Photo credit: Church of England/Geoff Crawford
Bishop Michael shares his thoughts following the Synod debated on the motion from the Bishop of Hereford calling for a redistribution of Church funds. He says:
The recent meeting of the General Synod included a debate on the Hereford Diocesan Synod Motion on the Redistribution of [Church Commissioners’] Funds. You’ll recall that I was involved in seeking to take this forward at February’s Synod where the debate had to be adjourned due to lack of time. The motion was heavily resisted by members of the Church Commissioners and Archbishops’ Council who dominated the discussion that took place. In the event, the motion was amended in such a way that eliminated any possibility of immediate change. Despite this there was a widespread recognition that in the future we will need to think very differently about how the Church’s finances and wider ecology can work better for everyone.
I used to work for John Pritchard when he was Bishop of Oxford. About experiences like this he would say ‘Well, it has fluffed up the concrete’. I think that’s what we have achieved. The Bishop of Hereford and I will now work with members of the Church Commissioners and the Archbishops’ Council to explore the new thinking that’s needed in the next few months. The kind of questions we want to ask are:
- What causes whole dioceses, not just funded churches or projects, to grow?
- How can dioceses be brought to a place of sustainability?
- How can deficits be eliminated?
- What kind of financial settlement and investment going forward are needed that will enable a better future for everyone?
A further next step that has come out of the process is that Alan Smith (First Church Commissioners) and Debbie Clinton and Nick Shepherd (of the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy Unit) would like to come and visit us in Bath and Wells later this year. Our aim will be to share with them our vision and strategy and our financial position. This will not only inform them. They might just have insights about ways forward that we may not have seen. The discussion goes on!