A church congregation in Peasedown St John has featured in a new film put together to explain how the Diocese of Bath and Wells is funded.
With 500 parishes, the Diocese spends almost £11,000,000 per year on a huge array of costs from clergy salaries to funding for social outreach projects.
Known as the Common Fund, it’s largely made up of parishes across Somerset paying their Parish Share – a sum of money given annually from each church into the central pot.
Of the 900,000 people living in the Diocese, 23,000 attend an Anglican church service each Sunday, and it’s through the generous giving of these Christians that the Common Fund exists.
St John’s Church, led by Revd Matthew Street, has seen significant growth over the last five years with more people coming to services and events, and more providing financial help to enable much valuable community work to be carried out.
Revd Street commented: “The Common Fund has been a great support to our work in Peasedown St John, as well as my other churches in Wellow, Shoscombe and Foxcote.”
The most significant resource the Common Fund supports are the salary, pension and housing costs of more than 200 clergy. The total cost of the Parish Priest in the Church of England, when all additional finances are considered, is more than £45,000.
Matthew added: “The Church of England always wants to make sure that every parish has a priest – that’s someone who can support the needs of the local community through conducting weddings, presiding over funerals, carrying out baptisms, leading school assemblies, and other activities such as running youth work events for teenagers.
“The beauty of the Common Fund is that every parish gives, and so every parish receives.”
In February, members of the Diocese of Bath and Wells Communications Department spent a morning in Peasedown St John filming footage of church activities which demonstrate the positive impact Anglican parishes are having in people’s lives. To view the film go to: www.stjsgroup.org/new-church-film-reveals-all/
The Diocese of Bath and Wells receives no funding from central government, and a minimal amount from the national church.
St John’s Church is part of the ‘St J’s Group’ Anglican benefice, which covers the parish churches of St John’s Peasedown, St Julian’s Wellow, St James’ Foxcote and St Julian’s Shoscombe and is named after our three patron saints. For more details visit www.stjsgroup.org.
