In response to several requests, Church Treasurer John Elsworth gave a presentation on Church Finance to the January meeting of St. Boniface P.C.C., held in the new upper room of Bunbury Village Hall.
He started by explaining how the Chester Diocese and the Malpas Rural Deanery decided on the level of "Parish Share", which for Bunbury this year amounts to £17,973, or £1,498 per month, and is equivalent to over half of the net church income. Much of the Parish Share, however, helps pay the Vicar's stipend and Vicarage expenses.
John outlined the duties of the Treasurer, some of which were obvious, for example the administration of income sources and the payment of bills and other liabilities. Less obvious duties were attempting to forecast the financial needs of the P.C.C., advise on financial matters, keep appropriate records, report to the P.C.C. at least annually and act as church quartermaster.
All the finances must conform to accepted accountancy rules and to wishes of the P.C.C. as laid down by previous Resolutions, and, more recently, must comply with the requirements of the 1993 Charities Act. All P.C.C.s had Charitable Status, and Bunbury was in the middle range of income for the purposes of the Act with an annual income of between f 10,000 and £ 100,000. Our Annual Accounts, therefore, had to be Independently Examined by a competent person.
John used charts to highlight the principal sources of the church's Income and Expenditure. Income, he explained, could be defined exactly and was of two kinds: first, there was what might be called "normal" church income and, second, there was "dedicated" income which was given for a specific purpose. A good example of the latter was the Millennium Window project, which met the criterion of costing over £ 10,000 and was thus exempt from Parish Share payments. "Normal" church expenditure, however, was difficult to quantify exactly as the church was also used for some other, secular, events.
The funding of major church projects was explained; they could be defined as those projects requiring a "faculty". A faculty was the legal authority to proceed and always involved the Diocese, the Architect and usually English Heritage and their associated experts. While the whole procedure was inevitably long drawn out (and, John said, would try the patience of a saint!), there was no alternative procedure. Bunbury Church was quite rightly Grade I listed and was an excellent example of a mediaeval church, and those who attended week after week sometimes took it, perhaps, rather for granted. It had, however, been one of John's long term aims as Treasurer to leave the church in a better state of repair than when he had first come to Bunbury in 1975.
Conclusions:
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For "normal" church activities, e.g. maintaining services, paying the Diocese, etc., the annual accounts had usually broken more or less even. |
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In 1999, however, a loss was sustained of over £4,300, which could be attributed to the increase in the Parish Share of £2,000, together with new activities which included the revised Church Magazine, the Portaloo, Kingdom Kids and the photocopier. |
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It followed that any new venture sanctioned by the P.C.C. had either to be self-financing or to be paid for out of the reserve Deposit Account. When the Deposit Account ran out, the P.C.C. would be bankrupt. |
The Presentation finished with a question-and-answer session, in which the main items discussed were ideas to balance the accounts by increased giving - preferably allied with an advantageous Covenant.
The Envelope Scheme would welcome new subscribers, so please speak to the Treasurer if you would like to take this way of helping.