Bishop Richard’s Weekly Video Message and Transcript 22.10.2026

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Bishop's Weekly Video Message No. 309 – 22.10.2026

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week’s video.

This week I was at meetings in Church House, Westminster, home of the Church Commissioners and the National Church Institutions which I know many regard as a sort of heart of darkness where all the money goes! It isn’t of course. Like all levels of the church there are wonderful people working here who go above and beyond to support local churches.

I did reflect on Jim Collins, the management guru’s, description of the five stages of an organisation in decline. It’s quite easy to see a number manifesting in our church now. His third stage, a ‘denial of peril’, seemed apposite. Warning signs are explained away and blame replaces responsibility – think of the way parishes often blame the diocese, the diocese complains about the Strategic Mission and Ministry Board, and everyone blames the Church Commissioners! There are elements of the fourth ‘grasping for salvation in a miracle cure’, either a charismatic new leader – think the ridiculous expectations that were placed on Archbishop Sarah – or a radical re-structuring: a new strategy or intervention rather than a return to disciplined fundamentals.

The Church of England is a very mixed, dispersed organisation. Some local churches are thriving, some are declining. At every level we are having to re-invent ourselves in the face of a changed and changing culture. The diversity means we look at things from different perspectives. From mine, our current diocesan strategy is an attempt to be faithful to a vision of church derived from the New Testament and the Ordinal in the face of the constraints of limited clergy availability. For me the disciplined fundamentals are thriving parishes. Recognising the great shortage of priests, it seeks to create posts where local churches and hard-pressed clergy, church wardens and PCCs can be supported in the tsunami of vacancies coming down the track because of the baked-in fall in clergy numbers over the next few years. To have roving clergy who can backfill, as area deans will do, is not another layer of administration, it is trying to ensure the best pastoral provision we can in the face of reality. Many people are quite excited about the possibilities of lay ministry alongside the vital role of ordained priests. Others see it as simply a new strategy or intervention. Obviously, I don’t agree!

Well, you might say, what about the Church Commissioners and their £11.5 billion cash pile? I’m afraid that fits into Collins’ ‘grasping salvation’ category. The Commissioners disperse the 4% annually any charitable endowment fund would do whilst preserving the value of the endowment. In addition, they have been eating into their capital recently. Quite a bit of the nearly £500 million annual disbursement is spoken for through historic pension liabilities and other legal requirements. A substantial amount is already given directly to dioceses. Our current allocation effectively pays for about 10 of our priests – out of the 70 we’d have if all our posts were filled. We couldn’t afford to put priests in the poorer areas of the country without that money. However, there is about £200 million that is currently spent through national funding, the destination of which, our Hereford Motion campaign is seeking to address. You would need nearly half of it simply to address current diocesan deficits but that does leave a substantial sum which could, if redirected from current grant-based approaches, give dioceses greater financial security to consider increasing the number of priests – assuming we can encourage more vocations. Currently, even if we had the money, there simply aren’t enough priests to fill the roles we’d like to create and there certainly isn’t enough money to contribute to our church buildings in any meaningful way. But please cut the Commissioners some slack. They are very good at making the money, but ultimately the decisions on spending it lie with the Archbishop’s Council. I’ve said before, I am more hopeful of a change in the funding model. But bear in mind, I will have to argue for more for a diocese with the lowest per capita giving, the highest ratio of clergy to population and some of the highest per capita investment assets in the country. Not impossible by any means, but a big ask when several dioceses are already effectively insolvent. Financial responsibility will mostly remain with us.

In 1 Corinthians 4: 7 Paul says, “now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good”. In a large institution, whose inner workings are obscure and difficult to understand, it is easy to see the faults elsewhere. As the church is made up of fallible human beings like you and I, finding fault is quite easy. Asking questions and critique is entirely permissible, but ascribing Machiavellian motives to brothers and sisters who are doing their best isn’t helpful. The greater challenge lies in living out Paul’s advice: What gift has God given me? What is my responsibility? What is God calling me to do in my little corner of the vineyard? The kingdom is built through such humble obedience.