The note from the Archbishops, published on Monday, speaks of the “urgency” of the challenges that the Church faces. These include diminishing congregations – attendance has declined by, on average, one per cent a year over recent decades – with an age profile “significantly” higher than that of the general population, and ordination rates “well below” those needed to replace the 40 per cent of the parish clergy who are due to retire in the next ten years.
The current reliance on an increase in individual giving to keep financially afloat is not sustainable, it warns. “The burden of church buildings weighs heavily and reorganisation at parish level is complicated by current procedures.”
The Sheffield formula, introduced after the 1974 Sheffield report to determine targets for the number of stipendiary priests in each diocese, and taking into account congregation size, population, area, and number of church buildings, is “no longer generally observed”.
The distribution of funds under the Darlow formula (used since 2001 to allocate national funding to dioceses with the fewest resources to assist with their stipends bill) has “no focus on growth, has no relationship to deprivation and involves no mutual accountability”.
[blockquote] “It is possible that the Commissioners will consider drawing on capital reserves to fund the reforms.” [/blockquote]
Interesting. I have heard this suggestion before. Its pretty serious if they do.
But then, since the Church Commissioners also maintain the thousands of church buildings which the government has heritage-listed, if they run out of money the government may have no choice but to put its hand in its pocket.
[blockquote] “The groups are chaired by Prebendary the Lord Green; the Bishop of Sheffield, Dr Steven Croft; John Spence; and the Bishop of Willesden, the Rt Revd Pete Broadbent. The Green report was published last month amid widespread criticism” [/blockquote]
And how. A prominent theologian in CofE described the Green report as having “no point of origination in theological or spiritual wisdom. Instead, on offer is a dish of basic contemporary approaches to executive management, with a little theological garnish.” Perhaps that’s not surprising, given that Reverend Green has spent more time as chairman of one of the largest banking groups in the world, than as an active priest.
Will the Croft, Spence and Broadbent reports be of the same standard, I wonder?
In fairness, at least ++Welby and his bishops are facing the problem squarely, instead of just pretending it doesn’t exist.
One of the dilemmas is that the church has repeatedly understood the need for things to change but been incapable of effecting change. It’s a sorrowful thing to look at the 1945 report, “Towards the Conversion of England” and see that the diagnosis is similar – though both franker and more confident in 1945 than the contemporary CofE seems to be capable of.
Here’s how it already seemed 70 years ago:
Apologies for the mistaken formatting.