Parish Churches Funding 2024-05-23
2024-05-23
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Direct Answer
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Context
The question arises from concerns about the financial support provided to local church parishes.
What steps the Church of England is taking to provide funding to parish churches. The MP inquires into measures being taken by the Church to financially support local parishes, which are a core part of Anglican ministry.
Parish ministry is at the heart of all that the Church of England does. Between 2023 and 2025, the Church Commissioners are distributing £1.2 billion to support our mission and ministry. That is a 30% increase on the previous three-year period, and the lion's share of that funding goes to dioceses to strengthen and grow local ministry in parishes and worshipping communities. In addition, the commissioners wish to maintain that level of funding over the next six years, which would mean £3.6 billion being distributed between 2023 and 2031.
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Assessment & feedback
Response accuracy
Q2
Partial Answer
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Context
The question arises from the forced amalgamation of parishes in various dioceses, raising issues about local autonomy and resource allocation.
Does my hon. Friend share my concern about the forced amalgamation of parishes that many dioceses across the country are undertaking? Vibrant and viable local churches in dioceses such as Liverpool are being offered the invidious choice of either surrendering their autonomy to become part of new mega-parishes or giving up access to resources from the centre—resources that they themselves contribute to the centre. As my hon. Friend has said and implied, surely the whole value of the Church of England is in the local parish system, not in its regional bureaucracies.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He is right to highlight to the House that there are pressures in some areas, and he is also right to point out that the parish network across the whole of England—across every one of our constituencies in England—is extremely precious. We must do everything we can to preserve it, and I make that point at every opportunity.
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Assessment & feedback
The specific measures or actions taken by the Church of England to address parish amalgamation concerns.
We Must Do Everything We Can To Preserve It
Response accuracy