[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Church Financial Stewardship
Whilst the central legal system of the Church confers upon parishes a basic financial autonomy, in some cases regulation provides for direct control of financial management by diocesan authorities. To provide assistance for financial management, many dioceses have a stewardship adviser. One function of the parochial church council is 'the collection and administration of all moneys raised for church purposes and the keeping of accounts in relation to such affairs and moneys'.
To this end, the council is empowered 'to frame an annual budget of moneys required for the maintenance of the work of the Church in the parish and otherwise and to take such steps as they think necessary for the raising collecting and allocating of such moneys'. The parochial church council enjoys a specific power 'jointly with the minister to determine the objects to which all moneys to be given or collected in church shall be allocated subject to the directions contained in the Book of Common Prayer as to the disposal of money given at the offertory'. In the event of disagreement, the matter is to be referred to the diocesan bishop whose directions are final. The incumbent has a right, recognized judicially, to dispose of money collected from services held elsewhere than in church as he thinks fit. The council also seems to have a power to borrow money, as well as the power to receive money from land put to secular uses. Practices vary as between councils, but funds and accounts will be established to cover both recurring and occasional expenses.
The legal organization of finance in the Church, like that of the Roman Catholic Church, serves four basic functions. First, the law requires the existence of prescribed funds for specified ecclesiastical objects. Secondly, it assigns to authorities at national, diocesan, and parochial levels the functions of holding, administering, investing, and applying these funds.......
