{"id":134680,"date":"2025-02-04T17:32:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T22:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=134680"},"modified":"2025-02-04T18:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T23:09:10","slug":"church-times-ten-year-study-identifies-parish-share-as-pressure-point-for-clergy-well-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=134680","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) Ten-year study identifies parish share as\u00a0pressure point for clergy well-being"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Drawing on focus groups and interviews with 55 clerics, it highlights the extent to which the Church\u2019s wider challenges, from financial deficits to division over the Living in Love and Faith<\/a> process, are impacting on clergy well-being<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report notes \u201cthe extremely difficult financial situation of many parishes\u201d \u2014 described by one participant as \u201chugely, hugely horrible\u201d \u2014 and the \u201chigh awareness of stipendiary ministers of the relationship between their stipend and parish finances, via the parish share\u201d. This is, it says, \u201coften emphasised to local churches by dioceses to incentivise them to pay their parish share in full, and, amid the current economic challenges, some participants report that their dioceses are reviewing the viability of parishes that do not do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For stipendiary clergy, this could provoke concern for their parish. One participant described thinking: \u201cIf we don\u2019t pay our common fund, then when I move, then are they going to say, \u2018Well, you can\u2019t have a vicar any more?\u2019 And I feel the responsibility for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some, the question of parish share could \u201cprovoke a sense of shame within the diocese\u201d. One commented that, when the diocese set out the cost of a stipendiary priest in a parish share request, they were \u201cmade to feel really expensive\u201d. There was an assumption that the priest was the recipient of the cost (\u00a370,000).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

Always interesting reading latest from the Living Ministry study tracking clergy over 10 years. One finding was the impact of parish share requests on clergy themselves, including feeling "expensive" when the cost of the stipend is set out by the diocese https:\/\/t.co\/fXiRDNpqJW<\/a><\/p>— Madeleine Davies (@MadsDavies) February 4, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote>