THE Church Commissioners’ control over dioceses has been criticised by the Bishop of Rochester, Dr Jonathan Gibbs, who has warned of “significant and unsustainable annual deficits”.
The announcement this weekend that his own diocese had been awarded £11 million from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) Board did not deter Dr Gibbs from arguing that the increasing emphasis on grants “exacerbates the sense of control by the centre”.
“Everyone accepts that the Commissioners are brilliant at investing money and generating excellent returns,” he told his diocesan synod on Saturday. “But the reality is that the resources they now hold represent a significant net transfer not only of assets but also of financial control from the dioceses to the national Church, something which has become more and more evident over the last ten or so years.”
His comments echo those of other bishops in recent months. In the General Synod last month, the Bishop of Bath & Wells, the Rt Revd Michael Beasley, expressed frustration after time ran out for a debate on a motion from Hereford diocese calling on the Commissioners to transfer £2.6 billion of assets to diocesan stipend funds to support parish ministry (News, 31 January). Gloucester, Coventry, Bath & Wells, Blackburn, Chichester, and Lincoln diocesan synods had all passed motions in identical terms to Hereford’s.
The sum is based on a calculation of the amount that diocesan boards of finance (DBFs) could have gained had they invested the sums that they have contributed to clergy pensions since 1998, when responsibility was transferred to them from the Commissioners. The motion was accompanied by a paper that warned of “a shift in the locus of ‘strategic’ decision making in the same direction, away from the bishops in their diocese to the NCIs”, concluding that “the financial flows of the past 25 years have disrupted the ancient balance of authority in the Church”.
The availability of Strategic Development Funding grants and SMMI grants rested on the pensions settlement, “which is the root cause of the financial instability in DBFs these funds are seeking to assist with”, the paper argued.
On Saturday, Dr Gibbs said that it was “deeply regrettable” that this debate had not occurred. Diocesan Finances Review proposals, designed to ease dioceses’ financial woes, including increased SMMI funding and the abolition of diocesan apportionment (News, 27 January), were “not sufficient in either quantity or longevity”, he said: a view shared by “a good many of my colleagues in other dioceses”
The Review reported last year that diocesan deficits were expected to double from £29 million in 2022 to £62 million in 2024 (News, 21 June 2024), and that 23 dioceses held less than three months’ cash reserves.
“The renewed and strengthened emphasis on SMMIB and the Diocesan Investment Programme, with resources going only to special projects approved by the Board, further exacerbates the sense of control by the centre,” Dr Gibbs said.
“That may have been a necessary adjustment at the time when the Strategic Development Fund was first set up, to reduce what was referred to as ‘subsidising decline’ and to encourage a focus on promoting growth, but many of us feel that dioceses themselves are now much better placed and equipped to work out how and where the money would best be spent for the sake of mission locally” (News, 21 October 2016).
The latest annual report of the diocese of Rochester shows an operating deficit of £1.8 million. For some years, its DBF has warned that the position — partly maintained by the sale of property, including the Upper Beckenham estate last year — is unsustainable. In 2016, it resorted to emergency cost-cutting measures (News, 15 July 2016). Reserves have since grown, but parish share has fallen by 19 per cent in the past decade, from £9.34 million to £7.52 million. Average all-age Sunday attendance has fallen by more than a third in the past decade, to 14,900.
Diocese of RochesterThe Bishop of Rochester, Dr Jonathan Gibbs
The number of full-time equivalent stipendiary clergy has fallen from 206 in 2009 to 168. The annual report refers to a pledge to “invest in and support parish ministry and sustain clergy numbers overall”. On Saturday, Dr Gibbs emphasised that this was something to which his diocese was “deeply committed”.
The SMMI grant of £11 million, announced on Saturday, covers a five-year period and will supplement the £10.9 billion already budgeted by the diocese for its nine-year vision, Called Together, approved by the diocesan synod in December.
Under Called Together, ever parish would “have the opportunity to benefit from initiatives designed to grow the number of people attending church from a diverse range of backgrounds, including children, young people and families”, a diocesan press release said.
“This new funding partnership with the Church of England will allow more work to be undertaken and in a shorter timeframe in support of the already fantastic ministry and outreach taking place on the ground in parishes.”
The priorities include “investment in missionally healthy places” and “revitalising fragile churches”. The press release emphasises investment in parishes. It lists a “mission-orientated training programme for clergy and lay leaders”; “supportive missional networks” for church officers, including churchwardens, administrators, parish safeguarding officers, and children’s workers; and a well-being programme for clergy, lay leaders, and head teachers.
There are plans to establish three parish-based “centres of excellence” to showcase and support work with specific age-ranges of children and young people, and 15 “mission-focused parish projects” that will “purposefully offer to share learning beyond their boundaries”.
Dr Gibbs described it as “an ambitious, hope-filled plan that aims to better support work on the frontline in our parishes . . . growth in our churches is already happening and can happen still more”.
The diocesan secretary, Matthew Girt, said that it was “not a plan where only a few will benefit but an integrated vision for operational and cultural change”.
The Archdeacon of Bromley and Bexley, the Ven. Allie Kerr, one of the authors of the bid, said: “We believe God wants to grow our churches, and we know that for a plant to grow it needs the right kind of soil. A key part of the vision is therefore about us working together as a diocesan family to nurture healthy cultures that allow all our settings to be welcoming, safe places where all are valued and can flourish.
“This vision is also about refocusing our diocesan support services to come alongside parishes, to listen and understand their unique contexts, and equip them with the resources and support they need to help them serve their communities in the way they know best.”
Since 2018, the diocese of Rochester has secured more than £8 million of external funding. This includes one of the first SDF grants issued by the Archbishops’ Council: £665,000 in 2016 towards plans to develop mission in Chatham Town Centre (News, 11 August 2017).
The latest annual report records that St John’s, Chatham, which had been closed for about 25 years and has secured £2.3 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, is now “open and engaging in transformative outreach into the community”. In 2023, there were ten baptisms and reaffirmations of baptismal vows, eight of which came out of initiatives run by the Church Army.
In 2019, the diocese was awarded a further SDF grant of £1.39 million for projects in four parishes: Christ Church, Anerley; St Augustine’s, Slade Green; Christ Church, Erith, Gillingham; and St Francis’s, Strood (News, 9 August 2019). On Monday, a diocesan spokeswoman said that the parishes had successfully planted 16 new worshipping communities and that a learning community had been established “to share the experience and insights between these projects and others in a similar situation”.
“Through these projects, we have confirmed that success is based on good, missional leadership, effective and committed disciples, together with presence in and relevance to the local community,” she said. “It has also helped us identify the virtuous circle of missional leaders — missional disciples — missional churches. This requires intentionality of invitation and discipleship at all levels and stages, demonstrated by missional leaders who set the missional DNA of the church.”
The annual report also lists a grant of £714,130 from the national Church “aimed at increasing our capacity to help us develop our vision and strategic plan”. The money was allocated to investment in archdeacons, property, fund-raising, communications, and HR.
The diocese serves a population of 1.3 million, which is expected to increase by 300,000 over the next 20 years.
