After nine years as Chair of the Diocesan Board of Finance, Michael Sturgess formally stepped down at Diocesan Synod on Saturday.

Bishop Hugh said: “Mike has been an extraordinary servant of the church in Cornwall. His generous, faith-filled and skilled leadership as Chair of the TDBF have been a gift to us all over many years, and I am deeply grateful to him for everything he has done.”

At the synod, Mike was asked to step to the front where Bishop Hugh spoke of Mike’s service over the last nine years before Mike was presented with cards and gifts which included solar panels for a church in Uganda in honour of Mike’s interest in Creation Care.

Reflecting on his experiences, Mike writes:

“When I used to work with my accountancy clients before I retired, they would often get frustrated that they hadn’t achieved as much of their strategic plans as they wanted. Facing forward, looking into the future can at times be frustrating. So, I would remind them to turn around to look backwards and see how far they have come since the starting point. It helps to put the progress made to date into perspective.

When I was asked if I would be prepared to write an article about my nine years in the “hot seat” it reminded me of that approach that I took with clients, so here goes.

My first diocesan synod was in 2014. Knowing that I would be proposed as Chair of Truro Diocesan Board of Finance in September 2015 I felt I needed to get a head start on understanding the diocesan finances and structures. Those with long memories will know that in the November 2014 budget debate, synod was presented with a stark picture of our future reserves, given the continued operating deficits. The MMF payments has been stagnant for many years, yet costs had increased. Synod was asked to choose between three options in terms of increase and chose the most radical – a 28% increase in 2015. The amount of MMF paid in 2015 increased by 20.4%, but then things started to deteriorate.

In 2015 we didn’t have a strategy for managing glebe, and in the early years of my tenure we had a major maintenance backlog on our properties. MMF was based on historic parish income which hadn’t been updated for many years and long-term issues were not being addressed.

So, what does the diocese look like now? Well, here’s a quick summary of things that have changed:

  • We changed our MMF formula to a largely cost-based approach calculated at deanery level. The deaneries then decide how to allocate it at benefice and parish level. Whilst not universally popular, some kind people graciously described it as the least bad option!
  • With investments and land values increasing significantly, we adopted what is known as the Total Return approach to the Stipends Capital Account. This allows us to pay some stipends out of a proportion of the above-inflationary increases in the capital value, freeing up general reserves to invest in mission and other activities.
  • We outsourced our property department and glebe management to Savills. With the regulatory environment becoming ever more demanding, we now have confidence that we are compliant. We have invested heavily in our clergy housing and have now started retrofitting houses for net zero. Every parcel of glebe land has been classified regarding its potential future uses and we are now much more strategic in our approach. As an example, over those 9 years more than 200 affordable houses have been built on what used to be glebe land, and more are in the pipeline.
  • Every deanery now has a deanery plan setting out its approach to becoming both fruitful and sustainable under the On the Way process. Whilst this was a painful and challenging process in some deaneries, we are seeing some really exciting developments coming out of those plans. For the last couple of years, the diocesan budget has been built up from these deanery mission and ministry plans, rather than being based on a top-down finance approach.
  • With deaneries promising to meet their MMF call, we were finally able to release the Lowest Income Community Funding to deaneries to be used to support ministry and mission to those suffering from deprivation. We also used Total Return to provide mission funding to the seven deaneries that did not get Transforming Mission funding.
  • Housing values in Cornwall have gone through the roof in recent years, and investments and land values have also increased significantly. We have therefore taken a deliberate decision to invest £22m of reserves over ten years to support parishes (keeping MMF down), and to invest in mission, in children’s and young people work, in funding net zero and in helping to look after our buildings. We have moved from unbudgeted operating deficits to planned investment in the future.

Of course, everything in the diocese is not perfect, and change can be both difficult to accept and even hurtful. But whilst not everyone will agree with me, from where I stand the diocese is in a much stronger position now than nine years ago, and not just financially. We can see areas of real growth, churches regaining their place at the centre of village life, the whole people of God taking a more active role, and the gospel being proclaimed through word and deed.

Whilst I am stepping down from Bishop’s Diocesan Council, the Finance Assets and Risk committee, the Programme Board for Change and Renewal, the Glebe, the Property and the Investment Management Committees, and the Remuneration Committee, I will continue as a member of Diocesan Synod and will also continue as Co-chair of the Diocesan Environment Board alongside Bishop Hugh. I wish the new incoming Chair, Justin Day, well as he steps into the role.

It has been said before that the Church of England is very good at writing plans, but not so good at implementing them. As we look to the future, I would urge everyone to focus on implementing the deanery and diocesan plans, adapting them were appropriate, and to seek unity and reconciliation where there are past divisions or hurts. Whatever our other beliefs, we all love God, acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and want to see the Kingdom of God here on earth now.  Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Working together, I believe that the Diocese of Truro has a bright and exciting future.”