In this diocese, the basic parish share calculation is done by taking current Church Regular Worshippers (reduced to allow new regular worshippers to be phased in over three years), and applying a weighted multiple according to the category selected by the parish, to reflect the relative income of its regular worshippers.
This information is completed on the survey forms sent out to parish churchwardens in January, which are then returned to the diocesan office and scrutinised at archdeaconry level before being included in the calculation for the next year’s share.
Parish Share survey
Parish Share is the sum of money paid by each parish every year to the diocese to support local ministry. The Common Fund is the total of all 493 parish shares in Bath and Wells.
Every parish contributes to the Common Fund and every parish receives from the Fund.
Benefice Ministry Allowance (BMA)
In response to the priorities of the diocesan strategy, Bishop’s Council has approved a proposal to alleviate some of the additional burden on the larger, growing churches from Common Fund in order to facilitate their continual growth and necessary investment into parish-financed lay ministry.
This has been running since 2018, with qualifying parishes able to apply for an allowance. The allowances will be funded from the Mission Development Fund, not Common Fund.
Benefices may qualify for the allowance if they have:
- More than 150 regular worshippers/stipendiary minister (excluding curates)
- More than 100 regular worshippers in total
Caps and collars
As agreed by Bishop’s Council, caps and collars are used each year to limit the maximum increase or decrease in parish share for individual parishes year-on-year. There are some occasions where caps and collars may be removed from the calculation. In all cases these exceptions are subject to the approval of the Common Fund Committee.
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