Questions about the Portsmouth diocese

Q: So what does a bishop do?

A: He has pastoral responsibility for those who live in his diocese. When he takes on the role, he promises God that he will take care of those living in that area. He shares that responsibility with parish priests, who also promise to look after those who live in each parish.

The bishop leads a diocese, but there is a democratic process of decision-making by a representative body called ‘diocesan synod’. He teaches the faith and does certain things that only a bishop can do, such as ordaining people as clergy and confirming people into the Christian faith. He is the only person who can license formal ministry of the Church of England in this diocese.

Q: Why does our bishop sit in the House of Lords when other bishops don’t?

A: It is the 26 most senior bishops in the Church of England who sit in the House of Lords. This includes both Archbishops, but after that it depends on seniority or length of service. Bishop Kenneth has sat in the House of Lords for several years, but his successor wouldn’t automatically have a place.

Q: What’s a diocesan synod?

A: A diocese is led by a bishop, but governed by a democratic body called the ‘diocesan synod’. Synods were introduced by the Church of England in 1970 to increase the participation of lay people (non-clergy) in decision-making. The national body is called the general synod, and there are also synods at diocesan and deanery level.

Our diocesan synod consists of 72 clergy and 72 lay members who are elected every three years from deaneries. Our diocese has eight deaneries - Portsmouth, Havant, Bishop’s Waltham, Fareham, Gosport, Petersfield, East Wight and West Wight - and the number of members elected from each deanery reflects electoral roll numbers.

The diocesan synod includes three parts - the House of Bishops (which only has one member in our diocese), House of Clergy and House of Laity. They normally meet and vote together, but can do so separately. The bishop is president and synod is also chaired by clergy and lay chairs. Its secretary is our diocesan secretary.

Our diocesan synod meets twice a year (normally November and June), but can also meet in February if required. It hears from national speakers, diocesan officers and deanery representatives, and votes on issues such as diocesan policies and the annual budget. Individual members or deanery synods can also put forward motions to be discussed. Meetings are held in public, so anyone can attend.

Q: What’s the Bishop’s Council?

A: Officially, the Bishop's Council is the standing committee of our diocesan synod (our elected representatives who are pictured on page one). It consists of 31 people, some ex officio and some elected by diocesan synod members every three years.

Since changes to our diocesan structures initiated by the Dilloway review in 2005, our Bishop’s Council is also the Diocesan Board of Finance (the official employer of diocesan staff and our legal charity status), the Diocesan Pastoral Committee (which decides on changes to parish boundaries and clergy deployment) and the Diocesan Parsonages Board.

This means the Bishop's Council is a busy group! It meets 10 times a year and examines issues and policy in more detail than the diocesan synod can hope to achieve.

Q: And what’s the bishop’s staff meeting?

A: The bishop’s staff is a more informal group that consists of the senior staff in the diocese - the bishop, three archdeacons, the dean of the cathedral and bishop’s chaplain. They meet every two weeks and discuss personnel, strategic and urgent issues. They also pray and worship together.

There is also something called the ‘bishop’s extended staff meeting’, which includes other diocesan staff and advisers. But neither of these meetings can decide diocesan policy, which has to be brought to synod or Bishop’s Council.

Q: Why do we pay parish share?

A: To train, pay, house and meet pension contributions for all our clergy, there’s a ‘pot’ of money administered centrally on behalf of all parishes in the diocese by staff at Peninsular House (who are also paid from the ‘pot’). This money also contributes towards the support services available to parishes, including lay and Reader training, management related to legal requirements such as faculty applications, and to the cost of general and diocesan synod and the related decision-making groups.

‘Parish share’ (which used to be called ‘quota’) is the amount contributed by each parish towards these shared costs. The diocese also receives some financial support from the Church of England centrally and some grants.

Basically, this is the system that makes sure the Church of England has a presence in every part of the country – from the wealthiest to the most deprived. If each parish had to pay for their own clergy (as happens in some other denominations), many wouldn’t be able to afford it.

Q: How is it decided how much each parish should pay?

A: The amount each parish pays in our diocese is worked out using a formula that takes into account the number of people attending services (averaged out over 10 years), and the socio-economic status of those living in each parish. This ‘Fairer Shares’ scheme has resulted in payments of 100 per cent (or virtually 100 per cent) over each of the past 12 years, a unique achievement in the Church of England.

Q: Why do increases in parish share (the amount paid by parishes into the central diocesan pot) always seem to exceed inflation?

A: The short answer is that the diocesan budget has nothing to do with inflation. Three-quarters of the budget is spent on clergy stipends, clergy housing, council tax and national insurance, and training – none of which rise in line with inflation.

More recently, all dioceses have had to take over responsibility for paying clergy pensions from the national Church. This has added hundreds of thousands of pounds to diocesan budgets, especially as retired clergy now live longer. Our diocese saw this coming and created a Transition Fund in 1995, investing £1.5m in advance. That investment doubled in size, so that fund has been subsidising diocesan budgets for several years.

Each year, central diocesan staff start with a budget of zero and have to justify everything they plan to spend money on. The total diocesan budget then has to be approved by our elected representatives on Bishop’s Council and diocesan synod. Each deanery is also given the chance to comment on the budget.

Q: What is a deanery?

A: A diocese is sub-divided into a number of smaller areas, called deaneries. Our diocese has eight – Havant, Gosport, Fareham, Bishop’s Waltham, Petersfield, East Wight, Portsmouth and West Wight. There is no regulation size for a deanery, and ours range in size from 22 parishes (Havant) to eight (Gosport).

Each deanery is led by one if its parish priests, who is the rural dean. He or she has a pastoral role in helping other local clergy and is officially responsible (with the churchwardens) for a parish when there is no vicar. Each deanery also has a fully democratic structure, with two or more PCC members from each parish elected onto a body called the ‘deanery synod’. Every clergy person is also automatically a member.

Q: What do deanery synods do?

A: They meet several times a year to discuss issues that affect the parishes in their deanery. In our diocese, they are responsible for supporting the collection of parish share from each parish. They can pass motions to be considered by our diocesan synod, elect members of diocesan synod, and take decisions that affect all the parishes within the deanery.

Under our diocese's ‘Kairos’ initiative, it is deanery synods that are primarily responsible for the creation of overall ‘Kairos plans’ to reshape the mission and ministry of the Church.

Each deanery synod elects a lay person, known as the ‘lay chair’, who shares oversight of the deanery synod with the rural dean. Each deanery synod will also have a secretary and a treasurer. There will also be a deanery finance committee and (usually) a deanery pastoral committee to look at issues such as the reorganisation of parishes.