WORSHIPPERS in the Church of England are to be told they must pay for their diocesan and suffragan bishops under a cost-cutting review to be unveiled next Monday.

The Church’s dwindling number of adult Sunday worshippers, down 4 per cent to 835,000 at the latest count, are to be told they must find an extra £5 million a year to finance their bishops’ stipends, chauffeurs, dinner parties, gardens, secretaries and other expenses.

Under the recommendations of the review, the Church Commissioners, who lost millions of pounds through speculative investment in property in the 1980s, are to tell dioceses that they can no longer afford to pay for their bishops.

The £5 million saved each year will go into a special fund to fight the Church’s “relentless” decline.

To the anger of deans, who are holding an emergency meeting next week to discuss the plan, the commissioners are also planning to cut £500,000 from the £3.5 million they give to cathedrals each year. But local parishioners will be the hardest hit. They are already struggling to pay their vicars’ stipends and pensions, as well as keep the church roof watertight and the organ in good repair. If they have to pay for bishops too, many may decide they cannot afford to go to Church.

The report, leaked to today’s Church Times, has been drawn up by a spending review group headed by Andreas Whittam Smith, the First Church Estates Commissioner, and Lady Brentford, the Third Church Estates Commissioner. The working group also included the Church’s most economical bishop, Dr David James, the Bishop of Bradford.

The working party’s aim was to examine how the commissioners spend the £65 million they have available from their £3.5 billion investments to fund the Church’s ministry and mission each year. With increasing numbers of clergy reaching retirement age, most of the cash already goes on pensions.

The commissioners, who already give nothing towards stipends in some dioceses, hope money freed up through the proposals will help to finance the Church’s mission in the poorest parts of England.

At present, the commissioners pay £4 million a year in bishops’ stipends and £9.8 million in their office and working costs. The £3.4 million a year they pay towards housing is not affected by this review. A separate cost-cutting review published on Wednesday this week proposed selling some of the 44 bishops’ houses and palaces, worth £45 million, and rehousing the occupants.

Bishops are the best-paid ordained servants of the Church. The stipends of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York are £60,820 and £53,280 respectively. The Bishop of London receives £49,690 and the remaining diocesans £33,010. Suffragan bishops receive £27,090.

Under the proposals, the £8.8 million that the commissioners will continue to give towards bishops’ stipends and expenses will be targeted at the poorer dioceses. So the wealthy dioceses, such as London, Guildford and Winchester, could be paying all their bishop’s stipends. Parishioners will also have to finance all the bishops’ chauffeurs, gardeners, and dinner and sherry parties.

The report says that such a strategic shift in direction is needed to address the spiritual needs of 21st-century England and “the relentless decline in the Church’s membership”.

Rich Church

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is the Church of England’s most expensive diocesan bishop, with staff costs of £933,515, office expenses of £86,648 plus £4,547 on equipment. His Ford lease car,with built-in computer, costs £1,872 plus £3,109 in insurance and running costs. His part-time driver costs £11,392. He spends £2,016 on fuel, £14,667 on other travel and subsistence and £41,199 on hospitality.

Poor Church

The Bishop of Bradford, the Right Rev David James, is the cheapest diocesan bishop, with staff costs of £56,798, office expenses of £6,512 plus a further £3,314 on office equipment. He has no driver. His official car, a Skoda, cost £5,363 to buy with a further £880 in insurance and running costs. He spends £1,036 on fuel and £2,501 on other travel and subsistence costs. His hospitality costs are £3,893.

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