Over the coming weeks your church will receive its Parish Share request for 2019. So how far have we come as a Diocese, and where are we heading on our shared Parish Share journey?
This is the third year of a new Diocesan approach that was introduced to improve the way churches contribute to support wider ministry and mission, making the process more transparent, ambitious and equitable.
This approach was developed in response to the Diocese experiencing year-on-year deficits over recent years as a result of real term reductions in Parish Share each year up to 2017. To address this, we need to collectively increase our Parish Share commitments by 1million from 2015 to 2020 to meet this shortfall and invest in future ministry.
What has been the impact so far?
The response from parishes has been hugely encouraging. In 2017 parishes gave an additional 250,000 in Parish Share, bringing the total given to 5.5million.
This was made possible because a majority of churches took responsibility for the share of ministry and support they received, were generous in supporting those they are connected with across the Diocese, and had faith that God provides all we need for His mission.
As a result, we have been able to invest in supporting our clergy and training new ministers, as well as providing support for all our churches and schools.
What are the next steps?
As we look to the future, we face a collective challenge to continue to reduce the current deficit and resource ministry, train new ministers, and support the wider mission of churches across the Diocese. We all have a role to play in building on this progress. We aim to increase our Parish Share commitments by 250,000 each year until 2020.
The Parish Share materials that your parish will receive are designed to help you to understand the aims, principles and the expectations for your parish in the form of a minimum request. Should you have any questions, please attend an upcoming Giving to God workshop or get in touch with Naomi Buckler (naomi.buckler@bristoldiocese.org) or Matthew Hall (matthew.hall@bristoldiocese.org)