Understanding Parish Share
In the last issue of the Newsletter, Peter Lea answered questions about money. Now, Richard Tarran, the Diocesan Secretary, looks at the Parish Share.
Q. What is “Parish Share”?
Parish Share is a way of raising money, to finance the expenses of running the diocese.
Next year, Monmouth Diocese needs to find £3.4m, (83% of which will be used to finance stipendiary clergy and housing) and of this, £2.3m will come from the parishes paying Parish Share, £1m from the Representative Body of the Church in Wales, and the residue from other sources.
Q. So how is the money used?
Parish Share and the R.B.’s grant are pooled.
The breakdown of how each £ is spent looks like this:
Stipends and Pensions 68p
Housing 15p
Other clergy costs 5p
adding up to 88p
Grants and Parish Support 7p
Admin costs 5p
Q. How is the amount which each parish has to pay worked out?
The starting point is the number of church attenders aged over 18 as recorded in the Parish Register although festivals and ‘one-off’ services should be discounted. An average over the last three years provides aSa (average Sunday attendance) and this is the basis for calculating Parish Share.
An ability to pay is then considered, with all parishes banded into one of four categories, A – D. Categories are assessed by looking at church income, regular church outgoings and where the parish lies in the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation.
A ‘per capita’ payment is calculated and next year, the bands, with their respective payments are:
Band A £465.06 per head
Band B £429.26 per head
Band C £393.47 per head
Band D £357.69 per head
So, a parish in Band C with an average of 30 regular worshippers in the past three years will be asked to pay £11,804 (30 x £393.47).
Q. Parish Share seems to be going up in leaps and bounds – Why?
Next year’s total of £2.3m is an increase of 5% on this year’s total, a percentage increase which it is hoped to hold for the next 4 – 5 years. Individual increases for parishes will vary because no two parishes are the same and some parishes, partly because of rebanding, or perhaps because of some growth may see increases in excess of 5%. Both this year and last year, no parish has had to pay an increase of more than 10%, necessitating a diocesan subsidy of £125,000. Next year that ceiling will be raised to 20%, requiring a further subsidy of £50,000 from the Board of Finance.
Additionally, next year, stipends will rise by just under 5% and the ministry subsidy from the R.B. vanishes altogether.
Q. Is this way of raising money from parishes the most equitable?
Only a year ago, we looked at whether the current method should be changed. Recognising that it was impossible to find a perfect system (no two dioceses in either England or Wales have an identical system), the group recommended that the present system was ‘fit for purpose’. That shouldn’t preclude a review from time to time, particularly if circumstances change within the diocese.
Q. If we have an unpaid vicar (NSM), shouldn’t we pay less (or nothing)?
One of the principles of Anglicanism is to ensure that all parishes benefit from ministerial cover, provided by the diocese. During a vacancy, clergy are usually found to take Eucharistic services and all parishes benefit from the structure which provides support for all parishes in varying forms. It is my experience that most, if not all our NSM’s, put in just as many hours as their stipendiary counterparts and the benefit to the parish is immense.
Q. Doesn’t the present system penalise growing parishes?
For two reasons - no. Firstly, the averaging of congregation sizes over three years works in favour of a growing church and secondly, the ceiling on increases which I have referred to also benefits a growing church. If all our churches were growing, I suspect our problem would be wondering what to do with the upturn in income, not whether we can pay Parish Share!
Q. With an elderly congregation, we are now struggling to pay our Parish Share. Is any help available?
I hear this more often and wish that there was a magic wand. I am amazed and encouraged by nearly all our parishes paying their Parish Share on time and it is also good news to see from the Parish Accounts that parish reserves are in a very healthy state (over £7.5m across the diocese). Any parish encountering severe difficulties should contact me to see what help might be available.