Local / Parish Share Debate at Deanery Synod Meeting

Parish Share Debate at Deanery Synod Meeting

An interesting and extremely lively discussion arose at the last open synod meeting on Thursday 14 June at St Paul’s Egham Hythe. Apart from the Parish Focus (on St Paul’s as hosting church) and the Prayer Update (from St Peter’s Chertsey as host of the previous meeting), which have now become well received standard features of our synod meetings, the evening was dedicated to understanding the revised Parish Share scheme and probing into the implications this will have on a deanery-wide basis specific to Runnymede. Speaker Chris Ellis, Deputy Diocesan Secretary with the Diocese of Guildford, showed the official explanatory video clip (which you can watch at or download from the diocesan website at http://cofeguildford.org.uk/parishshare), followed by a succinct presentation culminating in a spreadsheet detailing the changes for all parishes in Runnymede. This layout presented the different data sources for the calculations as well as current and future Parish Share figures for each parish, and support measures granted to some over the next three years, but omitted to clarify what will happen after the three to five year transition period when the accumulative increase across the deanery will reach nearly 18%, mainly to be carried by a small number of parishes. This gave rise to a heated plenary discussion, followed by group work over refreshments on three questions of how parishes could work together/help each other across the deanery. Following the meeting, Lay Chair Keith Malcouronne has been in contact with Chris Ellis with constructive suggestions on how to share the overall increase more appropriately.

An interesting and extremely lively discussion arose at the last open synod meeting on Thursday 14 June at St Paul’s Egham Hythe. Apart from the Parish Focus (on St Paul’s as hosting church) and the Prayer Update (from St Peter’s Chertsey as host of the previous meeting), which have now become well received standard features of our synod meetings, the evening was dedicated to understanding the revised Parish Share scheme and probing into the implications this will have on a deanery-wide basis specific to Runnymede. Speaker Chris Ellis, Deputy Diocesan Secretary with the Diocese of Guildford, showed the official explanatory video clip (which you can watch at or download from the diocesan website at http://cofeguildford.org.uk/parishshare), followed by a succinct presentation culminating in a spreadsheet detailing the changes for all parishes in Runnymede. This layout presented the different data sources for the calculations as well as current and future Parish Share figures for each parish, and support measures granted to some over the next three years, but omitted to clarify what will happen after the three to five year transition period when the accumulative increase across the deanery will reach nearly 18%, mainly to be carried by a small number of parishes. This gave rise to a heated plenary discussion, followed by group work over refreshments on three questions of how parishes could work together/help each other across the deanery. Following the meeting, Lay Chair Keith Malcouronne has been in contact with Chris Ellis with constructive suggestions on how to share the overall increase more appropriately.