God, our God, has blessed us Ps 67.6 Revising MMF Supporting material for members of Truro Diocesan Synod, May 2018
Supporting material for members of Truro Diocesan Synod considering revisions to Mission and Ministry Fund arrangements. May 2018 Contents Psalm 67... 3 1. Introduction from Bishop Chris... 4 A prayer for our synod... 6 2. Psalm 67 and some theology... 7 3. Information by deanery... 13 4. The two core elements... 19 5. The proposal... 20 6. Matters raised at deanery and other consultations... 22 7. The motion to be considered by synod... 24 8. What happens next if the motion is approved?... 24 The item on MMF arrangements will be a significant part of the business before synod in May. We hope that you will be able to read, think, and pray about the decisions we will be making using this booklet. On the day we will do some work in groups, (as we did for the Five Ideas last year,) and some work together as a whole synod, we will assume that members have had the chance to read the information here. If there is more information that you need to help you prepare for synod then please let us know at Church House. 2 P a g e
Psalm 67 To the leader: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song. 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, 2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. 5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you. 6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us. 7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. Why this psalm? We know that the psalms were the first songs and hymns of the church, Jesus knew them and used them and so did his first followers. Psalm 67 has a special place in the life of the Church of England, in the Book of Common Prayer there are set songs to use in Morning and Evening Prayer, like the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, the Song of Mary and the Song of Simeon. Psalm 67 is given as the alternative to the Nunc Dimittis in Evening Prayer; Cranmer used the Latin name for it, the Deus Misereatur. This unique place in the Book of Common Prayer makes Psalm 67 part of the landscape of what it is to be Anglican. 3 P a g e
1. Introduction from Bishop Chris God, our God, has blessed us. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. Psalm 67 is a good place to begin thinking and praying about MMF. The psalm reminds us that God is generous and is blessing us; it is a simple statement of love made in terms of blessing. God is our God, not some abstract concept only relevant to others. Our God does not mean that we own God; all the ends of the earth are called to worship. This is the context of our conversations at synod, our deep trust in God s blessing, God s grace, alongside a call to be generous and faithful ourselves. From the outset, we need to be clear that the synod discussion and decision are not foregone conclusions. Our main aim in preparing the session is to help synod to be faithful and obedient stewards, leaders and ministers. Obedient to God, not to the diocesan board of finance! Hopefully, the DBF have also been obedient to God, and that is the basis on which we are proceeding, but the synod in May can choose to reject, modify, ask for more work, or indeed approve the proposals. The wisdom in the room on the day is important and we hope that the group sessions will contribute to the process. When these proposals first came to synod, and as they have been presented at a series of consultations in every deanery, we have heard about thirteen principles these formed the basis of the detailed conversations so far. At this synod, we do not propose to repeat those conversations but to focus on the two core elements at the heart of the proposal: The idea that today s giving should resource today s church, sometimes described as the cost-aware approach. Or to put it very crudely, that giving overall should at least cover the cost of ministry. 4 P a g e
The idea that the deanery (rather than parish, benefice, archdeaconry, or diocese) will be the level where giving and the costs of ministry are matched. It will be each deanery that needs to see costs covered and which will work out how this is applied at parish or benefice level. The proposals in general, and these two core elements in particular, represent a big change for the way we work together, we need to get this right. We hope that the discussions in synod will be more than a simple yes/no decision but will contribute to getting it right by focussing on how these two elements will work. In this booklet you will find the following: Some thinking about the psalm, reminding us of the five ideas that we looked at as synod in May last year Background information about cost of ministry and our deaneries, some of this is in answer to questions raised at the consultations. If there is other information that you want before synod then do please let us know A little more information about the two core elements Feedback from the consultations that have been taking place The wording of the actual motion that will be tabled at synod Finally, the timetable going forward, should the proposal be approved I appreciate that there is a bit to read, think and pray about, but I do not apologise for that, we want you to be well informed. I commend this booklet to your thinking and praying, and I offer you a prayer on the page following that I intend to use with synod on the day. Bishop Chris 5 P a g e
A prayer for our synod You, O God, are gracious to us, in the face of Jesus Christ your light and glory shine upon us. Illuminate, we pray, the path of this synod, that guided by your Holy Spirit, clothed in love for you and for one another, we may discern your ways. Reveal your holy judgement, make known your saving power in the world, raise up the poor, fill the hungry with good things, make a sign of hope in the world. You are the Father of all nations, sister and brother to all people, may we make known your love in the world, may we be known by our love for one another. You, O God, have blessed us, bless us today and every day, let the ends of the earth come to worship you, to see the face of Jesus Christ shining upon us. In his holy name, Amen. 6 P a g e
2. Psalm 67 and some theology In his introduction, Bishop Chris invites us to hear Psalm 67. The psalm begins by asking, May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations. This is a prayer, a petition. Six verses later at the end of the psalm we get to the much more confident declaration and petition; God, our God, has blessed us. May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him. These notes are about the territory between asking God to be gracious; and knowing and declaring that God is gracious. How do we get from asking, to declaring? It is not a theological argument for (or against) the MMF proposals, but we hope that the thoughts here will help us to think, pray and decide. Five Ideas Most of us took part in the synod discussions about the five ideas last year in May, and then perhaps the Roadshows in the autumn, which looked at the five ideas, and the diocesan Lent course Responding to God s Grace, again using those five themes. We have deliberately spent a whole year framing our thinking and learning together along those lines and this paper is part of that continuum. The question we asked ourselves in May last year was how can we challenge and enable followers of Jesus Christ to live in response to God s grace? and we looked at five ideas: Worship Abundance One body Witness Hope this is about God and his son, Jesus Christ this is about God s creation, where Jesus is revealed this is about God s church, the body of Christ on earth this is about God s people, disciples of Jesus Christ this is about the Resurrection That question and those five ideas need to be in our minds as we do our thinking for this synod. 7 P a g e
Psalm 67 and Confidence (in the Gospel) We have noticed that the psalmist takes us from saying, May God to, God has There are a couple of questions we can ask about this: What is the dot, dot, dot what are the things that we are asking God to do, and that we declare God to be doing? In other words, what are we confident about? How do we get from asking, to declaring? Or, how do we become confident? The psalm tells us about several things that God does, these are the dot, dot, dot, the things that we ask God to do, that we proclaim our confidence that God is doing, and that we ask God to continue doing. These are all about Good News, the Gospel: God saves this is fundamentally what God does and it probably reminded Jewish readers of the Exodus stories God judges puts things right, makes an accurate and true assessment and then, by guiding the nations, acts on it God provides this is sometimes read as a harvest psalm because of verse six God blesses us and the nations this is important because it starts to take us from the first question (what are we confident about?) to the second question (how do we become confident?) We can see that the psalm describes a shift of focus from us, to the nations. It works like this: God blesses us, so that God s power is known to the nations, then the nations praise God and sing for joy. This is how the psalmist gets from asking to declaring, it is by following that shift of focus from us to the nations. There is a kind of binocular effect going on with two different things in view at the same time, the people of God/us in one eyepiece, and the nations in the other eyepiece, brought together in one vision of blessing. Half the psalm, verses 3, 4, & 5 are about the peoples. The Hebrew uses the same word for the peoples and the nations, it is clear that blessing is not just for us it is also for them. 8 P a g e
Psalm 67 and God s mission in the world The psalms tell us about God s mission in the world, God s work among us. We can compare the pattern of God s blessing in psalm 67 to what we see in our church and in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. In other words, we can look for where the saving, the judging and putting things right, and where the providing is going on. The psalm is not an encyclopaedia on blessing and mission, but it makes us think about: Growing a church where these blessings are familiar. Blessing, very close to the idea of grace, could guide the decisions we make for leading the church. What decisions might bring blessings like saving, judging, providing and being a sign to the nations? When we (and others) see these blessings then we can have confidence, not seeing these blessings may feel like a problem. We will need to think about what those blessings may look like in practice and where in the church they are not experienced. When the nations or Cornwall see these things then they will be glad and sing for joy, this is what we are working for. A church that appears to be flourishing in itself, but which makes no difference to the world, is not the blessing the psalm recalls. The psalmist has told us about God s mission, the things that God does, the saving, judging, providing, and hope for others, we can work for and look for these blessings. The blessings are not just for us, but for what the psalm calls the nations, we can work for a church that is outward looking and outward serving. If the mission of the Church really belongs to God, indeed is God s mission, then we must make our decisions with God s mission in mind. As leaders of the church in synod we take seriously our obligation to seek God s will for ourselves and the church. 9 P a g e
God s mission and the five ideas Saving The founding stories of the Hebrew people are, of course, that God has chosen them and saved them from slavery in Egypt. Choosing and saving are interwoven, the Jews were in Egypt because they had been chosen and were faithful, particularly in the time of Jacob and Joseph. The great saving act of the Exodus is where the Hebrew people truly learn to be Israel, literally meaning God rules. In the wilderness, they learn to trust God, and rely on God, but they do not save themselves by learning well or winning battles, God saves them, the only hope worth having is in the faithfulness of God. Thinking of Moses in front of Pharaoh, we remember that he says, Let my people go, so that they may worship. Alongside this, we put the psalmist s insistence that the rejoicing, dancing, worshipping, and indeed saving, is for all nations, not just for the people who know that they are chosen. Judging Judgement may not immediately sound like good news; the word has something grim about it nowadays. A good, and Biblically sound, way of thinking about judgement is as God putting things right while seeing things as they really are. This is not just about how God sees us; the psalmist anticipates things put right between individuals and in society, relationships ordered according to what God sees as right. We think of Biblical ideas of jubilee, self-giving love, and living like those who believe in an abundantly loving and generous God. There are some obvious links to the five ideas here, obviously in living as one body and in the idea of abundance. Making the church a place where judgement is a blessing means having the courage to put right problems that have challenged us for generations, really working to see things as God might see them, understanding where power and riches lay and using them for God s purposes. 10 P a g e
Providing The psalm may well have been a harvest hymn. In a society where famine was never far away, singing, The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us, would have been a profound moment, full of meaning and significance. We will survive another year, we will not watch our children starve this winter, thanks be to God, just starts to get close. We can see that alongside the big story of Israel (the Exodus) there is a much more intimate story in the today of the psalm: this harvest, this providing, this year, and this season, today I rely on you God for this. The acute fragility of ancient society is not a virtue in itself, but today when we think of God providing for us, our complex economy and layers of support tend to obscure our fundamental reliance on God. These things can even make us think that we live in scarcity, implying that somehow God has not been generous enough. God s work of providing makes links to all of the five ideas, but perhaps most of all to the ideas of abundance and hope. All the nations We saw how the movement in the psalm from may God bless, to God has blessed, connects to the relationship between the chosen people and the nations. The Jews did not prioritise conversions to Judaism, but there are strong themes of the nations seeing God s strength and knowing that there is a God in Judah. The psalm goes further than this, looking for the nations to be glad and sing for joy, for all people to praise God, in other words to worship. Remember that for the psalmist, the core crucial act of witness is for the nations to witness the chosen people s blessing; make your face to shine on us, that your ways may be known In our thinking, this highlights the importance of getting our common life right so that when those outside the church see us, they remark on our love for one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another. 11 P a g e
Making connections, and making decisions witness worship hope all nations saving providing We have made some rather obvious connections between the five ideas and the work of God, God s mission, as described in Psalm 67. abundance In truth they all link to judging each other and overlap, one body but these relationships can help us to think about our approach to leading the diocesan family, and making decisions that will shape our life together and that of our churches. In synod we will form smaller groups to begin to apply this learning to the decisions about MMF allocation, but as we think and pray before synod there are some questions that we may wish to consider. How will the proposals help my church to flourish as a place of salvation, will we grow in hopefulness? Do they help us to focus on our core work of worship as the people of God? Do the proposals reveal ways in which we can trust in a God who is generous and provides for us? We can easily behave as if God has somehow failed to deliver enough blessings; where are the blessings in our churches today, and do these proposals value that? How do we lead for seeing clearly and putting things right, how do we renew our love for one another and for the God who loves us? How can the church in Cornwall best reveal God s blessing to the nations? How will our witness and worship be renewed? 12 P a g e
3. Information by deanery Data from returns of parish finance provisional level of the 2019 MMF call after transitional arrangements 13 P a g e
14 P a g e
Trigg Minor & Bodmin 1,200,000 Parish share paid Other expenditure Income Expenditure 1,000,000 800,000 600,000 400,000 200,000 0 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 15 P a g e
We are using provisional figures for authorised ministry costs. This gives a sense of the gap between what we actually paid in 2017 and the cost of ministry. The table below shows the effect of the transitional arrangements that limit changes in call. 16 P a g e
What 10 pays for Average weekly attendance, and total population by deanery, data from statistics for mission published nationally 17 P a g e
Deaneries relative to each other Population 2011 census AWA Adults (2016) AWA Children (2016) AWA (% of pop) Children (% of adults) Carnmarth North 67,370 634 74 0.9% 12% Carnmarth South 39,100 422 24 1.1% 6% East Wivelshire 47,500 655 31 1.4% 5% Kerrier Penwith Powder Pydar St Austell Stratton 32,200 379 74 1.2% 20% 64,300 1028 85 1.6% 8% 43,104 933 140 2.2% 15% 49,000 570 22 1.2% 4% 66,100 815 71 1.2% 9% 21,359 196 9 0.9% 5% Trigg Major 20,053 213 9 1.1% 4% Trigg Minor & Bodmin 42,000 656 46 1.6% 7% West Wivelshire 37,700 611 246 1.6% 40% IMD Benefices Parishes Churches 24.32 5 15 19 20.73 8 9 13 16.92 8 19 32 20.07 6 16 24 27.47 10 27 29 17.43 14 23 38 21.68 7 16 21 21.18 11 19 25 22.38 5 20 23 23.51 5 20 22 22.15 7 24 34 21.34 8 18 23 Most of these figures are from the statistics for mission data that is based on church level annual returns AWA : average weekly attendance. IMD: index multiple deprivation (higher number is more deprived) 18 P a g e
4. The two core elements Getting the detail right is going to be important, but the job of synod is to look at the fundamental policy and then let others put together the detail that will deliver the policy. The proposal has two core elements: Today s giving should resource today s church. Deaneries will be where giving and the cost of ministry are matched. Today s giving, resourcing today s church. There are different ways to share the cost of running a diocese. Each parish or benefice could offer a share of its income, or contribute in proportion to population, or according to relative wealth and poverty, or various combinations of these. The proposal is for a cost aware system. The proposal refers to cost of ministry which should be understood as a financial calculation rather than any of the other important ways in which we use those words. Deaneries will be where giving and cost of ministry are matched. In the proposal, each deanery will have a total figure for cost of ministry and it will be up to the deanery to share this out. Deaneries will be free to use deprivation, income, population or whatever system they agree to share out the cost, but will need to allocate the whole cost of ministry for the deanery to parish or benefice level. Deaneries will work out future plans for ministry, to agree with the Episcopal College. So for instance, where a deanery currently pays more than its cost of ministry it might plan to increase investment in ministry, where a deanery does not meet the cost of ministry it will either need to plan to reduce costs, or to increase the amount of its contribution. At synod, we will be focussing on these two core elements of the proposal. If you want to raise further questions or need more information about details, please get in touch as soon as possible. 19 P a g e
5. The proposal The 13 Principles (as revised following consultation) 1: The approach to MMF will be based on authorised ministry costs. 2: MMF will initially be determined at deanery level, and deaneries will work towards covering their authorised ministry costs. 3: The Episcopal College will work jointly with the deaneries to develop sustainable deanery plans. 4: All costs used will be averages, calculated across the diocese as a whole, and then applied locally. We will take no account of local peculiarities or variances. Similarly, we take no account of periods of transition, provided the deanery plan shows that the post is intended to be filled. However, an adjustment to the MMF call of affected parishes will be made where a transition is not filled, or the post not confirmed, within a 12-month period. 5: Authorised ministry costs will be determined on 31 July each year, and then included in the budget and MMF call for the following year. In determining the authorised ministry costs as at 31 July each year, due regard will be taken of any deanery plan. 6: All deaneries will have a role to play in determining MMF. There will no longer be a choice of approach. Deaneries will be required to fully allocate the deanery s MMF call between its benefices / clusters. 7: Church House will provide support both in terms of resources and tools to understand and implement the new allocation method. Assistance with facilitating agreement will be available where requested. Facilitators will come from outside the deanery. 20 P a g e
8: Transparency is vital, and deaneries will be provided with full information about costs, allocations of resources, and parish MMF call and payment records. Deaneries will also be provided with summary information from parishes Returns of Parish Finance and copies of parishes accounts. 9: There will be transitional provisions to prevent a deanery s overall MMF call increasing or decreasing by more than a fixed percentage. The relevant percentage will be determined each year as part of the budget process. 10: Where a deanery changes its authorised ministry costs, the full amount of that change will go into increasing or decreasing the period until the MMF call equates to authorised ministry costs. Once a deanery s MMF call reaches authorised ministry costs, transitional provisions will cease for that deanery, and all future changes in authorised ministry costs will be fully reflected in the next 31 July snapshot, and feed into the following year s MMF call. 11: In determining the deanery s authorised ministry costs, Church House will calculate those authorised ministry costs at benefice / cluster level. If not being undertaken at the deanery level as part of the deanery decision-making, parishes within a benefice / cluster must decide how to fully allocate those costs between themselves. 12: Deaneries will be allocated their share of the diocesan other support costs, which will cover all non-ministry costs other than those already specifically covered through designated or restricted funds. These costs will be allocated to deaneries based on the number of parishes in the deanery, as a percentage of the total number of parishes in the diocese. 13: Deaneries will also allocate the deanery allowance to parishes, being a share of the diocesan other income, with a view to providing most support to those that need it most. 21 P a g e
6. Matters raised at deanery and other consultations Consultations on the proposals have taken place in every deanery and with groups of treasurers, clergy, and with the rural deans as a group. More than 250 specific comments and questions, running to 13 pages, have been raised, recorded, and considered. Specific detailed questions were addressed either at the particular consultation or directly with the questioner afterwards. Not everyone at every consultation supported every part of the proposal, but those who led the consultations have reported a broad base of support across the diocese. In this section, we summarise twelve comments on the proposals that were raised several times in different places. They are given here in no particular order. Affordability. Can today s church afford today s ministry? Is this really a proposal for making cuts, and if so is it about making the hardest decisions about clergy numbers at deanery level? Or, if it is a proposal for significantly increasing income, do we somehow expect deaneries to be able to lead this? Cost control locally. The largest element of deanery and parish level MMF call will be local ministry; will local people really be able to control these costs? How will we work with the Episcopal College? Cost control at Church House. Do we need to be better at controlling our shared costs at Church House? Discipleship, not accountancy. Do we need a faith response, before a financial response? Giving will follow renewal, surely. Deanery leadership. Will volunteer deanery leadership have the capacity to lead and decide more effectively than professionals at the centre? Deprivation. Is this a proposal that will support the rich parts of Cornwall more than the poor parts? Will deaneries take deprivation into account when sharing out costs at deanery level? 22 P a g e
Consequences for not paying. What happens if a parish or benefice simply won t pay what the rest of the deanery asks it to pay? There is a difference between can t pay and won t pay. The overall financial position of the diocese might get worse! Timescale for introducing the proposals. Is there enough time for each deanery to do the necessary work between now and the end of 2018? We will need deanery plans agreed with parishes and the episcopal college, and then working out how to share MMF between parishes. Timescale for reaching a balance between costs and giving. Do we need to set a time limit for making the books balance? Otherwise, this could just be a jolly aspiration that never happens. Cost of buildings. Some buildings cost more to maintain, and some buildings need major work. Should this be taken into account? Cost of retired, self-supporting & reader ministry. The proposals may change the relationship between those who volunteer their service, and the parish/deanery where they serve. Cost of ministry. It is not clear what cost of ministry will include, should we subtract income from Glebe and other investments that are there to support ministry, and how are shared costs such as Church House going to be organised? 23 P a g e
7. The motion to be considered by synod This synod receives the paper God, our God, has blessed us and notes the 13 Principles for apportioning MMF on pages 20 & 21. This synod approves those principles as the basis for apportioning MMF from January 2019. 8. What happens next if the motion is approved? 5 May 2018 Diocesan Synod considers proposal 19 and 23 May 16 and 27 June 2018 May and June 2018 From May onwards to July 2018 Parish Officers Training Days 19 & 23 May. Explanatory sessions with Deaneries and PCCs Training of Facilitators Facilitated Deanery meetings deaneries will be encouraged to get dates in the diary with facilitators from May to July 31 May 2018 Church House sends out provisional toolkit with ministry numbers to Deaneries in order to verify the data and assist in formulating the snapshot as at 31 July 23 July 2018 BDC approve budget for 2019 (2020 and 2021), based on snapshot as at 31 July 29 Sep 2018 Diocesan Synod: approval of 2019 budget, incorporating the new approach 1 October 2018 Deaneries meet further, with Facilitators if required, to allocate the MMF call for each parish for 2019. This may involve several meetings and may need mediation if agreement cannot be reached. 1 January 2019 Implementation of new approach to MMF 19/04/2018 24 P a g e