Church Finances

A Church of England Vicar receives a phone call from a parishioner who was very upset about the death of her pet cat called Felix.

As the conversation progressed she explained that she wanted the Vicar to conduct a funeral service for Felix.

The Vicar had never done anything like that before, and explained that this was not normal C of E practice, but suggested that she contacted the minister of the Baptist church down the road.

He later learned that the Baptist minister had referred this woman to the Methodist minister, ...who in turn passed her on to the Catholic priest.

About an hour later the woman rang the Vicar again, and she was still very upset.

"I'm at my wits end", she said. "I can't find anyone who will take Felix's funeral service, and I don't know what to do. ...and I had planned to give £10,000 to the church which held the service."

It only took the Vicar a moment to mull this over, and then he replied:

"Well why didn't you tell me that Felix was a Church of England cat!"

Nearly all churches are short of money. Gone are the days when a rich land-owner paid the Vicar's salary, and footed the bills for the church building. These days the cost is mainly bourne by the church members.

It's now two years since Jan and I came to this parish, ..and we are still very glad to be here!

Since arriving I've used this sermon slot to talk about our church finances just once a year. You've entrusted the PCC with the job of looking after the church's money, ...but once a year I think its important that everyone gets a opportunity to understand our financial situation.

...and there's a lot to be thankful for!

Those of you who were members of our church two years ago, will know that at that time we were facing two huge financial challenges:

1. We had a roof that urgently needed replacing, ...and insufficient funds to pay for it.

2. Our regular income didn't cover our regular expenditure, ...and hadn't done for several years.

I referred to these challenges as two 'mountains', and I'm very grateful to everyone who helped us climb them.

We tackled the first mountain in 1999, ...and at our Gift Day that year, and amazing £20,000 was pledged for Our Roof Project. It turned out that that was just enough, together with our church reserves, to pay for a new roof, ...and I'm sure you'll agree that it was done at the right time, ...for the Met Office confirmed that last year we had the wettest Autumn since records began.

It was a great achievement, but the new roof wiped out all our reserves, ...which made the second mountain even more urgent. We had to balance our regular income and expenditure.

So the target for our Gift Day last year was to increase our regular giving by an extra £100 a week. You'll remember that we had another great response to our Gift Day last March, and even more than £100 a week was pledged.

Of course we all recognise that people are not always able to fulfil their pledge. Sometime's a change of circumstances means that some people can't give as much as they hoped. We understand that. After the Gift Day we had climber the second mountain in theory! ...but how did it work out in practice?

Well, now that the accounts for the year 2000 have been finalised, I'm thrilled to tell you that we did it!

Not only did our regular income cover all our regular expenditure, (which was our target), ...but you gave an £20 a week on top! ...which meant we were able to buy things like the new curtains in the Meeting Room, ...and some sound equipment for Whoberley.

So I want to say 'thank you' for your kind generosity. Although I don't know the details of individual donations, I know that many people must have really dug deep into their pockets, ...and I'm very grateful.

I'm also very grateful for the way in which you have responded. As I say, each year I've only had to talk about money once, and then there's been no need to mention money again. ...Each year we've had a very simple Gift Day, and your generous response has meant that we've not had to organise lots and lots of fund raising events.

All this has resulted in us being able to spend our time on more important things. In our Year Book you can read about some of the things that we have achieved last year. Had we been burdened with lots of fund-raising events, we wouldn't have been able to do some of these things.

So 'Thank You'.

Now that we've climbed the two mountains, what do we do now?

This morning I want us to look to the future and to think about our church finances over the next few years.

Let's begin with Our Parish Project. A new roof was Stage One of Our Parish Project, and we have asked our architect to draw up the detailed plans for Stage Two, (which includes a new heating system, a new kitchen, new toilets, and other essential improvements).

I don't want to be complacent about Our Parish Project, (after all we still need another £82,000 to complete Stage Two, and it will probably take several years to find that sort of money), ...but having just paid for the roof, the PCC doesn't think we should make Our Parish Project a financial priority for our church members this year.

We would rather wait and see what money comes in from other sources, ...and then review the situation next year.

Secondly, lets think about our weekly income and expenditure.

Lat year we climbed the second mountain, ...for the first time in years our income matched our expenditure. So the challenge now is simply to keep on top of the situation.

But that's easier said than done!

How many of you, like me, try to go on a diet from time to time?

We if you do, which of these two things do you find the hardest:

- Losing weight when you're on a diet?

- Not putting it back on when you've finished the diet?

I don't find it too hard losing weight on a diet. The fact that it's a challenge gives me the motivation to do it.

But when I've finished, the motivation disappears, and I find it very hard to get into long-term healthy pattern, ...and I gradually slip back.

With our church finances we've faced the challenge of the second mountain, and we've climbed it!

Now we must think about what needs to be done to keep on top of the situation, ...because if we don't, we'll soon have another mountain to climb.

So I want to finish by briefly answering a few questions that people sometimes ask.

1. Where does most of our money go?

The simple answer is to our 'Parish Share', ...this accounts for about two thirds of our regular expenditure.

If you belonged to a Baptist Church, or a Brethren Church, or a Pentecostal Church, or to one of many other Christian denominations, ...your church may, or may not, have a full time minister depending on whether or not your church could afford one.

Rich churches can afford a minister, poor churches can't afford one. It's as simple as that.

The Church of England works in a different way. We believe that it's important that churches in the poorest areas should have a minister, (even though they could never afford one), ...since it is often in such areas that the need for a minister to is the greatest.

Now we achieve this by having a central fund. Every parish in the Coventry Diocese is asked to contribute to this fund, and this money is then used to pay for all the clergy in the diocese.

On average, it costs the Church of England over £500 a week to keep a vicar in a parish. Vicars don't get paid that much, ...but when you take account of salaries, pension contributions, national insurance, housing, training, and legal costs ...it all adds up to over £500 a week.

But as well as myself, the diocese have agreed to give us a curate this year, Diana Farmer.

So altogether, the cost of having myself and Diana here in Allesley Park and Whoberley will come to over £1,000 a week!

Now the good news is that our church doesn't pay a penny of these costs directly, ...it all gets taken from this central fund.

But this central fund would soon dry up if money didn't get paid into it. So where does this money come from?

Well every parish as asked to make a contribution, ...and it is these contributions that we call the 'Parish Share'.

2. How much is our Parish Share this year?

This year our Parish Share is £460 a week.

I know that £460 a week is a lot of money, but remember, the combined cost of a vicar and a curate over £1000 a week, ...so we actually do very well from this central fund, ...and we get back much more than we pay in.

3. How is our Parish Share calculated?

The first thing to point out is that it has nothing to do with the number of clergy we have in a parish.

With a vicar and a curate we have to contribute £460 a week to this central fund.

If we just had a vicar, (with no curate), our contribute would still be £460 a week.

If I were to leave, and for a while you had no clergy at all, ...we would still have to pay £460 a week.

The calculation of the parish share has nothing to do with the number of clergy a church has, ...but everything to do with the number of adult members a church has.

Across the whole diocese the central fund needs an average of £4.00 a week from each adult member.

They have estimated that our church has 114 adult members, ...so if you multiply 114 times £4.00, ...it works out that the fair share for our church is £460 a week.

Now you may, or may not, like the way that the diocese does this calculation. But whether we like it or not, this year we have to pay the diocese £460 a week.

4. How does this compare with last year?

Imagine this was the Parish Share last year, (raise left hand).

In previous years, our income had come no-where near it, (raise right hand). But because of your great generosity, last year we not only covered the Parish Share, but we had £20 a week left over.

This year, our Parish Share has risen by another £50 a week, ...which means we are currently facing a shortfall of £30 a week.

So to keep on top of the mountain, this year we need at least an extra £30 a week.

5. What about all our other bills?

I said that the Parish Share accounted for two thirds of our regular expenditure. The rest goes on gas, electricity, insurance, printing, ...and so on.

But I don't want you to worry about these things. Because experience shows that if our 'Planned Giving' can exactly match the 'Parish Share', then our other income should just about cover all our other essential expenditure.

'Planned Giving' is the money given to our church through the weekly pink envelopes, or by monthly standing order.

For our 'Planned Giving' to exactly match our 'Parish Share' this year we need an extra £30 a week.

6. So how do we hope to achieve this?

As in previous years we will be having a Gift Day in a few weeks time. The target is much smaller than in previous years, ...£30 a week or more, ...but we really do need this money in order to keep on top of our finances.

If you are already part of our Planned Giving Scheme, there will be an 'Information Pack' with your name on it at the back of church.

If you're not yet part of the scheme, but consider yourself to be a member of our church, there are plenty of other 'Information Packs' over there. Please pick one up.

I recognise that for a variety of reasons not everyone will be able to increase their weekly offering this year. Many of you dug deep in your pockets last year, and will not feel able to give any extra this year. ...that's fine, I don't want anyone to feel under any pressure.

Some of you may have over-streched last year, ...and would like to reduce your weekly offering. That too is fine. The reply slip this year allows you to decrease your pledge of you wish.

We are very grateful for what you already give. And thanks you again for your generosity last year.