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June 2000, Page 11.

The Church Commissioners in 1999

The Commissioners' Annual Report for 1999 landed on clergy's desks recently. I always read it with a tiny bit of doubt, because it has always been optimistic, even in the year when the Financial times revealed a huge loss. (Actually, it has to be said that much of that "loss" was in investments which have since risen in value.)

On 31st December 1999, the Commissioners had £4400 million in assets, made up as follows:

During the year these assets rose in value by £668m (they had been worth £3732 at the end of 1998), and they generated an income of £141m over the year. This is a return of 22.7% on capital invested, which is better than investment fund averages over the year.

To add to the £141m the Commissioners cashed in £15m, making £156m to spend during the year. They spent it like this:

Of course it costs far more than £21m to pay that salaries of the clergy - the rest of the money comes from diocesan investments and the dreaded Parish Share. However, dioceses pay nothing towards their bishops!

The two figures for clergy pensions need a bit of explaining. Until 1998 there was no "pension fund" for the clergy (just the same as there's no DHSS "pension fund" for the State pension). Since 1998 each diocese is responsible for building up a pension fund to pay for its retired clergy. So the Commissioners pay all pensions which arise from clergy service before 1998, and they also pay poorer dioceses (including Bradford) grants to help them build up pension funds.

The Commissioners are still a bit over-stretched in their spending, and they don't foresee any increase in their spending in real terms for a while yet!

Q. Seeing as the C of E is one of the richest organisations in England, why do we still have to pay Parish Share?

A. The Church of England is rich enough to pay the salaries of about 3,000 clergy. But there are about 10,000 clergy in parishes today. So two-thirds of the bill has to be met by people giving.

Q. Why does the Parish share go up faster than inflation?

A. Two reasons: first, wages rise faster than prices, and most of the church's costs are wages; and second, people (including clergy) are living longer, so the pensions bill is rising a lot faster.

Q. Where will it all end?

A. Don't get depressed! The bible shows us that the church can manage on the giving of its members - and that is still true today.

John Hartley