New Year is a good time to be looking back and forward. As Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s second Secretary General prayed: “For all that has been, thank you. For all that is to come, yes!”
God is faithful in his provision for us and for his church (often coming through us). Recently published insights into 2024 Church of England finances show many signs of continuing financial health in Lichfield Diocese’s churches, which is vital to a confident, thriving body of Christ, growing in love and service. So we can give thanks while remaining prayerful about our future needs and our part in providing them.
Thinking and praying is all the more relevant after the recent round of consultations with parishes this autumn which resoundingly backed using the diocese’s increased income over coming years from the Church’s national historic investments to invest in parishes rather than merely balancing the books.
The challenge is for parishes to achieve and maintain financial sustainability rather than spending all-too-exhaustible reserves. We will need to make the right spending choices to take us there. 2024’s on-the-ground analysis of parishes shows us some encouraging signs as well as pointers to things that need attention.
One stand-out is that parishes are taking the responsibility of caring for their buildings as seriously as ever. They have found more money for their buildings in recent years with capital expenditure on buildings rising back to the pre-pandemic peak of £5 million a year, although this is not exactly comparable because of inflation. Even better news is that the amount of grant income has risen to closely track and almost equal the level of capital expenditure 2022-2024. This is a sea-change on a decade ago, so join me in giving thanks for the sources of grants for buildings, mostly trusts, and for all the skilled people, especially those in St Mary’s House, who know where to apply and how to write the applications. In future, grant funding should be even easier to access through technological marvels like the Cornerstone1 platform which the national church is rolling out across dioceses.
Looking at our churches income and expenditure can also inform our future choices and the recently published data is uniquely about money flowing into and out of parishes. Total income rose slightly from 2022-20242 in monetary terms, again after a pandemic drop. A rise in income is always a cause of gratitude, but it is still lower than pre-pandemic. Expenditure on parish share (common fund, which pays for parishes to have serving, trained, housed and pensioned clergy and more besides) is broadly flat. It is the minor sources of income that have increased: interest, property income (church halls, parish houses), dividends and anything else. This is great, but the major part of parishes’ income comes from giving and gift-aid. Notably, that is coming from fewer people giving more. Our aim and our call is for more people giving more!
So amongst the gratitude to God for giving, for givers and for Gift aid, here is a prayer: “All things come from you and of your own do we give you. Help us to put our whole selves into Seeking your Kingdom. Help us to offer our time, our talents and our treasure to this task so that we may overflow with thanks and be found talking, not about finding resources, but about using what we have to grow your church. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Over coming months, we will be providing resources and encouragement with giving and sharing further insights from this data and the Church of England’s Generous Giving programme.
The Ven Liz Jackson, Archdeacon of Walsall
You can read more on our website about the Cornerstone platform that helps parishes identify and track grant providers.
See too the Finance summary dashboard for the parishes of the Diocese of Lichfield is at