I'm most grateful to John Richardson (AKA the Ugley Vicar) for pointing me to the 'Giving as Partners' sheet (which may be found here) on the Church Society website.
The billing:
The Church of England is an institution in crisis. Contemporary pressures are mounting to change the Church’s practices and teaching. At the same time, historical factors mean the leadership of the Church is rarely answerable to the ‘membership in the pews’. In this crisis, money plays a key part. On the one hand, the funds available to the Church are declining in parallel with the membership. On the other hand, there are regular calls to ‘Quota Cap’ as a response to perceived abuses within the Church.
‘Giving As Partners’ addresses these issues in a radical way. Rejecting Quota Capping, it nevertheless offers a proposal that could change the Church by changing the way churches relate to one another. Simple in principle, it would create dynamic mission partnerships that would improve the effectiveness of the Church whilst at the same time increasing the likelihood that Quotas would be paid in full. This could
well be ‘an idea whose time has come’
Makes for some interesting reading - I'm about to embark upon the document and invite others, especially those who have commented on the earlier 'Parish Share' blog pages to perhaps do the same and see where this takeds our discussion.
Pax
3 comments:
Problem is Vic I can never fathom out why those who attend should pay for those who do not..ie use the Church for a convenience( baptisms,weddings and marriages ).William Tindle's sincere remarks about "existing for those outside"of the Established Church is likely viewed with cynicism now .I got sick of people rolling up and never seeing them again & became immune to the "give give give" from the pulpit,even though I'm aware of the £5billion pension fund function to pay for retired Clergy.I left after 12 years& have never seen anyone since( not bothered frankly)& never felt happier after seeing the same faces week in week out,concluding the Parish Share was the be and end all of 75 mins on a Sunday morning,with congregations going through the floor.The least said about investing £60m in Hedge Funds the better and frankly the Church would be better off Disestablished.The Church may preach about being "inclusive",but I found it a middle class"exclusive" aging moribund & rudderless institution, heading towards slow extinction( about 2 years I estimate ).
should be 20 years towards extinction ( ever the optimist! )
Unfortunately, there is no transparency in Diocesan accounts, which does not inspire confidence in giving,eg hundreds of thousands or more are listed simply as 'boards'. In my experience as an incumbent parishes seem completely amenable to paying for cost of ministry , plus a reasonable but itemised 'wider mission' charge. Is thus too much to ask?
Post a Comment