THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND BIRMINGHAM BIRMINGHAM DIOCESAN BOARD OF FINANCE LIMITED ANNUAL REPORT 2017 Cover image Birmingham UK City Skyline © Christopher Smith | Dreamstime.com The trustees, who are also directors for the purposes of company law, present their trustees report together with the financial statements and auditors’ report of the charitable company – the Birmingham Diocesan Board of Finance Limited (BDBF) for the year ended 31 December 2017. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the Statement of Recommended Practice for Charities 2015 (“SORP2015”) and the Companies Act 2006. This report is set out as follows: Page Number Bishop’s Foreword 4 Chairman’s Statement 5 Annual Report of the Trustees comprising: Objectives and Activities* 6 Strategic Report 8 Stategic and Operating Review 22 Summary information about the structure of the Church of England 27 Independent Auditors’ Report 28 Financial Statements 29 *It should be noted that the Annual Report gives narrative on the activities of Birmingham Cathedral, Birmingham Trustees Registered, Church Schools, CIGB, Thrive Together Birmingham and individual parishes to give an overview of all Diocesan activities. However, the financial information of these entities is not included in the BDBF financial statements. They have their own financial statements as separately constituted organisations. (See page 27 for details of the structure of the Church of England.) The members of the Bishop's Council set out Elected – House of Clergy REGISTERED OFFICE below have held office during the period from The Revd Canon Julian Francis 1 Colmore Row 1 January 2017 to the date of this report, unless otherwise stated. The Revd Douglas Machiridza Birmingham The Revd Nigel Traynor B3 2BJ The Lord Bishop of Birmingham The Revd Claire Turner AUDITOR The Rt Revd David Urquhart (President) The Revd Canon Priscilla White RSM UK Audit LLP The Bishop of Aston The Revd Catherine Grylls (from 9/3/17) St Philips Point The Rt Revd Anne Hollinghurst Temple Row BDBF Chair Birmingham Mr Philip Nunnerley Elected – House of Laity Mr Stephen Fraser B2 5AF Ex-officio Mr Michael Hastilow BANKERS The Archdeacon of Birmingham Mr Trevor Lewis Bank of Scotland The Ven Hayward Osborne Mrs Deirdre Moll 125 Colmore Row The Archdeacon of Aston Mr Julian Phillips Birmingham The Ven Simon Heathfield Mrs Gillian Gould (from 9/3/17) B3 3SF The Dean of Birmingham The Very Revd Matt Thompson (from 30/09/17) INVESTMENT ADVISERS DIOCESAN SECRETARY Smith and Williamson The Chair of the Diocesan House of Clergy Investment Management Limited The Revd Canon Martin Stephenson Mr Andrew Halstead 9 Colmore Row The Chair of the Diocesan House of Laity Birmingham Mr Steven Skakel DIOCESAN DIRECTOR OF FINANCE B3 2BJ Ms Melanie Crooks Bishop's nominees PROPERTY AGENTS Mr Geoff Shuttleworth DIOCESAN REGISTRAR Knight Frank (until 01/10/17) The Revd Chris Hobbs Mr Hugh Carslake (until 16/01/17) 1 Colmore Row Miss Tariro Matsveru Ms Vicki Simpson (from 16/01/17) Birmingham The Revd Smitha Prasadam B3 2BJ The Revd Canon Dr Matthew Rhodes Bruton Knowles (from 02/10/17) (from 9/3/17) Embassy House, The Revd Richard Walker-Hall (from 9/3/17) 60 Church Street Birmingham B3 2DJ Company registration number: 440966 | Charity registration number: 249403 ANNUAL REPORT 2017 3 BISHOP’S FOREWORD Local, national and international events of 2017 will be remembered with a mixture of bewilderment and hope by the people of Birmingham and beyond. There was bewilderment at the horror of Grenfell Tower ablaze in London, the shock of terrorists targeting teenagers in Manchester, a nuclear standoff between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and the blatant rise in rough sleeping across our own city region. There is hope for an improved environment in carbon reduction, in the successful bid by Birmingham and region for the Commonwealth Games, the delightful engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and in our own families’ and friends’ celebrations of anniversaries and new births. In the midst of these realities, and the persistent uncertainty of Brexit, the opportunities and risks of being adventurous disciples of Jesus Christ and faithful stewards of God’s resources are described and illustrated in this 2017 Annual Report from Church of England – Birmingham. Our Transforming Church vision continues to focus on developing more and more confident Christians who will play their full part in ensuring that one and a half million people will hear about and respond to the claims of Jesus Christ. The day by day commitment in parishes to serving all the local community in compassionate and imaginative ways, the encouraging of the faithful to mature discipleship, and the excitement of seeing lives changed for the better are written on every page that follows. I am delighted that in addition to the long-serving saints, both ordained and lay, new people are joining our parish and Diocesan-wide teams. Precise use of resources is also a principle of our operations. I am grateful for the sacrificial giving from every parish, for the generosity of the Church Commissioners in supporting new mission opportunities and for our financial team who make every penny count in supporting the local Church. Now we are ready for a detailed conversation about the implementation of the People & Places framework as we look to reshape and renew for a long-term sustainable future. A summary of our attitude and practice may be found in St Paul’s letter to the first century Church in Rome (Holy Bible, Romans Chapter 12 verse 2), as we pray fervently and hopefully: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” The Rt Revd David Urquhart Bishop of Birmingham 4 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND – BIRMINGHAM CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT To grow churches at the heart of each community remains our central vision for Church of England – Birmingham. In doing so we live in challenging times as we renew and reshape our mission and ministry for a long term sustainable future. Our general, unrestricted fund underpins our day-to-day operations and this fund suffered an in-year deficit in 2017. Common Fund, our single largest source of income, sadly fell short of budget for the second year running and, coupled with a sharp drop (17%) in parochial fees remitted, accounts for much of the deficit experienced in 2017. We will be undertaking further research to understand the background to this accelerating trend in parochial fees. I do however appreciate the many challenges individual parishes are themselves facing and whilst disappointed that we did not achieve the income that we budgeted from Common Fund I am grateful for the generosity of the voluntary contributions we receive. As we were in the process of drafting this Annual Report, we received the news that we will face a demand to increase our pension contributions to the Church Workers Pension Fund to deal with a past service deficit in the fund. Although we make no ongoing contributions to the fund we are required to contribute to reducing the past service deficit that applies to our past members. Our share of the deficit is calculated to be £340,000. Originally, we were asked to commit to a 5-year recovery plan for this amount. We have negotiated arrangements to make payments over 10 years, reducing the annual cash flow impact. This makes our discussions with all stakeholders more pertinent, to renew and reshape our mission with limited resources alongside proposed changes in Common Fund methodology. But as an original Fresh Expression of Diocese in 1905, we are well placed to reimagine a fresh approach that continues to support growing churches at the heart of each community. There is no doubt that challenges lie ahead but I would express my appreciation to all the many volunteers who give so much of their time in support of the work of the Diocese and thanks to the hardworking staff in the Diocesan Office under the leadership of the Diocesan Secretary and the Director of Finance. Philip Nunnerley Chair of Birmingham Diocesan Board of Finance ANNUAL REPORT 2017 5 OBJECTIVES & ACTIVITIES Philip King “Together we are Photo shaping the future.” TRANSFORMING CHURCH As Europe’s youngest city with under 25s accounting for nearly 40% of Birmingham’s population, it has been good this year to ramp up our work to help us Grow Younger as the Church of England in this exciting and ever growing region. This has gone hand in hand with our Transforming Church ambitions to grow larger, wider and deeper. Thanks largely to a £2.5m successful funding application to the Church Commissioners, which was announced in January, 2017 marked a year of preparation, prayer, lots of recruitment and steady signs of growth. New people, projects & plans This year: • We were thrilled to appoint Dr Paula Gooder Project Manager. The main aim of this role is as our new Director of Mission Learning to support churches as they look to serve the and Development. Paula comes to us as a schools in their parish. We are also delighted highly respected Theologian with over 20 that Jill Stolberg now works alongside Mike years of adult education experience, a heart for a day a week, providing a really helpful link for mission and an unparalleled knowledge with the Education team. Mike and Jill are of the Church of England. Since joining us currently working on a resource for churches in June she has appointed a new team, all of to offer to schools in early 2018 that whom will be dedicated to help churches and introduces pupils to the life and character of individuals reach out more effectively to the Jesus, alongside their work on Prayer Spaces communities they minister in.