Parish Share is a contribution by churches towards the cost of the mission and ministry of the Church in the Diocese, which is primarily the cost of clergy. Each parish makes a contribution based on its church membership.
The Diocesan method of allocating parish share is determined by applying a monetary factor (£amount) to each person who forms part of the 'strength' of parishes in any deanery. The 'strength' of a parish is calculated by adding together the number of persons on the electoral roll (ER) and the figure for normal Sunday attendance (NSA) and dividing that sum by two. The resultant figure is termed 'the parish strength' and it is this figure that will be used by the Diocese to calculate the parish share allocation to each deanery.
This is done by dividing the budgeted Diocesan parish share figure by the total church strength for the Diocese (the sum of the figures reported by each parish). The resulting per capita figure is then allocated to deaneries for agreement and allocation to parishes. Some deaneries use the Diocesan formula to do this whilst others may have their own method of allocation.
At present the annual Statistics for Mission form is used to collect the figures which are taken from the ER and NSA boxes on the form. However the form was never intended to be used for a financial purpose and its use has caused some confusion and uncertainty over which figures are being used. To avoid this, the Diocese has now produced a form to be used by all parishes to report ER and NSA figures. The Statistics for Mission form should continue to be completed and submitted in the usual way.
Most parishes will know their NSA figure but for some there may be a few grey areas. The underlying principle to bear in mind is that the figure should reflect the number of disciples or regular attendees in a parish. The following guidance may be useful but is not intended to be prescriptive:
NSA: this means what it says, festivals, seasonal variations or fluctuations at certain times of the year (e.g. tourist season), and /or particular events/services which may skew the attendance figure should be avoided.
Irrespective of how many times a person attends church on a Sunday, they should only be counted once.
In a multi –parish benefice, the total NSA figure for the benefice should reflect the total number of adult parishioners who belong to churches in the benefice.
Regular attendees irrespective of whether they are on the ER should be included as should those who may attend infrequently on a Sunday but regularly attend mid-week services.
Casual attendees and visitors should not be included.