Parish Share is how our Diocese shares the costs of mission and ministry between every parish to fulfil our calling to ‘Growing in God’.
We are thankful that a high proportion of our churches regularly pay 100% of their parish share in full and some overpay their allocation to help others. However we recognise that some parishes and benefices struggle to pay their allocated share.
We would encourage you to put into place measures to help encourage giving and generosity such as joining the Parish Giving Scheme, setting up online giving, using the resources for Generosity Week, Gifts in Wills, and Friends groups. Visit the Parish Resources section of our website to make sure that you have all the up to date mechanisms ready for easy and accessible giving, ensuring that no opportunity for giving is lost:
Parish Resources Team | Weblink
If you are still struggling you can request financial support in some cases we can offer financial support for a limited period of time (up to three years).
There is a formal process and a final decision on any financial support offered will be approved by the Finance and Investment Committee.
This runs alongside the need for the Benefice to engage with the diocese to put in measures to encourage giving and generosity.
The Financial Support Process
This is a formal process to seek assistance from the Diocese and you must:
- Engage at benefice level and discuss with other parishes within the benefice and ask if they can meet their share of the allocation and see if they can contribute more than their allocated share to cover the deficit.
- If the benefice can not provide financial support please engage at Deanery level, by contacting your Rural Dean and Lay Chair to consider whether the deanery can contribute more to cover the benefice deficit.
- If the above discussions are unable to find any financial solutions to cover the deficit in share, then please contact your Archdeacon.
- To start the process for applying for financial support please produce a Finance Action Plan by completing the forms below. (Note a multi parish Benefice will also need a form for each parish). Please email your completed forms to Julie Podd.
- You may be invited to a meeting which may include your Incumbent, agreed members of PCC, your Archdeacon, the Diocesan Finance Director, a member of Mission and Ministry team and a member of Parish Resources team to discuss your action plan.
- Waiver support will need to be approved by Finance and Investment Committee initially and then every year of the plan.
- The diocese will work with you to implement your Financial Action Plan.
- The support offered will be regularly monitored.
- Ensuring everyone works towards achieving financial sustainability.
Please note, we are currently only reviewing applications for financial support of over £10,000.
Expectations of your Financial Action Plan
Your plan will include:
- Having a Plan for Growth in place.
- Joining and implementing the Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) or relaunching the PGS.
- Setting up online giving.
- Setting a budget and sharing with the Diocesan team.
- Engaging with the Diocesan Giving Advisor to consider grants and funding options.
- Considering contactless donation devices.
- Completing the Generous Church Check-Up with your PCC and submitting to the Diocese.
- Checking if Parish Buying can reduce any of your costs.
- Submitting your Annual Report and Accounts to the Diocese.
- Completing your statistics for mission on the Parish Return system.
You can email the Parish Resources Team at any point to get help with some or all of the expected ways to help increase community outreach and giving.
You can email the Mission and Ministry team for support with your Plan for Growth.
Timescales
Once you have followed the procedures at a benefice and deanery level and if the discussions are unable to find any financial solutions to cover the deficit in share, then please contact your Archdeacon to discuss. If your Archdeacon is in agreement in putting in a financial support request for 2024 then please complete the relevant forms below and email Julie Podd. Dates in 2024 for the meetings in each Archdeaconry are as follows:
- Ipswich – 9 May at 1.00 pm at the Diocesan Office
- Suffolk – 13 May at 10.30 am at the Diocesan Office
- Sudbury – 23 May at 10.30 am at the Diocesan Office
