A REDUCTION in occasional office fees is due to be discussed at the meeting of the General Synod on Wednesday morning (8 February). On the face of it, this looks like the most straightforward vote in an otherwise fraught week at the Synod.

This well-intentioned legislative move, however, could have a significant impact on the finances of some of our poorest parishes and dioceses, including my own.

The papers (here and here) outline proposals to reduce annual occasional office fee increases from a maximum of 14.3 per cent to no more than five per cent. The purpose here is to reduce the financial pressures on fee-payers during the present cost-of-living crisis. This limit on fees would last at least until the end of 2024.

The motivations here are, no doubt, entirely pure. Through weddings and funerals, parishes offer a crucial service to their communities — which we would never want to deny to those for whom cash is tight. And, of course, each of these important occasions offers a precious and privileged opportunity for ministry and mission.

However, a Financial Impact Statement, issued to Synod members late on Friday night, outlined the shocking harm that this Order could inflict on parish and diocesan finances.

Assuming the number of weddings and funerals we conduct nationally stays level, £2.2 million will be lost from parish finances and £1.4 million from diocesan coffers. There will be no financial impact on the National Church Institutions, but for some of our poorer parishes it could be disastrous.

In our own diocese of Canterbury, one of our parishes would lose more than £1100 a year, at a time when our churches are facing so many increases in expenditure. The diocese will lose the equivalent of half a stipend for each year this limit applies. We cannot afford this, and it will have a direct impact on our mission and ministry — at a time when all dioceses are, ironically, seeking additional funds for such work from the Church Commissioners.

Parishes already have the power to waive or reduce occasional office fees on grounds of hardship — and they frequently do so, making the proposed legislation entirely pointless. Taking this decision away from parishes risks eroding the quality of this provision that we should be rightly proud of.

DURING the pandemic, I experienced the sadness of the death of my father, as well as the joy of my daughter’s wedding — and, in both these significant life events, the Church played a huge part.

The proportion of church fees for such occasions is not only a small percentage of the overall costs — it also funds a small part of the ministry that the Church offers during such times.

We need to trust our parishes to exercise this discretion, in the same way that we trust them and our ministers with the wider pastoral care of their flock — not penalise all parishes and dioceses with such generalist and wide-sweeping measures.

This proposal is misguided — but there’s also a danger that it will simply be passed on the nod, as other significant matters dominate the Synod’s time and energy. I very much hope that it doesn’t.

The Ven. Stephen Taylor is Diocesan Secretary of the Diocese of Canterbury.