Guide to Fairer Share Launched

Access it here.

Introducing the Guide, Bishops Karen and Andrew say:

"This Guide to Fairer Share comes with a huge thank you for your extraordinary and continuing contributions during 2020 and 2021. Every contribution is sincerely valued."

Generous giving enables God’s ministry and mission in our Diocese.

When it comes to funding the Diocese, Fairer Share makes up 74 pence in every £1 received, with the rest made up by Diocesan incomes.

The money gathered through Fairer Share is more than returned back, with 86 pence of every £1 returning to our parishes, not only paying for parish ministry but also our work with children, young people, families and schools.

The remaining 14 pence in every pound covers our support services, administration and finance, and includes a contribution towards the National Church and overseas mission as well.

Although we have some of the highest attendance and more clergy than almost any Church of England diocese, when it comes to giving, we’re not doing quite so well. In fact, we’re right down near the bottom of the league table.

This means we are facing a financial crisis, with our outgoings far exceeding our income, and so it is vital that we create a sufficient level of giving to allow us to continue to pay all these costs.

As our Bishops say:

"Our overarching vision is to provide a thriving Christian presence across this Diocese, but to do this we need to be financially stable."

Taking a look during Diocesan Synod

We average £10 per week in giving per person, but we’re running at a bit of a deficit - just to break even, we need to increase that to at least £12 per person.

Without this increase in giving across the board, our clergy could not be paid and supported, our mission would be underfunded, along with our support of collaborative lay ministry. and with it, our vision.

But if our giving went to £15 per person per week, just think what we could do!

Wiltshire PCC member and lay minister Ros Leverett, from Ludgershall, says:

"This Guide is really helpful because it gives an easy to follow description of how our financial offering in church is spent. It is good to be extremely clear that the Share we send monthly to the Diocese then pays for our clergy, our outreach in schools to children, and ministry to our place.

"This has, historically, often been hard to explain because of jargon that gets in the way, but our giving directly pays the salaries of those who work full time in God’s service in our community.

"Our giving is a spiritual act as Christians; we are not all called to be ordained, or work full time for the church, but this is how we support those who do have that calling, and make it possible for our clergy to afford to work each day on the ground, for God’s glory. It is how we put food on their tables.

"I’m excited to see how God kindles our response during this period of prayerful planning for the future, because there is so much to do in our Diocese of Salisbury. As the Guide makes clear, we can’t go on spending in deficit, but must seek out and respond to God’s generosity to us, as He blesses us over and over."

The Chair of our Board of Finance, Nigel Salisbury says:

“I congratulate Liz Ashmead and all others involved in the launch of the Guide to Fairer Share. We frequently get asked, quite understandably, where Share is spent and how it is calculated.

"Here in a single document we have a very clear explanation of Diocesan income, expenditure and the basis of the Fairer Share system.

"I do hope this will help everyone towards a better understanding of our shared finances, and offer my thanks to Liz and the team for their work in drawing this excellent booklet together.”

The guide was well-received at Diocesan Synod.

Twitter coverage via #dosalsynod; Facebook coverage via #dosalsynod.

To find out more about what Fairer Share is and how it is calculated, as well as more on why it matters, click here to view the Guide.