Image by Tumisu from Pixabay
Each year, parishes are asked to submit information and data to the Church of England nationally. You can do so via:
Online Parish Returns System | Weblink
Data that can be submitted includes:
- Return of Parish Finance
- Statistics for Mission
- Energy Footprint
If you are unable to input data using the online portal and would like assistance please contact us by email or call 01473 298500.
Return of Parish Finance
Finance Form January to December 2019 | PDF
Finance Form January to December 2019 | XLSX
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the deadline for the Return of Parish Finance to be submitted via:has been extended from 15 June to 31 July 2020. As at the end of May the National Church had only received 27% of all returns compared with 47% at the same time in 2019.
Online Parish Returns System | Weblink
The information is especially important this year for financial forward-planning and to establish a baseline to assess the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on parishes’ income and expenditure. It is intended to provide draft data for our diocese by late autumn 2020, with publication of final figures by the end of this year/early 2021. Parishes are asked to please submit the returns as soon as their figures are ready.
Key points:
- The Return of Parish Finance should agree with the figures in accounts and the accounts should be independently examined. However, if the returns and accounts have both been prepared, and the accounts are ready to be examined, parishes can submit their returns before the deadline if independent examination is likely to be significantly delayed. Parishes can use Comment Box E of the return to note that the accounts have not been formally examined;
- There is no need to wait for the APCM before submitting the returns. The accounts need to be presented but the ACPM is not part of the approval process;
- The PCC should approve the accounts on which the returns are based. However, to avoid delay caused by the lockdown, the accounts can be approved at an online meeting of the PCC or be recommended for approval by the Finance or Standing Committee.
Thank you for your support with collecting and submitting this information.
Accounts & Annual Reports
Copies of Parish Account and Annual Reports should be provided directly to the diocese, preferably by email, or alternatively by post.
Statistics for Mission
Statistics for Mission 2019 Form | DOCX
User Guide | PDF
The deadline for returning Statistics for Mission via the Online Portal has now passed. This information remains important and can continue to be directly provided to the National Church via email.
Energy Footprint Tool
The Church of England’s General Synod has set new targets for all parts of the church to work to become carbon ‘net zero’ by 2030. Read more here.
The easy-to-use Energy Footprint Tool will tell your church of what your "carbon footprint" is, based on the energy you use to heat and light your buildings. This tool is now live and is available to all Church of England churches using:
Online Parish Returns System | Weblibk
For further information please try the toolkit:
Energy Footprint Toolkit | Weblink
For further information please visit:
Environment | Weblink
Eco Churches | Weblink
Or email The Revd Canon Sandie Barton our Diocesan Environment Adviser.
Dashboards
The Church of England Research and Statistics team publish the results of this data collection in the form of Dashboards. These PDFs show data and trends for up to ten years' for each parish. They have published updated Dashboards for 2017 and we have dashboards available for each benefice – please contact us on 01473 298500 for your copy.
Last updated: 17 June 2020
| 
