THE Church Commissioners would have to allocate an amount equivalent to one per cent of their endowment annually to Diocesan Stipend Funds, under a new Measure proposed by the Bishop of Hereford, Dr Richard Jackson, and the Bishop of Bath & Wells, Dr Michael Beasley.
The fund currently stands at £11.1 billion, generating a hypothetical allocation of £111 million.
On Monday, the two Bishops sent an email to all diocesan bishops urging them to support their proposal. It is set out in an amendment to the Redistribution of Funds motion, which originated in Hereford diocese and is set to be debated at the General Synod this month (News, 27 January).
The original motion calls on the Church Commissioners and the Archbishops’ Council to “undertake everything necessary to effect a redistribution of financial resources directly to Diocesan Stipend Funds to reflect the value of contributions made by Diocesan Boards of Finance to the Church of England Funded Pension Scheme since it was established by the settlement of 1997 (£2.6 billion)”. It was scheduled to be debated in February, but adjourned after time ran out.
In the interim, the Triennium Funding Working Group (TFWG) has published a set of spending plans which include £200 million of “time-limited support” for dioceses over the next nine years (News, 13 June 2025). The aim is to “address short-term financial pressures and fund existing ministry costs whilst waiting for missional interventions to translate into improved financial health”.
Under the TFWG plans, grants agreed by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) would remain a significant means of distributing funds to dioceses: the total available over the three years is set to rise by almost nine per cent, to £416.4 million.
Last month, Dr Jackson said that “to put such an enormous quantum of money through the SMIIB process is a mistake”, and called for funding to be channelled directly to diocesan stipend funds, “to ensure we can keep clergy numbers up rather than constantly cutting and reconfiguring parishes and claiming it’s a clever missional strategy” (News, 13 June).
In York, Dr Jackson will move the original motion, and Dr Beasley will move a “friendly amendment”. This instructs the Business Committee to “introduce a Measure requiring that the Church Commissioners allocate annually and directly to Diocesan Stipend Funds, commencing no later than 1 January 2029, an amount equivalent to one per cent of the total Church Commissioners endowment as valued at 31 December of the preceding year”.
The allocation would be distributed “according to a fair formula to be determined by the Archbishops’ Council following consultation with the House of Bishops”, and would include “appropriate financial safeguards to ensure the long-term preservation of the endowment”. It would also “provide legal mechanisms permitting adjustment of distributions in exceptional economic circumstances”.
The Measure would include “provisions for standardised, annual, financial reporting by dioceses to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of these funds for parish ministry enabling the growth of our churches and the life of God’s Kingdom”.
The amendment acknowledges the “valuable work” of the TFWG, but also recognises that “the catastrophic deterioration of diocesan finances . . . is a serious impediment to all of the Church of England’s strategic outcomes, particularly the revitalisation of the parish system.”
In an email to diocesan colleagues, the Bishops write that the aim is “to obtain sustained annual funding from the Church Commissioners’ income in order to eliminate the current and deteriorating picture of diocesan deficits and to enable reasonable investment in diocesan growth led by the local expertise of dioceses and their parishes. . .
“If carried, it will apply the expertise that matters most, the local understanding of our people, our churches, our clergy, our parishes and our dioceses, to the deployment of funding.”
Ten dioceses have carried Synod motions identical to the Hereford motion, and a further two dioceses have raised supportive ones.
