Diocesan Synod hears presentation on our current financial challenges

First published on: 24th March 2023

In a presentation to Diocesan Synod Mike Eastwood, Diocesan Secretary gave an update on the financial position of our diocese setting out the challenges we face and our approach to them.  This briefing note explains the main points of the presentation to enable deaneries and parishes to have a clear understanding of this crucial issue.

Our financial background

Finance is important to us because having secure finances means that we can make choices about what we want to do rather than being forced into decisions. We have always faced challenges as we are the poorest diocese in the country with very low levels of land or financial assets we can on in difficult times. This has meant the historic generosity of parishes and deaneries paying parish share has been vital over many years. 

However, our current position is that post-Covid we face a £1m structural deficit in our finances. In other words, we have an ongoing problem in raising finances which means year on year we could have a deficit of £1m. This is because of the understandable challenge parishes now face in paying parish share. We remain grateful to all who pay, and especially those who pay beyond what we ask. This all supports our mission and ministry in parishes, schools, chaplaincies, and fresh expressions but we know that we now work in a tough financial climate.

The pressures are clear.

We know that parishes are seeing lower attendance than before Covid. Weekly attendance is about 80% of pre-2019 levels. We understand giving is lower due to the cost of living crisis. We know that hires in church halls have dropped. So, we realise that many parishes are using their reserves to pay. We are grateful for that, but clearly this is not sustainable.

 

Looking for a new settlement with the national church


We have said that our financial position has to be seen as a partnership between the diocese, our deaneries and parishes, and the national church. We are looking to a longer-term solution for this problem – that we believe lies in the missional priorities and structural changes that Fit for Mission offers us. However, we need more immediate help to avoid having to make cuts in our missional leadership budget meaning we would have to reduce the numbers of clergy we can sustain.

Our approach is to seek a new settlement with the national church.

Our case is simple. We have the lowest asset base in the Church of England which means we don’t get much income from our investment. So we have lower income every year meaning we have to rely more on parish share. We have less financial resilience which means something like Covid hits us very hard financially. 

We believe we are the first diocese to be stating this case. We absolutely won’t be the last.

The challenge with the national church

Our main challenge is that this is new territory for the Diocese of Liverpool and the Church of England. There is no easy formula for making this type of decision and we have been involved in discussions on how to approach this. We are clear that we need up to £1m of additional support for 2023 or we will face having to start to make cuts of around £1.7m to remedy the problem.

 

Our plan

Our plan has five elements. Some involve the national church others involve things we need to do

These elements are: -

With the national church

1)   Gain a solution for 2023 to give us breathing space.
This will involve a bid for funding

2)   Get an agreement around the root causes of our financial problems.
This will involve us asking for an independent person to come in on behalf of the national church to analyse our financial position and assess whether it arises from under-investment (as we believe it does) or other causes.

With our diocese

3)   Tackle areas of outlying financial performance
We want to make sure we spread the financial load fairly and that all make an appropriate financial contribution

4)   Ask parishes to pay as much Parish Share as possible 
We need the income and the credibility that we are doing all we can as we ask for additional support

5)   Continue with Fit For Mission
Fit for Mission is our acknowledged long-term plan for missional flourishing and financial resilience



What’s next


We have submitted our case to the Church of England and it will be considered at the next meeting of the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board – a designated committee of Archbishops Council. We will hear the outcome in April and let our diocese know the next stages after that. 

Please pray for a positive outcome to this meeting.

If you have any questions about this briefing contact pamela.ambrose@liverpool.anglican.org

For more information about Fit for Mission go to www.liverpool.anglican.org/fitformission 
 

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