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5.1 Other Research
An obvious potential source of ideas was to ascertain how other dioceses allocate their diocesan shares (that phrase will be retained in this section although other dioceses adopt not only different methods but also different terminology) - ideas used elsewhere would have the advantage of being proven feasible even if translation to Bradford might involve practical problems. Whilst it was known that methods varied, there was apparently no available anterior study to show just how, and accordingly another questionnaire was circulated. Whilst this yielded a very high response rate (41 out of 43 when collation was stopped and summation started) it also revealed several other papers in the field. One of these - prepared in the Diocese of St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich by the Reverend C. T. Catton and dated August 1978 (B3) - was so comprehensive that it was deemed a
preferable source of data for the purposes of this study. We shall therefore consider it in detail but before so doing we should perhaps make the passing point that in the absence of Church House acting as a controller or even as a clearing-house for information, dioceses are bound to duplicate each others' efforts in this way, and fail to reap the benefits of cooperation. It is apparently a traditional story in Church circles that when the Central Stipends Authority was established its first notable discovery was that there were 43 different ways in the country of handling clergy stipends. What seems more notable though, is not so much that that was the situation, but rather that coming to know it should have been discovery. 5.2 The Catton Paper Summarised
Catton starts his paper by stating five principles: "1. Fairness - The responsibility of raising money required to enable the Diocese to meet various obligations on behalf of |
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