The Diocese of Worcester’s spent around £1 million more than it received in income during 2018, and is heading for a similar deficit in 2019, a situation which cannot be sustained using reserves for more than another year or two.
Earlier this summer the Bishop of Worcester wrote to all clergy explaining what his team are planning to do to resolve the problem. Further information was revealed at the Diocesan Synod in July.
The gist of the plan is a series of changes across the diocese which should result in a saving of around £1.67 million over the next three to five years, with savings coming from two main areas:
- The number of clergy in the diocese (currently 163 spread across 190 parishes) will be reduced by up to 15 full-time posts.
- Cost cutting in the diocesan bureaucracy in Worcester. This cost-cutting will trim something like £550,000 from the diocesan budget through a combination of:
- Budget savings (£127,500) in our spend on everything from our support to church schools, to diocesan training courses, mobile phones and closing the Old Palace’s loss-making cafe (which currently loses around £10,000 a year);
- Redundancies at the diocesan office (£181,000) – the equivalent of 5.3 full-time posts; and
- Moving the diocesan office out of the Old Palace in the centre of Worcester into some less impressive, and less expensive, offices elsewhere in the diocese. Due to the rent plus repairs deal the diocese currently has with the Cathedral (the owners of the Old Palace) this is expect to save some £160,000 per year. It will however create a considerable problem for the cathedral , which will have to come up with a plan for what to do with the Old Palace. Many consider it would make a fine boutique hotel: the magnificent view over the river and of Worcester’s Cricket Ground would certainly be popular with cricket fans!
Inevitably moving the diocesan offices out of the Old Palace will be a controversial decision. The Old Palace is a beautiful grade 1 listed building, and has been in religious use since the 12th century. However while acknowledging that many people feel a strong sentimental attachment to the building, the Bishop’s Council feel it is hard to justify cutting the number of vicars even further to maintain an office building where only 22% of the floor space is actually useable for office accommodation.
In addition to cost savings, the diocese has committed to reviewing the Parish Share system. Parish Share is the contribution each parish makes to the cost of its clergy. A lot of people imagine that the Church of England gets money from the government, however this is not the case. In fact the cost of clergy, all of our church buildings and local administration, as well as the cost of things like the Old Palace, comes from individual parishioners giving to their local churches. To put that in its local context, the eight churches and five parishes for which I’m responsible contributed some £68,000 to the Diocese of Worcester in 2018, which is roughly equivalent to the cost of one clergy post (the salary itself is only just over £26,000, the rest covers the cost of national insurance, housing, pension, initial and ongoing training and central costs). It is hoped that by reviewing how Parish Share costs are allocated between parishes, a better way forward can be found for 2021.
The Bishop of Worcester has asked for all who are associated with our churches to be made aware of the challenges ahead, and how the diocese is planning to address this. He asks us to go on being generous in our giving – and to give more to our local church if we can. In particular, he asks us to pray for those who will be made redundant as a result of this situation.
Barry Unwin 14 July 2019