You might have to work your way past a few dodgy headlines to find it, but those who actually read the latest church statistics will have seen plenty of good news.
First up, parish giving statistics were published. Against all expectations giving was up in 2008, shaking off the recession. This is pretty remarkable in itself. The fact that over half a million people now give by tax efficient planned giving is amazing. Total giving by parishes was £925m in 2008, up from £898 the year before, of which £52m was then given away by parishes to other charities. Fabulous stuff.
Next we hear that the bishops have managed to cut their costs by £400,000. Bishop Nick Baines quite rightly unloads both barrels on one report which implied their costs had gone up.
After that we see further good news in the number of people put forward for ordination training. A further 491 were put forward in 2009, making a total of 1338 in training. In total, 564 new clergy were ordained in 2009. These numbers go up and down a little every year, but these are healthy numbers.
The next set of stats is on parishes which have voted for either Resolution A, Resolution B or have opted for oversight from a flying bishop. Resolution A is the means by which parishes refuse to accept women to preside or celebrate communion and Resolution B is the means by which parishes refuse to accept a woman as incumbent.
Headlines latched on to the fact that the number of parishes which have requested oversight from a flying bishop has increased significantly over the past 10 years, and now stands at 363 (2.8% of all parishes), stating that the number of parishes opposed to women priests has increased.
This is not true, however, as the number of parishes who have opted out of women's ministry has reduced.
The story is a little more subtle to Mouse. Firstly the increase of 22% since 2000 in parishes overseen by flying bishops is off a very small base, so percentages are a bit of a distortion. Secondly the full picture shows that the number of parishes which have passed Resolution A and B has fallen reasonably significantly and now stand at 802 Resolution A parishes and 966 Resolution B parishes. Mouse reckons that means that the total number of parishes who object to women priests is actually falling, whilst the remnant is hardening in a small number of parishes.
So we have plenty of ordinands, giving increasing despite the recession, bishops costs down and fewer people unhappy about women priests (OK, Mouse does actually think that's good news).
Sunday, 31 October 2010
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"Total giving by parishes was £925m in 2008, up from £898 the year before, an inflation busting 10% increase". I assume there is a typo here (on the figures given the increase is only 3%).
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you're enthusiastic, my reaction was more mixed. It's encouraging that giving has gone up, hough I look back through the stats and wondering why church giving levels were so comparatively lukewarm a generation ago.
ReplyDeleteMy chief concern is with the age and number of clergy, and of clergy entering training. The number of full-time leaders in the church is falling sharply, but as yet there are no real steps to transition to a church which is primarily lay-led, as happens in other parts of the Anglican communion, and in other church streams. There is still a big bulge of older clergy approaching retirement, and the situation at parish level is going to get worse before it gets better. The CofE is going to have to
a) Find ways of lessening clergy dependence (a big problem for the Catholic wing) or
b) Close lots of churches or
c) Accept continuing decline, as most of its key leaders will not have time to do the job they're being asked to do.
The age of clergy entering training is another big concern. Even with the pension age going up (which will expand clergy numbers overnight by deferring retirement), 1/3 of clergy recommended training (those 50 and over) will have a maximum of 10 years running a parish. With up to a year from recommendation to training, then 2-3 years of training (depending on whether the course is residential or not) then 3 years curacy, a 50 year old recommended for training today won't be able to take on a parish until they are 56-7. I'm guessing the folk in their 60's are mostly non-stipendiary?
At the other end of the scale, the number of younger candidates for training is low, and will get lower. As the average age of Anglicans continues to rise, an ageing church will produce fewer young candidates for ordination. Bob Jacksons research suggests that clergy tend to work best with people up to 10 years older or younger than themselves. This makes me pessimistic, am I right to be?
Churchmailbox - oh dear. That's for pointing that out.
ReplyDeleteDMK - very interesting stuff. Your question is probably worthy of more serious study than the Mouse is capable of. I can only offer a few thoughts.
Mouse would certainly not be afraid to shut some churches. In urban areas, in particular, the parish system makes no sense to most people. In Mouse's neck of the woods in London there are 6 CofE churches within a 10 minute walk of each other, none of which are ever full, and all the young 'uns get on the bus and go to HTB.
I think you're right on the balance of stipendiary and non-stipendiary. Having someone capable of leading a service is totally different from someone who spends their whole week focused on leading the church, and developing the church's mission in the community. The challenge, again particularly in urban areas, is to realise that few people think in parish terms, so mission planning must take place more effectively at the area or deanery level.
The other thing I get the sense of is that younger people simply don't see the need to get ordained to be involved in church leadership. And they're right, to a large degree. The Church just needs to learn how to deal with that.