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The Circuit

We are a part of the Vale of Glamorgan Methodist Circuit and we share resources across the area.  Our Minister assists in other churches, and local preachers from the other churches  help in Trinity Church.

The Rev. John Atkinson is the Circuit Superintendent Minister and was appointed in September 2009.  Rev. Dave Hutton is on the Circuit staff as responsible for Albert Road and Cadoxton. Rev Derek Dowdeswell assists in our Circuit and has responsiblities at the Cardiff Waterfront.

Circuit Finances - the future

 

Vale of Glamorgan Circuit – Determining Church Assessments – A Discussion Paper
 
1 Introduction The new Vale of Glamorgan Circuit inherited from its predecessor Circuits two different methods for agreeing the annual contributions made by individual churches towards circuit costs :
Barry Circuit has traditionally resolved this through a contributions system, whereby each church offers what it believes is appropriate and affordable
Penarth Circuit has traditionally calculated the contributions due from each church in proportion to the size of individual church membership
As an interim measure the 2009/10 budget largely continued those existing patterns, but we now need to agree for the future how annual payments from individual churches are determined
 
2 Why do we need a new way to guide what each church should contribute?
 
Whatever system we use, deciding the level of contribution from each church can ultimately only work by consent – but we all need to be better informed about the relative strengths and financial health of all the churches so that we can decide fairly how to divide up between us the monies needed to run the Circuit.
 
3 How do other Circuits Manage Assessments ?
There is no universally accepted measure of what each church should fairly contribute to Circuit costs. Throughout the Connexion, Circuits have adopted different ways of determining assessment contributions each with its advantages and drawbacks. Discussions with 6 other Circuits in Wales also show a wide variety of approaches:
- a contributions system similar to the former Barry approach
- based on a combination of membership and church income*
-based on a combination of membership, average attendance figures and levels of personal giving
- a complex system involving up to 15 different criteria including( as well as those listed above) adherents, collections, rental income, other income, discounts for elderly members, supplements for ‘well off’ members etc
- 2 Circuits could no longer remember the original basis, made some years before, for splitting costs – but now simply apply an inflationary increase to the previous year’s figures.
Apart from * none of the Circuits contacted said they were entirely content with their assessment arrangements.
 
 
4 What is a ‘Fair’ Contribution from each Church ?
The following factors could be considered :
4.1 Size of Church ( Rationale - Other things being equal, large churches should contribute more than small churches to Circuit costs. ) Church size can be gauged by :
a) Membership – determined from annual membership returns
OR
 b) Average Adult Church Attendance - determined from the October annual congregation count.
 
If used to allocate Circuit costs, either of these indicators would result in large churches paying more than small ones. They give different outcomes as the ratio of average congregation size to membership varies significantly across the Circuit’s churches.
(We note that the Methodist Church advises against determining assessments only on the basis of membership, although membership may be one factor taken into account)
 
4.2 Annual Church Income (Rationale All other things being equal ,churches with large annual incomes should contribute more than ones with small incomes.)
These figures determined from the annual accounts , could be gauged by :
a)Total Personal Giving ( i.e. Collections, Covenants, Gift Days & other personal giving by individuals + Gift Aided tax recovery)
OR
b) Total Church Income .( i.e. All income regardless of its source)
OR
c) Net Church Income ( defined here as total income less i)legacies & capital receipts, ii)money passing through the accounts but given to other external organisations, &iii) property related revenue( but not capital) costs.
As some churches have high property maintenance costs while others have smaller obligations, this net figure is a better indicator of the sums available for mission, ministry & service.
OR
d) Another indicator of Church income
 
4.3 End of year Balances(Rationale All other things being equal, churches with lots of money in the bank , should contribute more that churches with little ) . Churches may build up balances from different sources, ranging from effortless windfalls to sacrificial giving. They may be built up in preparation for future costs ( such as a major building repair or development) or simply for some unspecified rainy day.
We note that the Connexion already makes an annual levy of 2.5% on the Circuit’s Advance Fund and if it so wished, the Circuit could similarly raise a small amount of its annual income by including a low percentage of church balances in the assessment figure.
 
4.4 Pro-rata to Division of Circuit Staff Resources (Rationale. all other things being equal, churches should contribute pro-rata to the amount of ministerial time which they receive. )
 
5 A Way Forward for the Vale of Glamorgan Circuit
We need a basis for guiding future budgets, which ensures that the Circuit can raise the funds it needs while remaining sensitive to the circumstances of individual churches. It must be generally regarded as fair, the method of assessment must be transparent , be simple to apply and yet avoid wild swings year by year in the amount each church is asked to contribute.
 
The following is suggested for discussion :
 
5.1) The total Circuit income needed collectively from the 10 churches together is first calculated
  
5.2) A target assessment figure is calculated for each church based on an agreed basis . Numerous combinations of factors are possible but the following target figure is proposed shown here for serious consideration:
 
a) 2.5% of end of year balances
The remaining amount needed is based on :
b)one half pro-rata to membership
c) One quarter pro rata to average adult attendance ( Sunday morning + mid-week)
d) One quarter pro rata to net Church income
 
Whichever combination of factors is chosen, this target figure then represents the Circuit’s initial view of what ideally should be a fair contribution from that church in the coming year.
 
5.3) Compared with the churches’ current contributions, this approach produces some ‘winners’ and some ‘losers’ Churches being asked to find significantly more may find that change impossible to deal with in one year. ( and in any event it is unhelpful for there to be large swings in contribution year on year.). So a damperis then applied to all the target figures to phase in those changes . i.e.. if this year a church is currently contributing £X and its target figure for next year is £Y, then instead we will ask that church next year to move only partly towards that new figure of £Y ( perhaps one fifth of the way towards it).
 
5.4)This revised figure is the starting point for discussions with individual churches and/or a meeting with all Church Treasurers. Where a church believes that due to its circumstances for that particular year the revised figure is still unattainable , other churches may be asked to consider meeting that shortfall for one year only
 
5.4) At the end of this process the Circuit meeting considers & approves the proposed budget for the coming year
 
6 Conclusion While it is not perfect, this provides a reasonable and transparent way of identifying the relative financial strengths of the different churches and arriving at a fair target figure , while also taking account of particular circumstances of individual churches. To illustrate its impact , we show in Appendix 1 the target figures based on the best available information to date for the model shown in para 5.2. (These figures may of course change as the provisional statistics from churches are finalised)