Investing in the future

Latest results released by the Church Commissioners who manage the historic resources of the Church of England show their investments continue to perform strongly.

They contribute around 17 per cent of the cost of running the Church – the vast majority of the costs are met by the generosity of local parishioners.

Parish-level ministry and mission projects around the country received £32.9 million from the Church Commissioners in 2007 compared with £32.4 million in 2006.

Two examples highlighted in the annual report include funding for a community worker in Oldham (Manchester diocese) and a Fresh Expression Saturday church in Kettering (Peterborough diocese).

Over the past 10 years the Commissioners, who support the Church of England’s ministry particularly in areas of need and opportunity, have outperformed 98 per cent of similar investment funds.

The 2007 Annual Results also show that last year the Commissioners achieved a return of 9.4 per cent on their investments. This far exceeded the average return of 7.0 per cent of a comparable group of 233 funds for that year.

In 2007 the Commissioners who manage assets valued at around £5.6 billion contributed £177.8 million to the work of the church (the annual cost of running the Church of England is just over £1 billion).

The main items of expenditure in 2007 were (with 2006 figures in brackets):

• £105.5 million (£102.7 million) for clergy pensions based on service before 1998

• £32.9 million (£32.4 million) for parish ministry, primarily to less-resourced dioceses

• £24.9 million (£24.5 million) for supporting bishops in their diocesan and national ministries

• £6.8 million (£6.6 million) for stipends of cathedral clergy and grants to cathedrals, mainly for staff salaries

• £7.7 million (£6.4 million) for other support including administration and restructuring costs, support for other Church bodies and church buildings

Commenting on the results published last month Andrew Brown, Secretary to the Church Commissioners, explained: “Strong performance from our property portfolio was the major contributor to our success in 2007. But during the year and over the longer term, the spread of asset types within the fund and the strength of the Commissioners’ stock selection have both contributed to these robust results."

“We were particularly pleased by the performance of our commercial, rural let land and strategic land sectors last year, but our quoted equities portfolios underperformed their benchmarks, in part due to the continuing strength of stocks excluded on ethical grounds.”

The Commissioners have been able to return £37 million more each year to the Church over the past decade than it would have done if it had performed at the industry average.

 A video interview with Andrew Brown can be seen at www.cofe.anglican.org/about/ churchcommissioners/ annualreport/