QUESTION: If you have much less dedicated priest time (e.g. if you were previously part of a cluster of four churches with one minister and are now part of a benefice of 12-20 churches with one oversight minister) why are you not paying significantly less MMF?

 

4. If the MMF request has gone up:

QUESTION: Why? Could we please have financial detail to explain this?  How does what is happening to our MMF call compared to neighbouring PCCs and benefices? Ask whether you are paying for other central costs besides ministry (e.g. clergy training or 'mission’ projects that don’t directly affect your PCC).

Information is always king. Insist on financial and background detail – detail that affects your church and your parish – not just figures at deanery level.  How this information be made available and who will do this?

 N.B. If you are in an interregnum, the MMF call should be lower.


5. If the MMF request has gone down

QUESTION: Why?  Has Church House withdrawn services or support that your PCC has relied on, whether you knew it or not?

 

 

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