1. Parish Share Scheme 2017
Loving Living Learning is the new vision statement for the Diocese. This is as we move together as it says on the explanatory booklet – a new direction for a new diocese.

2. Parish Share Enabling the Vision
Loving. Our experience of God’s love compels us to show compassion to all and build outward - looking communities.
As we experience God’s generous love and what it means to us in our lives we respond with gratitude by being generous with what God has given us. Mutual support and love between parishes more enables us to have a Christian presence in every corner of our diocese.

3. Parish Share Enabling the Vision
Living.
Celebrate the abundance of life
Engage with the world
Challenge injustice
Respect and protect the environment
1,We celebrate abundance by being generous with all our resources . We promote humans flourishing by taking responsibility for supporting those who have least.
2.We are committed to the world as it is but we are fired by a vision of what it might be and we put out money where our vision is.
3.Our faith calls us to live a generous life and to demonstrate a way of approaching our finances so as to challenge the prevailing culture of always seeking material security at the expenses of others .
4.We are responsible for our stewardship of creation. Yorkshire needs a thriving church that can carry this commitment through generations to come.

4. Parish Share Enabling the Vision
Learning.
We are confident:
We are always listening - to God, the world and each other
We are always learning - alert to Jesus’s challenge to live differently
With a confident humility we listen to both God and the world seeking to be faithful to our calling and respective to mutual needs.
Being radically generous to one another is challenging when we fear we don’t have enough.

5. Parish Share Scheme 2017 recap of the process
Initial consultation outline proposal
A system based on resource cost adjusted for relative deprivation
Deanery/Parish consultations amended proposal
Introduction of attendance element and rural adjustments
Synod discussion final proposal
Introduction of other features to cap changes and reflect affordability plus updating to IMD 2015 with rural adjustments
This slide gives a recap of the process and the various stages it went through from the initial consultations and proposal based on a cost based system adjusted for IMD. Further deanery and parish consultations, introducing an attendance factor and rural adjustment. Final proposal based on IMD for 2015 with capping limits to reflect affordability issues and transition to the new system
The basic principle behind our Parish Share system is one of giving with grace supporting one another and trusting God.

6. Parish Share Scheme Main Components
There are three main components by which we calculate Parish share for every parish or benefice:
Component 1: - a resource factor based on deployment of ministry of full time stipendiary priest or house-for-duty priest and a contribution to support costs (67%).
House duty priest - this is where a priest lives in the vicarage in exchange for offering priestly ministry to a benefice without receiving a stipendiary.

7. Parish Share Scheme Main Components
Component 1: Allocation of resources to parishes
Element
Stipendiary Cost (£k)
House for Duty Cost (£k)
Stipend
26.6 NI
2.2
Pension
9.5
Sub-total
38.3
Housing
8.4
Indirect Other
6.8
TOTAL PER FTE
53.5
15.2
This is the first element of the parish share system and is based on the direct cost of the clergy deployed in the parishes. The direct costs are made up of the cost of the stipendiary clergy, stipendiary curates in training and house for duty costs. The direct total costs are for the purposes of the calculation based on a figure of £53.5k. This is not what the clergy are paid but takes into account the stipend cost employers national insurance contribution, the cost of pension provision and housing costs.
Clergy training and other costs includes the provisions of curates in training, archdeacons, all clergy /lay training chaplaincy posts and other central costs administrative costs which have been allocated as £6.8K per parish. The real cost is much higher but we have been able to reduce the overall costs to parishes by using other sources of revenue received by our diocese for example, investment income ,stipendiary fees, Church commissioners income etc. .

8. Summary of the Breakdown of resources
Clergy costs in percentage terms
The pie chart show in a more visual way how the resource costs are broken down. As you will see 55% is made up of stipend and employers national insurance costs, with the remaining costs are as shown on the pie chart with pension and housing costs amounting to over a third, clergy training and other costs at 10%.

9. Parish Share Scheme Main Components
Component 2: - attendance factor taking account of the differing size of churches and their consequent ability and capacity to contribute towards Parish share (33%):
The data used is adult Usual Sunday Attendance for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015.
This data will be fixed for at least three years to give room for growth and stability.
Definition – attendance is based on the returns submitted by parishes to Church House in London on the annual statistics for mission returns. This element of the calculation uses the usual Sunday attendance figure. This is the adult attendance on a usual Sunday not a major festival or contained in a peak holiday period.
These two components are combined taking 67% of component 1 and adding to 33% of component 2 to give a base share.

10. Parish Share Scheme Main Components
Component 3: - a social economic factor based on the new 2015 Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) data with an adjustment for small and rural parishes.
The IMD factor is applied to both the main components of the Parish Share formula based on the following ratios
67% on deployment costs
33% on attendance
NB: A small and rural parish is - a congregation of less than 50 and population size of less than 1500.
IMD is the formula used by the government for calculating how deprived a given community is IMD uses an income measure but also employment health and disability, education barriers to housing services living environment and crime. IMD is used heavily by the government in their calculations and it the best tool we have of assessing the levels of deprivation and therefore the potential giving capacity of members of each parish.
It is a measure that is independent rigorous fair readily available and usable in our parochial context.
The adjustment for small rural parishes is if it is below average on the deprivation scale ( i.e. more wealthy) any additional cost will not be applied. If it is average on the deprivation scale (i.e. less wealthy) it will continue to receive the reduction in cost.

11. Parish Share Scheme Other features
Capping of parish share based on Total Unrestricted Income
There are a number of parishes where the share request in the past has been close to, or more than, 100% of the parish’s total income. This is totally unachievable and a disincentive to the parish.
The new share system caps share to a maximum of 80% of Total Unrestricted Income as declared in 2015 accounts and formal parish returns.
Total Unrestricted Income – for the purposed of the 80% capping we have taken total unrestricted income to be regular income received under planned giving and gift aid recovered, income from fundraising activities, investment income and income from church activities such as fees and hall lettings . We have excluded legacies and one – off grant income due to their irregular nature.

12. Parish Share Scheme Other features
Restrict level of increases & decreases
To mitigate significant increases and smooth the effect of the new scheme it has been decided that any increase be limited to 15% from current share and any decrease be limited to 8%.
This will give those churches facing significant increases an opportunity to develop their income to meet the additional request and come fully in line with the new system. The share increase of 15% would be inclusive of normal diocesan cost inflation and not in addition to it.
Inevitably with the dissolution of the three former systems there will be considerable changes and some parishes will face significant challenges. From the feedback received it has been decided to limit the increases and decreases. The percentages are the ones suggested by the vast majority of the feedback received and thought to be fair, equitable and achievable.

13. Our Diocese - Do you know…
How it is funded?
How the money is used across the Diocese?
How many people we employ and train – here are some fact and figures?
Some questions for information

14. Our Diocese - Do you know…
How the Diocese is funded?
Diocesan synod approved a budget of £25.2 million. Over two thirds of the diocesan income comes from parish share contributions.
Your Share, Your Gift, Our Diocese enables us to function as a church. The church commissioners do give us support because we are one of the more deprived dioceses but the majority of their income goes to help pay for clergy pensions, for cathedrals and bishops and to help foster mission and growth across the Church of England as a whole.

15. Our Diocese - Do you know…
How the money is used across the Diocese?
This means the 93 pence in every pound goes towards our parishes in paying clergy stipends, their housing and ongoing training. Also funding curates; their selection, training, stipends and housing. Providing support for ministry for example, vital safeguarding, work with children & young people, church schools, lay training ,communication , funding and giving programmes. Also support with legal and trust matters.
7 pence in every pound is spent on management and administration to help all of the above to happen.

16. Our Diocese - Who we Fund and/or train
Details
Numbers
Paid clergy including parish posts , curates and five archdeacons
320
Chaplaincies including higher education 5
Specialist lay advisers 18
Lay staff including administration of payroll, human
resources, finance, housing, synodical government 69
Self – supporting clergy 92
Licenced Readers
274
Education team members 11
These are the numbers of people who work within the diocese to provide for God’s mission which are directly paid or trained from diocesan funds. The bishops’ stipends are funded by the church commissioners as are the deans and residentiary canons of our cathedrals and they have not been included in the above.

17. Our Diocese - Parish share
Parish Share can be defined as -
The contribution requested from Parishes to support the Mission and Ministry of the Churches
within our Diocese of Leeds.
This is one definition to sum up what Parish share means. It is a request and parishes have a moral obligation to pay. If parishes don’t it means others have to pay more.

18. Parish Share pays to support our clergy in their work
We ask a great deal of our parish clergy – the biggest part of the costs of the diocese is in providing as many parish priests as we can, with their stipends, housing and pensions.
Supporting Ministers/Readers - parish priests are supported by ordained and lay ministers who along with staff at Church House offer skills advice, training and hands-on expertise for parishes throughout the year.
You can’t put a price on clergy ministry but it does cost to provide them with a proper salary, pension provision for their retirement and adequate housing for them and their family.
Clergy and churches are supported by Self Supporting Ministers, Readers and the staff at Church House.

19. The Bible and Parish Share
The following biblical principles are offered to root our thinking about parish share:
Giving with Grace
Mutual Support
We have more by sharing
Dependence on God
Your Share. Your Gift. Our Diocese.
Giving in Grace – the gifts made for the early church in Jerusalem described in 2 Corinthians 8 are commended by Paul for being given with generosity and grace.
Mutual support – the earliest Christians spent time together, prayed together and held things in common (Acts 2 v 43-47). The sense of mutual support can be applied both to individuals in respect of their own giving and also to those churches with greater resources supporting those who have less.
We have more by sharing – the sharing of wealth possessions and skills enables opportunities for multiplication. The gift of the five loaves and two small fish followed by the miracle of the feeding of the multitude ( John 6 v 5-14).
Dependence on God – the model of discipleship presented in the Gospels is based upon dependence upon God’s provision (Matt 6 v20) rather than upon building up levels of reserves by those who can afford it, aiming to provide total security for themselves for the future, as in the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12 v 13-21).

20. Parish Share - Difficulty paying?
If you find that your parish cannot pay - either because you believe that you have been wrongly assessed or the increase requested is beyond your means then please contact your Area Dean who will discuss your situation with the Archdeacon. The Archdeacon will then contact the Finance Team/ Stewardship Funding & Development Team in the Leeds Office to offer help and support.
Please keep the lines of communication open and contact the Area Dean to discuss your situation. Every parish will be treated on an individual basis.

21. Parish Share - Support Available
The Finance Team & the Stewardship Funding and Development Team based in Leeds can offer both one-to-one support and a range of tools to help parishes.
If you wish to discuss what support might be best for you please contact the team:
Shaun Birch
Paul Winstanley
Uell Kennedy
Jo Beacroft-Mitchell
General enquires you can
Help on cutting costs and everyday utility bills, maximising Gift Aid and tax recovery on your giving, encouraging increased levels of giving within your congregation and advice on developing mission ideas and accessing external funding.
Giving for Life gives help in sharing good practice.

22. Thank you Supporting Each Other Loving Living Learning
Your Share, Your Gift, Our Diocese. Without the continued generosity of the parishes we would be unable to support each and every parish and to provide mission and ministry in every community.

23. Closing Prayer God of every time and place ,
You hold each moment and shape each day;
By the gentleness of Your Spirit, transform us;
With the gifts of Your Spirit, equip us,
In the boldness of Your Spirit send us out
To serve you and transform the world.
In the name of Jesus Christ
Our Lord
Amen.
To stand and say together.