THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER

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THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER
Parish Treasurers Meeting
2007
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit. AMEN. Alleluia! Christ is
risen.
HE IS RISEN INDEED. ALLELUIA
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God of love, your pilgrim people spoke your word
in every age. Proudly raising tower and
steeple, Christians built their heritage. Now the
heirs of that tradition have the duty to
uphold witness to the ancient vision in a very
different world.
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Where an earlier generation built a monumental
frame, now a smaller congregation often struggles
to maintain. Save us from our fear of
failure lift our eyes that we may see how to
show our living Saviour in our own community.
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Help us understand the forces tangled in the
wealth we own, or we may misuse resources out of
ignorance alone. Set against a true
perspective all we plan and all we do, so that we
may be effective in our stewardship for you.
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God of love, your pilgrim people speak your word
in every age. Now in church and home and
chapel help us build a heritage, so the heirs of
our tradition have their own means to
uphold witness to the living vision in another
future world.
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Lord, when we have failed
to
recognize your presence Lord, have mercy. LORD,
HAVE MERCY. Lord, when we have failed

to recognize the needs of others Christ,
have mercy. CHRIST, HAVE MERCY. Lord, when we
have not responded
generously to the call of the gospel Lord, have
mercy. LORD, HAVE MERCY.
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Father of all, you loved the world so much that
you gave your only Son, so that all who believe
in him should have eternal and abundant
life grant us grace to accept all your gifts and
to use them for the good of others, for the care
of your world and to proclaim the values of your
kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN
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A Reading from Saint Pauls Second Letter to the
Corinthians.
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The General Thanksgiving Almighty God, Father of
all mercies, we your unworthy servants give you
most humble and hearty thanks for all your
goodness and loving kindness. We bless you for
our creation, preservation and all the blessings
of this life but above all for your immeasurable
love in the redemption of the world by our Lord
Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and for the
hope of glory. And give us, we pray, such a sense
of all your mercies that our hearts may be
unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth your
praise, not only with our lips but in our lives,
by giving up ourselves to your service, and by
walking before you in holiness and righteousness
all our days through Jesus Christ our Lord, to
whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honour and
glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Alleluia! Christ is risen.
HE IS RISEN INDEED.
ALLELUIA Let us bless the Lord.
THANKS BE TO GOD.
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THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER
Parish Treasurers Meeting
2007
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Shaping up for Mission

• Bishops Council January 2007

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June 2006

• Medium term Financial Strategy and its
  relationship with our Mission Strategy

• Short term issue of Parish Share Arrears
  increased in 2005

In fact the out-turn for 2006, with arrears paid
during that year, was 1 better than 2005
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DBF Chairs Report for 2006

• Collectively we contributed 4.5m in Share,
• This is not only 262,000 or 6.1 higher
• than 2005, but also increasing our collection
• rate, including arrears, by 1 to 94. To
• those who sacrificially gave their time,
• energies and money, thank you.
• Alastair Findlay

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DBF Chairs Report for 2006

• We still face the challenge of a continuing
• increase in Parish Share shortfall, which for
• 2006 is 446,000 or 9.3 of the total set by
• Synod, compared with 392,000 or 8.5 in
• 2005.

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back to Shaping up for Mission

• The cost of arrears impacts directly on
• other parishes it requires them either to

• find more money, or

• to accept a reduced level of ministry.

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Shaping up for Mission Boundaries

• This is a medium term strategy
• Looking to the Future (including LTTFiD) is our
  strategy for handling resources at local level
• The Taylor Report is our strategy for diocesan
  ministry
• We deploy our national allocation of stipendiary
  clergy

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Four Broad Themes

• Growing Healthy Churches
• Mutuality
• Mission Grants
• Parish Share Plans

• And what if we have less or more money?

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Growing Healthy Churches
Six Priorities The Taylor Report

• Worship God

• Rid the world of poverty

• Share the Gospel

• Build inclusive communities

• Help people to faith

• Care for the earth

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Mutuality

• How do we strengthen the sense of
• mutuality in the diocese, so that what is
• done in one place is owned, valued and
• supported as widely as possible?

• Roles of
• PCC Treasurer
• Deanery Treasurer

to champion mission imperatives
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Mission Grants

• How do we identify particular pieces of
• mission work that require and merit the
• granting of additional resources from beyond
• the place or parish in which they will be
• taken forward?

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Parish Share Arrears

• How do we deal robustly with the immediate
• issue of Parish Share arrears in a sensitive
• and theologically coherent manner?

• Parish Share Plans
• variety of reasons why parishes havent been able
  to pay.
• Archdeacons to bring together a group of people
  to work with parishes.

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Parish Share Plans

• Archdeacons to lead diagnostic group where
  there is a difficulty with payment of Share.
• Parish Share Plan should be drawn up and signed
  by the PCC, Deanery Standing Committee and
  Archdeacon. The PSP would include actions for
  all three parties.

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Parish Share Plans

• PCC commits to a five year plan for Share
  payments, encouraging giving and/or limiting
  expenditure.
• Deanery considers whether the Share apportioned
  to the parish should be reduced, and what skills
  support can be offered.
• Archdeacon may recommend
• writing off some arrears and / or a Mission
  Grant
• particular help from diocesan officers

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Sustainability Opportunity

• What is the sensitivity of our structures to
  sample variances of between 100K and 500K per
  annum (both increases and decreases) in the
  projection of income achievable over the period
  2007-12?
• Archdeacons and Diocesan Secretary, who should
  consult with the Diocesan Pastoral Committee, to
  identify options to be implemented in 2007 and
  beyond, minimising any pain to individuals,
  parishes, diocese and the community that we are
  called to serve.

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THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER
Parish Treasurers Meeting
2007
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PARISH SHARE FORMULA

• Previous Quota Formula set in 1986
• Working party established in 2000
• All deaneries represented
• Examined various options
• New formula approved by Diocesan Synod in Nov
  2003
• Phased in from 2004
• Implementation reviewed in 2006

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SHARING, NOT CHARGING

• Through Parish Share we seek to share the costs
  of mission and ministry
• Distributing the resources of ministry as they
  are needed
• Paying for them according to our ability

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GIVING, NOT PAYING

• By giving as part of our Christian discipleship
• Proportionate to
• Church membership
• Church members income

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Calculating Parish Share

• Basic concept of formula is simple. Share is
  allocated to deaneries using two elements
• Average Sunday Attendance (using statistics
  provided by parishes)
• Income

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Calculating Parish Share (Continued)
Income is a notional Average Personal Income
calculated for each deanery. Well come back to
how its calculated later
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Calculating Parish Share (Continued)
Multiplying Average Personal Income by the
Average Sunday Attendance figure gives an idea of
the income of churchgoers in a deanery. Divide
this by the income available to churchgoers in
the diocese and you have the proportion of share
requested from the deanery.
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Calculating Parish Share (Continued)
But the people who earn a lot in my parish dont
come to church!
WHAT MATTERS IS THE RELATIVE LEVELS BETWEEN
DEANERIES NOT PRECISE INCOME FIGURES
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AVERAGE INCOME

• Working Party wanted income survey questionnaires
  this was not accepted
• Use of Inland Revenue statistics (2nd choice)
• Advantages
• Objective measure of relative wealth
• Readily available
• Regularly updated
• Disadvantages
• Not specific to congregations
• Tax districts overlap deanery boundaries

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Calculating Parish Share (Continued)

• Average Personal Income is based on figures from
  
• HM Revenue Customs for income and number of tax
  payers in each District
• the 2001 Census for populations of small
  geographical areas called Super Output Areas

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INLAND REVENUE STATISTICS

• How we use them
• Help of new mapping software
• Integration of census statistics
• Indicator of relative wealth

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Calculating Parish Share (continued)
Super Output Areas are used for government
statistics. The brown lines represent the SOA
boundaries. Parish boundaries are shown in
magenta.
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Calculating Parish Share

• Super Output Areas
• Districts
• Deaneries Parishes
• Lets see how they relate

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Calculation Parish Share
For example
Parishes in Bromsgrove Deanery
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Calculating Parish Share
Birmingham
Wyre Forest
Solihull
Bromsgrove
Redditch
Stratford-on-Avon
Wychavon
overlap District boundaries
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Calculating Parish Share
and Super Output Areas
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Calculating Parish Share
The overlaps affect our calculations so well
come back to them again But first lets put
together Population figures (of those over 15
years of age) from the 2001 Census and the
figures from HM Customs Revenue
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Calculating Parish Share
Dividing the number of tax payers in a District
by the population count gives the proportion of
tax payers. So we can work out how many tax
payers and non-tax payers there are in each Super
Output Area.
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Calculating Parish Share
We need to estimate the total income available to
people in a parish before we work out the Average
Personal Income. Thats the number of taxpayers
multiplied by their average income, with an
addition for non-taxpayers (their number
multiplied by ¾ of the single persons tax
allowance 5,032 x ¾ 3,774)
We can easily do it for a Super Output Areae.g.
(836 x 18,800) (394 x 3,774) 17,203,756
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Calculating Parish Share
But we need figures for the deaneries. We start
at parish level and find the proportion of each
SOA that overlaps a parish
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Calculating Parish Share
We use a geographical information system to
automate the calculation of the proportion of a
Super Output Area that overlaps a parish
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Calculating Parish Share
Here are the figures for one parish
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Calculating Parish Share
We have to add up the number of people and total
income for every parish in a deanery
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Calculating Parish Share

• The Average Personal Income for a deanery is
• Total income divided by number of people over
  age 15
• For our example
• 1,622,186,154 / 98,162 16,526
• The Average Personal Income is multiplied by the
  Average Sunday Attendance figure

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Calculating Parish Share
We smooth the fluctuations of incomeand
attendance figures by averaging Income is based
on a 3 year average Attendance is based on a 5
year average
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Calculating Parish Share
So all this enables the relative proportion of
the diocesan budget to be worked out for each
deanery.
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THE DIOCESE OF WORCESTER
Parish Treasurers Meeting
2007