Diocesan Synod met on Saturday 5 July at Christ Church, Orpington. It was a busy schedule with key items on the agenda including a presentation of the Diocesan Annual Report and Accounts for 2024.
There was also a motion brought forward by the Chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance, Stephen Smith, relating to the outcome of the recent national Diocesan Finance Review.
The session began with worship and Bishop Jonathan’s Presidential Address.
Presidential Address
In his address, Bishop Jonathan spoke about his recent visit to Harare in Zimbabwe - one of Rochester Diocese's overseas companion link dioceses.
He reflected on the huge challenges that are being faced by the people and the Church there, and the tragedy of how the many natural resources of the country, such as minerals, are not benefiting the large majority of people in the country.
He underlined how valued the connection between the two dioceses is, and that he is delighted that Bishop Farai, Bishop of Harare, will be coming to Rochester Diocese in November
“This is and must be very much a two-way relationship, and we have much to learn from our Zimbabwean sisters and brothers, especially with regard to the depth of their faith and their resourcefulness in making the best use of often very limited resources.”
Bishop Jonathan went on to speak about the challenges our own diocese is facing in terms of vacancy rates – as is mirrored across the Church of England – and the steps being taken to address this.
Above all, parishes and diocesan support need to work together to overcome the difficulties being faced, and the diocesan vision and strategy offers a clear plan to do this.
Read Bishop Jonathan’s address in full
Update on meeting with Archbishops' Council
The Chair of the House of Clergy, the Rev Canon Jeremy Blunden gave Synod an overview of the meeting that took place with representatives of the Archbishops’ Council following Rochester Diocese’s Synod motion of ‘no confidence’ in the Councils' oversight of safeguarding last year.
The meeting took place in April at the invitation of Bishop Jonathan.
Alongside the Bishop, those present were William Nye, Secretary General of the Church of England, Alison Coulter, Vice Chair of the House of Laity for the General Synod and a member of the Archbishops’ Council, and Alex Kubeyinje, National Director of Safeguarding for the Church of England.
From the Diocese, those present were Matthew Girt, Diocesan Secretary, Sarah Poole, Chair of the House of Laity, the Rev Canon Jeremy Blunden, Chair of the House of Clergy, Stephen Smith, Chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance, and the Rev Nathan Ward, Vicar of St Margaret’s Rainham who proposed the motion.
Nathan explained the reasoning behind the motion and Bishop Jonathan confirmed that it had followed due synodical process.
It was a cordial meeting in which the national team sought to understand more about the concerns that had been expressed and to listen. They also conveyed some of the work being undertaken at a national level to address concerns around safeguarding.
There was a willingness expressed to continue conversations.
Annual Report and Accounts for 2024
Stephen Smith, Chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance, and John Jackson, Director of Finance, gave a financial presentation of the Diocesan Annual Report and Accounts for 2024.
They commended the report to Diocesan Synod as an encouraging read, and in its highlighting of the work that is take place in parishes, in partnership with diocesan support teams, to grow God’s kingdom.
The presentation outlined that the Common Fund costs in 2024 totalled £11.8m.
Clergy stipends and housing accounted for 62 per cent of those total costs, showing the ongoing commitment to parish ministry as a percentage of costs despite continuing pressure on parish offers.
Stephen said that the costs were all aimed squarely at supporting, maintaining and developing mission and ministry in parishes. For 2024, the Diocesan Board of Finance had budgeted for a deficit of £1,462k on a management accounting basis.
In the end, the deficit recorded was better than expected, recording an actual deficit of £1,385k – it was noted that this was despite parish offers being £705k below budget.
John highlighted that this had in part been facilitated by an increase in the clergy vacancy rate. This is clearly not good long term for mission and ministry on the ground. It does, however, reflect a national trend, with some neighbouring dioceses reporting similar vacancy levels to those in Rochester Diocese.
What was more encouraging was that the rate of decline in parish offers had slowed down in 2024, for which John said there is huge gratitude to parishes.
“It means that in 2025, we are looking forward to some recovery so thank you to every parish here who has supported that recovery.”
Other key details highlighted were:
- Only 81 out of 172 benefices are providing an offer that meets its ministry cost.
- Diocesan overheads have been kept flat over the last three years. Any additional posts have been supported by external funds to ensure all parish offer is directed to parish ministry.
- £6.7 million of external funding has been received in the last 3 years to support project like the redevelopment of St John’s Chatham, on top of the £11m SMMIB funding announced in 2025.
Heartfelt thanks were given to clergy, laity, and PTO, for their dedication and service as we all work collectively to build God’s kingdom across this diocese.
The accounts were adopted.
View the Annual Report and Accounts for 2024
Safeguarding update
Archdeacon Allie Kerr, the Archdeacon of Bromley and Bexley and Bishop’s Lead for Safeguarding updated Synod on the Bishop’s Study Day that took place in April on the theme of safe and healthy cultures.
The day brought clergy and lay leaders together for a day of mutual learning. Feedback indicates that this was a very fruitful day, and that the two cohorts should be brought together in this way again.
Allie referenced the retirement after seven years, of Alison Jones, as Safeguarding Administrator. The Archdeacon wanted to formally note Alison’s amazing contribution in support of the work of safeguarding within the Diocesan team and in parishes.
Recruitment is underway for her replacement.
The Archdeacon spoke about the National Safeguarding Team’s recommendation that Led Diocesan Safeguarding Advisers should be certified and become an Officer; this is about ensuring independence of decision making.
This kind of independence is something Rochester Diocese already has – not all dioceses do – so Allie said that Rochester Diocese is already meeting the necessary criteria for this change to happen, and it should take place within the next few weeks.
She updated that work on the Growing safe and healthy cultures workstream is underway. The working group has begun to look at theology and definitions first, before developing an action plan, which will come to Synod later in the year.
The Archdeacon noted that the Safeguarding Team had been experiencing some resistance to training in recent years, but they are now seeing much more enthusiasm - the leadership training is going down particularly well.
She said this was excellent news and she invited Diocesan Synod members to continue being advocates and champions for training as it is vital to bring about culture change.
Motion on national Diocesan Finance Review
Next came a presentation and discussion on a motion calling for the National Church Institutions to engage in more consultation and dialogue with Diocesan Boards of Finance (DBFs) about clergy stipends and pension contributions, as well as the distribution of national funding.
Proposed by Stephen Smith, Chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance, he explained that the motion follows the outcome of the recent national Diocesan Finance Review, and some announcements made by Archbishops’ Council on changes to clergy stipends and clergy pensions.
These changes are due to be debated and voted upon at General Synod in July.
Stephen explained that, in the view of the Diocesan Board of Finance, if the DFR proposals are adopted, they will not materially improve the long term financially sustainability of the diocese and the restoration of clergy benefits loads additional risk onto all dioceses.
Given the risks posed by these particular changes, Stephen explained that the motion was about allowing Diocesan Synod to express its concern that such significant changes had been proposed without appropriate prior consultation with dioceses.
“Clearly no one would disagree with the ambition to reinstate the pension benefits of clergy, or of increasing stipends, the latter of which Rochester has been making its best efforts to do already.
“But, dioceses were not consulted on the reinstatement of clergy pensions and these are being presented to General Synod as a fait accompli.
“Broadly speaking, the savings made by removing Diocesan apportionment are for Rochester DBF, offset by the creation of a new Ministry Training Fund, and the increase in stipends and pensions. This is mitigated in the short term by the tapered relief, but the resultant mitigation falls away as the reliefs tapers down at a faster rate than any likely payback in investment in Mission”
Crucially, he said the motion was about relationship, and encouraging ongoing dialogue and collaborative engagement on these matters between the national church and dioceses.
The motion was passed with 2 abstentions.
“That this Synod:-
“(a) endorse the conservation of the underlying value of the Church Commissioners assets in order to support future generations of the Church and thank the Church Commissioners for their ethical and conscientious stewardship of assets in supporting the ongoing mission and ministry of the Church of England;
(b) endorse the Commissioners’ disbursement to the Church of £1.6 billion;
(c) recognise the deteriorating picture for diocesan finances outlined in GS2396A and the highly detrimental impact that this is having on the life and viability of the parishes and dioceses of our whole Church;
(d) with regard to the recent announcement by the Archbishops’ Council on clergy pensions, note:
(i) the lack of consultation with Diocesan Boards of Finance by the national church regarding these changes;
(ii) that these changes increase the liability of DBFs in respect of pension contributions;
(iii) that these changes could have severe adverse consequences for DBF finances should the actuarial assumptions on which they based prove optimistic, resulting in the pension scheme returning to a deficit position;
(e) call upon the national church to establish a process by which DBFs can be consulted over proposed changes to the clergy pension scheme as would be normal for those employers funding defined benefit pension schemes;
(f) call upon the present and future Triennium Funding Working Groups, or their equivalent, to prioritise additional work in partnership with the DBFs to establish the level of additional funds which are required to be disbursed on an ongoing basis directly to the stipends funds of the dioceses to secure their long term sustainability, thereby supporting the charitable objects of the Church Commissioners to promote the mission and ministry of the Church of England;
(g) call upon the House of Bishops to lead on the agreement of a formula for the distribution of such funds that will reflect:-
(i) the amounts that individual dioceses have paid in clergy pension costs since 1997;
(ii) the efforts that individual dioceses have made to retain clergy numbers; and
(iii) a balancing moderation that takes into account the comparative wealth of dioceses; and Page 7 of 8
(h) request the House of Bishops, in consultation with Diocesan Secretaries and the Archbishops’ Council, devise means of accountability through regional peer support, planning and scrutiny to ensure that funds will be used to enable growth in parish ministry and church flourishing.”
Net Zero Carbon action plan
Cat Jamieson, Net Zero Lead Adviser, gave an overview on the progress made so far on the Net Zero Action plan.
She said that the team is looking at what the diocese’s current emissions are and what the costs would be to address any issues.
Essentially, through the action plan being developed, they are trying to mirror the national route map and pull out the actions that are specific for dioceses.
Consideration is being given to setting up a Net Zero Steering Group to help guide and oversee the work.
Kayleigh Ward, Net Zero Adviser for Rochester, then spoke about her work and how she has begun to meet a lot of people in parishes.
She said she was grateful for the warm welcome she is receiving and the energy she is picking up on the ground in parish for work on achieving net zero carbon
She reported that the Energy Footprint Tool closed on 30 June, and she was delighted to announce there had been an increase in submission rate this year from 54 percent to 86 percent this year.
This is a huge achievement by parishes, and so she expressed her sincere gratitude to the hard work that has taken place in churches to make this happen.
This is vital work, offering an important way for the Net Zero team to understand the bigger picture of energy consumption across the Diocese and how best to target support.
She also reported that of the 33 energy audits available for funding up to 50% by the Diocese, 30 had been taken up so far – another sign of the commitment and willingness of parishes to engage with Net Zero.
Kayleigh also explained that the Quick Wins grants have proved very popular and so this current round is now closed.
However, more funding should be available in November, so there will be more opportunities for churches to apply in the future.
They are also very excited to be working with Canterbury Diocese on a joint Eco Church conference on 4 October. This will be held at St Luke’s Maidstone, which is demonstrator church for environmental work.
Synod was drawn to a close and will next meet in November at St John’s, Chatham.