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Church Commissioners publish Annual Report & Accounts

28 April 2005

Details of how the Church Commissioners support the Church of England’s ministry are set out in their Annual Report & Accounts for 2004, published today.

The Report details the contribution that the Commissioners make to the ministry of each of the Church’s 44 dioceses, in addition to their major role of funding all clergy pensions earned before 1998. It includes supporting the ministry of bishops and cathedrals, as well as parish ministry particularly in poorer dioceses.

The support for ministry within dioceses (including support for the ministry of bishops and cathedrals) totalled £51.6 million in 2004 – an increase of £1.3 million on the previous year.

Andrew Brown, Secretary of the Church Commissioners, said: “The strong long-term performance of our investments has enabled us to further our mission to support the Church, particularly in areas of need and opportunity.

“To this end, the Commissioners contributed around 18p in the pound towards the cost of running the Church of England last year.”

Today’s publication of the Annual Report follows last month’s announcement that the Church Commissioners had achieved a return of 13.6 per cent on their investments in 2004, placing them in the top three per cent of more than 700 similar funds.

Over the past ten years, the Commissioners’ total return on their investments has averaged 11.1 per cent compared with 7.9 per cent per year for the industry benchmark. As a result, the Commissioners are now able to distribute to the Church £37 million more each year than would have been the case if the investments had performed only at the industry average.

The Commissioners are responsible for managing  some £4.3 billion of assets – a mixture of UK and global equities; rural, commercial and residential property; bonds and cash; and loans for Church purposes. 

Total expenditure in 2004 was £163.8 million (£164.0 million in 2003). Transitional help with the cost of clergy pension contributions continued to taper off as planned, and administrative costs have also been reduced. Spending was maintained or increased in all other areas.

Expenditure included:
* £100.2 million (£98.3 million) for clergy pensions
* £1.5 million (£3.7 million) transitional help for dioceses and parishes with the cost of clergy pension contributions
* £27.1 million (£26.4 million) for parish ministry, mainly payments made under the direction of the Archbishops’ Council to dioceses for clergy stipends
* £18.5 million (£17.8 million) for bishops' stipends, office and working costs and housing
* £6.1 million (£6.1 million) for stipends of cathedral clergy and grants to cathedrals, mainly for staff salaries
* £8.0 million (£8.4 million) for administration and restructuring costs, support for other Church bodies and church buildings

 

Achievements in 2004

To help meet tomorrow’s challenges, the Commissioners have:

  • built up their holdings of industrial and other commercial property assets offering higher income yields and opportunities for active management, including through change of use.
  • increased their global equities holdings while keeping the share of their fund linked to the UK housing market under close watch.
  • held a well-supported consultation meeting at General Synod in July on the new draft accommodation and management guidelines for diocesan bishops’ houses. The Commissioners will work with bishops and dioceses to assess the houses against them.
  • contributed to working groups on the use of Church resources to support mission in coming years and on the role the Commissioners’ funds can play in that. It is hoped to make a report to Synod in July 2005.
  • helped promote the Pastoral (Amendment) Measure which gained Synod’s final approval in February 2005 and will make it easier to lease parts of churches where this meets local pastoral and mission needs.

The Annual Report & Accounts 2004 is available on the Church Commissioners' website at http://cofe.anglican.org/about/churchcommissioners/annualreport/.