How your church is funded
The Church of England provides a Christian presence in every community across the country. The Diocese of York provides pastoral care for and Christian witness to approximately 1.4 million people through 602 churches in 469 parishes, and 128 Church of England Schools. Providing this care costs a great deal of money, both in terms of supporting parish ministry and providing central resources for churches.
A Diocese is like a ‘county’ in the Church of England. Organising the work of the church is done at Diocesan level – not by the national church, or by individual churches. And part of this organising process involves collecting money, and ensuring all parishes in the Diocese get the money they need.
Income
The Diocese recognises that not every church can afford to provide all the money to support its own ministry. Instead, we follow the example of the early church and have a Common Purse (Acts 4:32). When you give money to your church, roughly 30% of that money stays in your parish, and 70% is sent to the Diocese – this is known as the Parish Share, and it makes up the Common Fund. The Diocese adds money to the Common Fund from investments, fees and other income from external sources; and the Church Commissioners (based in London) also add money to this pot. At the moment, the Diocese is not getting enough money into the Common Fund – our outgoings are exceeding our income – so we have been operating on a deficit, by using up reserves.
Expenses
So where does this money go? By far the largest slice goes to pay the clergy. All in all 88% of the Diocesan budget is spent on people. So, the money in the Common Fund goes back out to parishes, supporting the work that each church does in it’s own community. Most of this money goes in paying for the ministry of clergy: providing for their stipend (salary), pensions, National Insurance, their housing, training new clergy, and ongoing training. The Diocese also provides support to the clergy, churchwardens, PCCs, readers, youth workers and many more people, with support on finances, looking after church buildings and churchyards, legal matters, dealing with the press, Child Protection, and our work in schools. The people who do this work are mainly based in Diocesan House, York, and they help all parishes, churches and schools across the Diocese.
The Diocesan Common Fund does not pay for the stipends, housing, staff or working costs of the Archbishop and Suffragan Bishops, or of the clergy at York Minster.
Supporting each other
The money that goes into the Common Fund is spread out across the Diocese. Different areas in the Diocese have differing levels of prosperity, and we take this into account when the Parish Share is calculated. It may be that you belong to a parish in a more prosperous area, which contributes more than parishes in less prosperous areas of the Diocese. In that case, some of your money is going to support the mission of the Church in these less prosperous areas. And if you’re in one of these less prosperous areas, people from more prosperous areas in the Diocese may support your ministry and work.
As you can see, the Parish Share is important not only to the running of ministry in your own parish, but to the work of Christians throughout our area, our Diocese. The Diocese works as a family in this way, supporting each other. And it’s vital that we don’t just do this through the money that we give, but also by supporting the members of our Diocesan family through prayer.
