Diocesan Synod votes to introduce Parish Share Option 2

First published on: 12th April 2018

Following a full and engaging debate at Diocesan Synod in March, members overwhelmingly endorsed new Parish Share Option 2 proposals. This means they will come into full effect in 2020. We will now be starting a number of conversations with deaneries about this decision and how it will work in practice.

Parish Share is about establishing a fair end equitable means of supporting mission and ministry throughout our diocese. Founded on the principle of mutual sharing between all parishes it offers the best way for maintaining that vital Christian presence in every community.

The Option 2 proposals will give deaneries greater flexibility and control over the decision making in their areas, This includes thinking around the kinds of clergy and other missional leaders they need and how each parish is best able to contribute financially.

Mike Eastwood, Diocesan Secretary, said: ‘I am delighted that Synod supported the Option 2 proposals. It is an incredibly flexible system. It even allows deaneries to carry on with the current Parish Share system if that is best for them. But crucially it enables parishes across each deanery to engage in constructive conversations about the type of ministry and leadership that they need and the level of financial support they can contribute.’

Because the new system is not coming in until 2020 there is a good time for early conversations to take place. The archdeacons and staff of St James House stand by absolutely ready to help resource those conversations.

As Mike said at Diocesan Synod: ‘Option 2 is about releasing God’s people to discern God’s vision and pray through the means to implement it’. The possibilities are really exciting.

About Parish Share Option 2

Option 2 aims to give deaneries the flexibility to determine how many stipendiary clergy they want

to deploy and how much each parish/team/hub in the deanery would contribute towards the cost.

This proposed new system would continue to allow for mutual support; the contribution required

for each stipendiary incumbent in a deanery will reflect the level of deprivation in that deanery

which will be calculated afresh from IMD data at deanery level.
 

Please note: for convenience, we have continued to use the word ‘parish’ to describe the local unit

of mission. We recognise that the churches in our diocese are now organised in multiple forms –

single benefice parishes, teams, groups, hubs. For ease of reference we have used parish to stand

for all of these.
 

Because option 2 is new and unfamiliar it will require quite a bit of explanation. It is based on 2

broad costs:
 

(i) Housing, training & mission development (HTM) – this broadly covers the cost of:
 

  • The theological training costs of ordinands
     
  • The stipendiary and other costs of curates
     
  • Housing clergy
     
  • Discretionary posts deployed by the bishop
     
  • The support and development of key lay ministries (local missional leaders, readers)
     
  • Contributions to the national church
     
  • Deanery Mission & Growth funds
     

(ii) Deanery deployed leaders (DDL) – the vast majority of this cost is and no doubt will

remain the deployment costs (stipend/national insurance/pension) of incumbent status clergy.

However, we have deliberately moved the language away from clergy so as not to constrain

the discussions at deanery level. For example, Wigan has already used what would have been

stipends for other forms of missional leadership.
 

The Parish Share requirement of each component is calculated in different ways:
 

(i) HTM is calculated using the current Parish Share method – calculated for parish level, based

on average weekly attendance and socio-economic factor (SEF)
 

(ii) DDL is calculated using the method brought to Synod in September 2014, a deanery system

based on each the number of clergy deployed, the SEF of the deanery and each parish within

the deanery offering its own contribution.

 

This combination of calculation methods allows deaneries to have the flexibility to determine how

many stipendiary clergy and other missional leaders they wish to deploy and where they want to

deploy them, whilst enabling parishes to contribute according to their ability to pay.

In reality, therefore, each deanery is given 4 pieces of information:
 

1 The indicative amount for each parish for the HTM element (which will be roughly 40% of
what they are paying under the current Parish Share system)

2 The total cost to the deanery of the DDL element for the stipends they currently have

3 The cost per incumbent for any additional incumbent the deanery may want to deploy – in
2018 this would be a flat rate cost of c. £43,000 (see Appendix 2)

4The cost saving per incumbent for any reduction in the deanery clergy allocation – this saving
will vary from c. £25,000 in Liverpool North to £46,000 in Sefton North (Sefton North is carrying the greater proportion per incumbent of the HTM element so receives a proportionately greater benefit of any saving

 

Read the Synod Paper

You can read the paper which discusses

Parish Share Option 2 here


Parish Share Option 2

 

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