The Church of England issued two statistics-related press releases on 28 October.
The first concerned parochial finance for 2008 and licensed ministers for 2009, complementing the parochial affiliation and attendance data which were made available in February.
The financial statistics contained some good news. Despite the recession, which has hit the wider charity sector hard, both tax-efficient planned giving and legacy giving in the Church of England continued to increase, reaching record levels. Overall parochial income was £925 million and expenditure £874 million.
As for ministry, 491 candidates were accepted to train in 2009, making a total of 1,338 in training (five-sixths over 30 years of age). 564 new clergy were ordained, 309 entering full-time paid ministry. Taking retirements and other losses into account, there was a net decrease of 128 full-time paid clergy. At the end of 2009, there were some 28,000 licensed and authorized ministers, ordained and lay, active in the Church of England.
The press release can be read at:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr9710.html
The data appear as part of the online edition of Church Statistics, 2008/9 (with previous years back to 2001) at:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/statistics/churchstats2008/statisticsfront2008.html
The second press release reported the office and working costs of the Church’s 113 bishops (44 diocesan and 69 suffragan and full-time assistant bishops) for the year-ending 31 December 2009. The total bill came to £14,952,000.
The release is at:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr9510.html
The data, with those for each year since 2000 (when the costs of individual bishops were published for the first time), will be found at:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/bishopsofficeandworkingcosts.html
