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Similar calculations will produce figures for each other parish, and when those are summated, will come to 100%, thus checking accuracy. These percentages may now be treated as either fixed for a period of years, or may be varied year by year, as preference determines. An incidental advantage of this type of format is that it becomes possible to say to parish A: 'Of every £100 the diocese spends you have to provide £1.76', a clarity of presentation which may, perhaps, encourage parishes to take a greater interest in diocesan financial affairs. 4.6 Formula as an Instrument for Effecting Diocesan Policy
There remains one other benefit accruable from a formula which is worth enumerating although it attracted little enthusiasm in Bradford - a sufficiently refined formula can be used as a means of encouraging parishes to adhere to diocesan policy. This facility has already been alluded to once or twice, but to demonstrate it more clearly we will work through an example based on theoretical figures. One of the lesser problems occasionally touched on in interviews was that of rural churches which enjoy large congregations in the summer months when heating costs are minimal, and only small congre- gations in winter when heating costs are high. This obviously produces imbalanced cash flows, and one school of thought is that adjacent parishes should combine in winter and hold services alternately in each others' churches. Assuming this were done by three contiguous parishes each of whose normal winter congregations numbered 30, half of whom would be prepared to travel, then a combined service in church 'A' would minister to a congregation of 60 (30 from A, 15 from each of |
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