Parish Share

The amount of parish share you pay probably seems like a lot of money, and for most parishes is the largest single item they have to pay for.
 
Most parish share, however comes straight back to the parishes in the form of ministry, and half the rest pays for a broad range of training.
 
The table, below shows how the parish share is spent:


  • Download 2008 Budget leaflet (pdf)

  •  

    Total

    Per Electoral Roll
    Member Average
    per week3

    £ £

    Ministry (clergy stipends, pension costs, national
    insurance, housing, continuing training)1

    5,400,000 5.19

    Training of curates, including housing, college and stipend

    865,000 0.83

    Training of ordained local ministers,
    authorized lay ministers, readers,
    lay training (parish officers etc)

    435,000 0.41

    Senior clergy (bishops,
    archdeacons, including office cost2

    140,000 0.13

    National Church (General Synod, National Church Institutions)

    250,000 0.24

    Services (schools support, stewardship, gift aid, criminal records, Diocesan Advisory Committee etc)

    410,000 0.39

    Administration

    500,000 0.48

    Specialised ministries (Church in Society, university chaplains, rural chaplains etc)

    570,000 0.54

     

    8,570,000 8.21

    1 £38,000 for each full-time priest.
    2 Actual cost £400K, Church Commissioners pay the rest.
    3 This is an average and does not take into account the different levels of parish share paid by different parishes. However, the figures show that most of the parish share comes back directly to the parishes in the form of ministry and almost half the balance goes on training.