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Paul Barlow
New member
Username: Pbarlow

Post Number: 1
Registered: 10-2006

Posted on Monday, October 30, 2006 - 8:48 pm:

Our Benefice Treasurer has been asked to undertake a review of this subject when I thought it had already been beaten to death and a complex formula arrived at to adjust PRs with some increasing and others decreasing over a five year timeframe.

Personally, I consider this a cop-out by Diocesan House making ends meet is their problem not ours. I would go even further and suggest that the Church as a whole needs to manage its finances entirely differently from the way it does at present. I would propose a radical return to benefices being entirely self financing as they were until the Church Commissioners were formed, took central control and introduced the ‘level playing field’ approach with all Parish Clergy paid the same stipend. What a massive disincentive that was– the good clergy are paid the same as the worse performing clergy neither of whom has a vested interest in producing results, the most desirable result presumably being a numerous and generous congregation. Under the old system successful popular priests prospered i.e. their benefice income was high and the unsuccessful unpopular ones floundered, had low incomes and eventually became monks or hermits (It was exclusively a male preserve in those days and today the unsuccessful female priests could always become nuns! - apologies if that could be construed as a sexist remark).

I advocate the principles of Adam Smith ‘let market forces prevail’ - Each Benefice has to pay its Clergys' stipends and living expenses, meet the upkeep costs of its Churches and make a contribution to the Church Commissioners Clergy Pension Fund.

The Church Commissioners in future manage the funds they hold: -
1. To finance the Archbishops, possibly the Bishops and failing Benefices if deemed essential, with the balance being
2. The Clergy Pension Fund

Being even more radical let Priests be chosen by the Benefice PCC he/she is to serve, the Bishops be elected by the Priests in that Diocese and the Archbishops by the Bishops. Would that be too democratic? Maybe but it's a lot better than the present system.

Is this too simplistic - those Benefices that can survive will and those that fail to make the grade will disappear which in my view is what they should be allowed to do.
As Adam Smith advocated 'Market forces will prevail'

Administration

The views expressed here are those of the poster. The Diocese of Oxford does not endorse any opinion posted here.