How church funding really works...
IN RESPONSE to the letter of 6 January by Watcher – 'So many questions' – and indeed others who have suggested that the church is surrounded by secrecy concerning its payments to the Diocese of Winchester, the figure of £1.3m. paid by both Guernsey and Jersey Church of England churches is raised solely by the congregations that attend those churches and not by parish rates, nor by any donations from the Ecclesiastical Court.
The income of the Ecclesiastical Court covers its running costs and the residue goes into a Deanery Fund, from which the Dean's stipend and secretarial costs and costs of office are met, contributions made to welfare grants for the needy, contributions to those costs of maintaining the civil parishes' property not available from parochial rates and community projects such as the newly opened Caritas Community Cafe in Mill Street.
Grants have also been made for provision of housing for youth worker accommodation and for training courses for clergy and laity alike, which benefit not only the church, but the whole of the local community.
The assumption that funds collected in Guernsey go to Winchester to cover the cost of maintaining a Church of England presence in the islands is both flawed and partial. 'Watcher' is correct in that the Diocesan share pays for the stipends of Channel Island clergy, their pension contributions and the cost of ministry but it also pays for Diocesan staff, structure and support services, training, education and a contribution to the National and International Church. It also funds projects such as street pastors, chaplains at hospices and in universities and helps to provide ministry in challenging areas where congregations are unable to support themselves.
How the money is split between those different groups is published on every single church noticeboard each year and has always been in the public domain and is included on annual church accounts, which are also affixed to the said noticeboards. Parish share is not a payment for services received by the local church – rather it is the contribution each local church pays towards the whole mission and ministry of the Church from the giving of the Christian community.
The figure of £100,000 pa for clergy stipends is wholly inaccurate and disingenuous and it is erroneous to surmise that their stipend is the total amount paid to Winchester divided by the number of clergy in Guernsey, as we have demonstrated above, so Watcher's arithmetic is indeed wrong.
Clergy earn a stipend equivalent to the national average wage and, contrary to popular myth and suggestion by 'Watcher' and others, the secular parishes of ancient churches pay only for the external maintenance of the rectories and churches (as the buildings belong to them) and not any interior work or heating or lighting, rates or water bills or any other internal maintenance or gardening upkeep. The clergy and congregations fund these themselves. It is also up to each church congregation to ensure that the interior of the rectory and the church is in good order.
As a recent example, the cost for interior repainting of St Martin's Church amounted to £25,000, which the congregation paid without any outside assistance.
The rate to maintain the exterior of the ancient parish churches and rectory properties is less than £5 per annum per household across the island and every year there is an opportunity for ratepayers to voice their objection to those payments or indeed not to vote in favour of them at all. Yet, year on year, parish halls are filled not with objectors but supporters and, often, the meeting lasts less than 15 minutes.
Could it actually be that the people living in our parishes value their local churches and the people who work in them who serve their community?
VERY REV. CANON K. P. MELLOR, Dean of Guernsey.
REVS KEVIN NORTHOVER and MIKE KEIRLE, Vice Deans.
