“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
“Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
After opening worship from the Bath and Wells Mothers Union, in his presidential address Bishop Michael opened diocesan synod with these words of Jesus from Luke 14 saying, “What Jesus is telling us is that ‘facts are favourable’ And believe me, my dear brothers and sisters, we’re in this evening for a lot of them. Our agenda is stuffed with facts. Truths that often we’ll not like. Facts that we’ll often wish were otherwise. But realities that in our time and generation we need to deal with.”
Download Bishop Michael's presidential address in full
Before Synod moved on to matters of finance, including the vote on the Benefice Share methodology and a review of the Bath and Wells Board of Finance accounts, General Synod member, the Revd Jo Stobart gave a personal reflection on the recent meeting in York. “Thinking back on that list of the things other than Living in Love and Faith which we discussed in York, the church is continuing to get on with what we might call our ‘core mission’.
“I came away from these sessions inspired to try to find out if we have a BSL interpreter living locally who might come and support us in our worship, to lobby our new MP to keep up pressure on the new government to end the normalising of foodbanks in our society, to acknowledge the direct link between climate justice and racial justice, and to pray for the release of Layan Nassir, a young Palestinian Christian woman of only 24, who has been detained without charge by the state of Israel since April.
“And yet, LLF is not something we can ‘get past'... The amended motion on LLF that was narrowly passed is not the end of the story. We will return to it in February for further votes.”
Read the Revd Jo Stobart's reflection in full
Diocesan Synod approved a motion that the Bath and Wells Diocesan Synod, in line with other diocesan synods, call upon the Church Commissioners and archbishops to redistribute financial resources directly to diocesan funds before moving on to discuss the proposed new method for calculating the amount parishes are requested to contribute into our Common Fund.
The new Benefice Share methodology was put forward by Bishop’s Council following a period of consultation across the diocese earlier in the year. After some discussion, Diocesan Synod voted, with a clear majority, to approve the new methodology, which will come into effect in 2025.
Download the paper outlining the new methodology proposal
Ian Theodoreson, Chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance for Bath and Wells then opened the AGM for the board with the sad news that he will be stepping down from his role, when a replacement can be found.
Moving on to the financial position of the diocese going forward he said, “Too many parishes are failing to meet their Parish Share in full and our recovery rate in 2023 was below that of 2022, at 89% of what is required. This is a reflection of the headwinds that our parishes are facing financially but also, I suspect, because people don’t appreciate that the diocese cannot function without everybody playing their part via the Parish Share system.
But he added, “It’s not all doom and gloom. We have done terrific work in the last few years bringing our debt exposure down from over £10m to £4m and we have brought a new focus to our management of glebe land and investments so they are delivering around £3m of expendable income each year. However, there is much to be done, which can only be done if we work together with a unity of vision.”
Download Ian’s address in full
The DBF report and accounts were accepted by Synod. The next meeting of Diocesan Synod takes place on Saturday, 15 November.
Downloads
Presidential address from Bishop Michael
A personal reflection on General Synod July 2024 from the Revd Jo Stobart
Download the Synod paper outlining the new methodology proposal