But the Church is rich! (Part III)

The Church (of England) costs around £1,000M to keep the doors of our churches (13,000 of them) and cathedrals (43) open. The pretty graph below gives an idea of how the money comes in:

From it we can see that 21% comes from investments,

16% from Fees (Baptism, Wedding and Funerals), and

The rest (excluding 'other') pretty much comes from within (and the 'tax recovered' is a component of giving too!).

So - the reality is that we do have money but we aren't rich and the money we generate from it means we need to raise around £210m less from within (i.e. the members and churchgoers). The central organisation is therefore subsidising the operation leaving church members with their Parish Share to meet the rest.

That said, Parish Share is no small amount as can be seen with our  'church in a phone box and its need to find £65 every day of the year to pay it (and that's without running expenses) but it would be £100 without the 'wealth!'.

And what the communities we serve get is extremely good value for money and those who are Church (meaning CofE for this example) should be proud of what we are in the main doing and being.

Pax

ps. If you are a church member (and denomination or group) why not GiftAid your giving and maximise the power of your giving?