Parish Sustainability Lead - Liverpool, United Kingdom - Liverpool Diocese

Liverpool Diocese

Verified Company

Liverpool, United Kingdom

2 weeks ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

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Description

Job description - Parish Sustainability Lead (3 years Fixed Term)

Title:
Parish Sustainability Lead

Salary scale:
circa £40,000 pro-rata

Hours:35 per week (consideration will be given to part-time working for 28 hours per week)

Accountable to:
Archdeacons

Location:
St James' House

The post holder can be clergy or lay; the appointment will be on lay terms and conditions as an employee of the DBF.

Job Summary:

For the purposes of addressing financial underperformance parishes in the Diocese of Liverpool fall into 3 categories based on their parish share contributions, Categories A, B and C.

The Parish Sustainability Lead will identify Category C parishes and work to establish the root causes of their relative under contribution.

They will work with the archdeacons and deanery teams to develop Parish Renewal and Sustainability plans, and identify and equip a team to take them forward, in each identified parish.

Definitions:

Category A: Parishes that cover the direct costs of the stipendiary ministry they receive and make a proportionate contribution to broader ministry costs, including the ministry of parishes elsewhere in the diocese
Category B: Parishes that receive a proportionate level of subsidy from Lowest Income Communities funding or from other parishes in addition to the parish share they pay

Category C:

Parishes that do not make a proportionate contribution to the costs of ministry, either covering their own direct costs but contributing less than other comparable parishes, or receiving disproportionate subsidy from elsewhere.

In the Diocese of Liverpool parish share is heavily weighted to support ministry in our poorest communities. A large proportion of our parishes rightly receive financial support for the stipendiary ministry they receive.

Parishes will be compared to the average of other parishes with similar deprivation scores when assessing their contribution. These averages range from £17K in our most deprived parishes to £89K in our least deprived parishes.

Category C parishes will be considered those who contribute £10K less than comparable parishes. By this measure 20-25% of parishes fall into category C.

In team ministries or other shared-ministry situations parishes may be assessed either individually, or on a whole-team basis, depending on the practical arrangements for clergy deployment in each case.

Main Purpose:

To move all parishes in the Diocese of Liverpool to categories A or B, with no remaining parishes in Category C making disproportionately low contributions to ministry costs.
To reduce our diocesan deficit in ministry costs as far as possible without disproportionately affecting missional effectiveness.

The Parish Sustainability Lead will identify Category C parishes and work to establish the root causes of their relative under contribution.

They will work with the archdeacons and deanery teams to develop Parish Renewal and Sustainability plans, and identify and equip a team to take them forward, in each identified parish.

Solutions may include:

Increasing actual and potential financial contribution, including reassessment of deanery parish share, financial planning for parishes, improving stewardship, asset development
Reducing ministry costs, including combining current clergy responsibilities where appropriate and identifying possible future ministry patterns at lower cost
Eliminating ministry costs, including the closure of some parishes and buildings if required

An initial assessment of parishes that may fall into Category C suggests that there is potential for improving the deficit position by c £700K per annum, and we have set the target to achieve (or be on the way to achieving) 50% of these annual savings in the next 5 years.

Key responsibilities include:

The post holder will be responsible for driving this project and will be expected to work closely with the archdeacons and the newly appointed associate archdeacons in identifying issues and developing appropriate plans.

They will be required to:

Make a rigorous assessment of which parishes require a Parish Renewal and Sustainability plan.
Work with archdeacons, associate archdeacons, area deans and others to establish the root causes of those parishes' relative undercontribution to Deanery Share.
Identify practical routes out of category C status, ie a Parish Renewal and Sustainability plan for those parishes including the provision of training and resources, and identifying where structural reorganisation may be required.
Work with PCCs, clergy, deanery leaders and diocesan staff to plan and implement sustainable solutions.

The project is funded for a fixed term of 3 years and the post holder will be responsible for effectively managing a budget of up to £150k.

Who are we looking for:

We are looking for a self-motivated individual who has a deep understanding of the Church of England and the operation of its parishes