Diocesan Finance
The Diocese of Portsmouth works like a network or family of parishes. Those parishes help each other through prayer, finances and mutual support. It's our system of parish share that ensures we have a presence in every community and can offer ministry and mission to all who come to us. This video helps to explain how it works.
Parish Share
One of the things that binds our diocese together is the shared commitment to fund our ministry for God’s mission across south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Each parish volunteers to pay a certain amount into the central diocesan budget, to be used to help fund that mission and ministry. The exact amount paid by each parish currently depends on the size of the congregation(s) and the socio-economic status of the area served by the parish. A complex formula tries to ensure that the amount suggested in parish share is fair to all.
Accounts and budgets
Our Diocesan Synod agrees a budget each November for the next calendar year. The setting of this budget helps to determine how much each of our parishes is asked to contribute in parish share.
Our annual accounts for each calendar year are available by the summer of the next calendar year. Click here for details of our accounts and budgets from previous years.
Links
- Summary of discussions at June 2022 Synod (including consideration of the annual report from 2021)
- End of Year Accounts 2021, given at June 2022 Synod
- Summary of discussions at November 2022 Synod (including consideration of the budget for 2023)
- Diocesan Budget papers, presented at November 2022 Synod
Diocesan finance committees
The body which is ultimately responsible for approving our annual budget is our Diocesan Synod, which includes elected representatives from each deanery. But the Bishop’s Council and finance committees are also involved in the process of setting budgets and monitoring our finances. There are two finance committees, each with slightly different roles:
- Audit Committee: its main purpose is to carry out detailed monitoring and evaluation of key financial information on behalf of the Portsmouth Diocesan Board of Finance (PDBF), and the Bishop’s Council; review regular financial reports and indicators; and make recommendations to the PDBF and Bishop's Council on matters of financial strategy, policy and management.
- Diocesan Deaneries Finance Committee: (which includes all deanery treasurers): its main purpose is to carry out detailed monitoring and evaluation of parish share contributions; agree the approach to individual parish share backlogs with the Diocesan Stewardship Advisor; and communicate financial matters to Deanery Finance Committees.
Diocesan investments
Our diocese has a small investment advisory group that advises staff on how to invest our assets. The Diocese of Portsmouth manages its investments ethically, in line with the ethical policies of the Church of England national investing bodies – including on climate change – guided by the recommendations of the Ethical Investment Advisory Group.