Common Fund

Common Fund 2025: Request for Parish Financial Contribution

Common Fund is a contribution from every church in the Church of England Birmingham towards the costs of ministry and mission across the city region.  Common Fund is not a payment for services, but a sharing of life together that the Gospel might be proclaimed everywhere, through the shared funding of Ministry. It continues to be a parish voluntary contribution, but it is what supports and funds our ability to deliver our wider mission. 

Before I start to talk about 2025, I want to say a huge THANK YOU for all of your contributions however small in 2024 so far.  The contribution of your people and communities, and your work and prayers are central to maintaining the work of the Church of England Birmingham. Please accept and convey to your community enormous thanks and appreciation from myself and all of the CofE Birmingham family.

Life since March 2020 has been challenging for us all -  for diocesan finances this has meant using reserves that we had planned to use to support the real transformation and reimagining of mission and ministry through People & Places simply to maintain “business as usual”.

In 2019 as part of People & Places, we introduced a new methodology to calculate Common Fund contributions from parishes.  The pandemic and cost of living crisis showed that it was not a robust methodology and since 2021 we have been using the 2020 calculations as the basis for your suggested payments.  As part of this, parishes have had a high level of discretion with regard to their payments – so that local discernment has become a key part of common fund giving.

We still have some way to go to develop a new Common Fund methodology and there will be more on this over the coming year as, working with the Church Commissioners, we finalise our long term financial sustainability plan.  Whatever the new methodology is, we intend to make it as easy to understand as possible.

For 2025, Bishop’s Council has determined an interim approach to Common Fund, which will allow an aspect of  “free will” to PCCs in their discernment of their contribution within the context of a parish’s ministry provision and diocesan (BDBF) operating costs.  The Common Fund leaflet provides you with the contextual information so that you can do this.  I would encourage you to take time to look carefully at this detailed information and most importantly to listen to my recorded message, which you can find here.

The Common Fund leaflet sets out the 2025 financial budget for the Diocese (“DBF”) – which shows a planned operating deficit of £1,518,000. As I say in the video, this is largely due to Common Fund contributions not recovering to pre-covid levels.  The leaflet also provides a breakdown of our costs into a number of key areas; Core cost of stipendiary ministry for your incumbent/vicar/priest in charge (including housing costs), the costs of training and developing clergy (to ensure a supply of “new” clergy as well as training and supporting those that are in post) and the cost of operating the parish support infrastructure that you all draw on.

Based on this, the costs for each stipendiary incumbent (or curate or associate) for 2025 are as follows:

You may not have a stipendiary minister serving your parish alone, but the costs of training and support set out above need to be shared by all of us in Church of England Birmingham. And as you consider your level of contribution to the stipendiary budget, you may like to reflect on the relative affluence of the parishes with whom you share a priest, so we ask you to contribute on the basis of your expected ministry.

Once you have had time to consider these details in the context of your own parish finances, the Archdeacons, Area Deans, Diocesan Secretary and Director of Finance are once again happy to talk to as many parishes as possible to discuss your proposals for your 2025 Common Fund contributions.  This dialogue is critical as we work together to reimagine sustainable mission and ministry deployment that is both effective and affordable for both your PCC and the BDBF, as we work together towards a more financially sustainable future for the Diocese of Birmingham.

For Local Ecumenical Partnerships (“LEPs”), your request has been discussed over the summer with your ecumenical partner. Your Anglican contribution has already been agreed (although you may give more if you wish), and you may receive additional communications from your ecumenical partner in relation to their share.

Please can you let us know your PCC’s agreed common fund commitment using the attached form by 31 December 2024.  You can return a scanned copy to the Finance Team by email, or you can of course return the form by post. 

Our Finance Team and others continue to be here to help you in whatever way we can, as we all navigate these difficult waters together.  Please use your usual finance contacts such as Sonia Hudson and Lucy Pinnock or any of the wider team for help and support.

You and your community remain in my prayers as always and I continue to give thanks for God’s generosity and hope that it will inspire confidence and hope across our shared life as one family in Christ. 

Yours sincerely 

The Rt Revd Dr Michael Volland

Bishop of Birmingham