last night I sorted th accounts for April and May after all, and of course it wasn't that difficult.

We do face a challenging time these coming weeks, and I have to attend a meeting of all the finance officers nex Tuesday at which will be asked to present what we are doing to raise income at our respective churches in order to meeting the shortfall of £300,000 in SOuthampton deanery.

They could of course do as they have been talking about for twn years and 'lose' eight clergy posts, thus saving themselves upwards of £400,000 and reducing the pressure on churches to pay more Share.

If we were to lose our vicar, for instance, how much really would that matter? Most servcie are run by lay ministers now anyway...
There must be a significant redundancy package to consider?
If we had no vicar, then the next logical step for the diocese would be to sell the vicarage, thus raising probably around £400,000.
This itself would cover our parish share for the next 15 years.

And if the Church of England were to sell off all its vicarages...?

The difficulty this raises for me is that I find myself in a situation where it makes prudent financial sense to advocate a close friend losing his job!

And all the concerts, fundraising etc that I am looking to do and already working towards is in vain? WHy should we step up our giving and ask the parish and congregation for more Giving, when it goes straight into a black hole that is poorly managed by ineffectual leaders at the top.

The are leaders in name only, they do not 'lead'.
Why do they not act on the suspension of clergy posts, when they themselves have been advocating it for ten years?? At least?

Other side of same argument - what ACTUALLY happens in real life if we do not meet even the discounted Parish Share to which we have committed the church?
What are the consequences? We have failed to do so for three years in a row, and nothing significant has happened.

What will They actually do?
Take away the vicar.

SO we lose the vicar. Without even the fabric of the church we are still strong. A 'church' is not a place or a thing, it is a body of worshippers united by a common faith and belief in the same God. We'd still have that - so where's the fear and apathy come from??

QED

This is a Big Role to which I have been called at the Right Time.