The Church of England’s calling is and always has been to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ afresh in each generation to the people of England.
The Church has established a Vision and Strategy for the 2020s – The Church of England must adapt and put its trust in God to become a simpler, humbler, bolder Church that is Jesus Christ centred and Jesus Christ shaped.
- A simpler Church, both in governance and structure and in the way we live and share the gospel
- A humbler Church, recognising our failings and working with others to serve the common good
- A bolder Church energised and enthused by the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ and sharing that with everyone
The Vision and Strategy establishes the following priorities:
- To be a Church that is younger and more diverse
- To be a Church where mixed ecology is the norm – where every person in England has access to an enriching and compelling community of faith by adding new churches and new forms of Church to our parishes, schools and chaplaincies
- To become a Church of missionary disciples where all God’s people are released to live the Christian life
The Church Commissioners
The Church Commissioners exist to support the ministry and mission of the Church of England both for today and for future generations. Alongside significant statutory duties and responsibilities for stewarding the Church’s endowment fund, we work together with sisters and brothers in dioceses and parishes, cathedrals, the College of Bishops, the other National Church Institutions and a wide network of external partners, stakeholders and statutory bodies to create a vision of a hopeful future, and one of renewal and growth of the Church of England and of the Kingdom of God.
In the context of the Church’s Vision and Strategy, the Church Commissioners seeks to:
“Enable Christ’s Thriving Church”.
Overview of the Church Commissioners’ work
The Commissioners are accountable to Parliament, the Church of England’s General Synod and the Charity Commission and all three bodies receive our annual report and accounts. The Commissioners’ main statutory responsibilities are:
- To manage the historic assets of the Church to provide the maximum sustainable support for parish ministry, particularly in areas of need and opportunity
- To fund clergy pensions earned on service before 1998, and those for bishops and some cathedral clergy earned after that date
- To meet other legal commitments mainly in relation to bishops and cathedrals
- To administer the legal framework for pastoral reorganisation and settling the future of churches closed for regular public worship
- In every single one of these tasks, to contribute to the mission and ministry of the Church of England
Membership and Structure
There are 33 Church Commissioners. They include six holders of State office who are Commissioners ex officio, the two archbishops, 12 members appointed by the Crown or the archbishops (including three Church Estates Commissioners), 11 elected by the Church’s General Synod (four bishops, three other clergy, four lay people) and two deans elected by the deans.
All but the six state office holders are members of the Commissioners’ Board of Governors, our chief policy making body. The Commissioners are chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury; the current Archbishop delegates this role to his deputy chair of the Board, the Bishop of Salisbury. It is supported by four committees and an administrative staff team.
Of these four committees, two are chaired by the Third Church Estates Commissioner:
- The Bishoprics and Cathedrals Committee is the co-regulator of the cathedrals and assists with their funding. The Committee also ensures that the Archbishops and Bishops are resourced for their ministry and is their housing provider
- The Mission, Pastoral and Church Property Committee deals with representations in relation to pastoral reorganisation and settles the future of closed churches. The role is quasi-judicial and decisions on pastoral schemes can be appealed to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
The other two committees are:
- The Assets Committee, which directs investment policy and asset management, assisted by securities and property sub-groups. It is chaired by the First Commissioner
- The Audit & Risk Committee, which oversees the preparation and audit of the annual financial statements and the effectiveness of the Commissioners’ governance, risk management and internal control system. It is chaired by a member of the Committee
All except the Assets Committee also include additional non-Commissioner members, who are normally expert in a field related to their committee’s work.
The more recently formed Net Zero Programme Board is also chaired by the Third Church Estates Commissioner and oversees the direction of our funding in support of the Church of England’s Net Zero Programme and progress towards the ambition set by General Synod for the Church of England to be Net Zero (scopes 1 & 2) by 2030. The Programme Board is comprised of members from the Archbishops’ Council, Pensions Board, the National Society, relevant Lead Bishops, two diocesan representatives, and 2 external members expert in sustainable building management and climate finance.
The Third Church Estates Commissioner stands in for the First Church Estates Commissioner when required.
The investments portfolio was valued at just over £10 billion at the end of 2023; this covers a wide range of asset classes including UK and overseas securities, commercial, residential and rural property, timberland and alternative strategies such as multi asset and absolute return funds. The purposes of the fund are to support and enable the mission of the Church of England and the Commissioners take their role as a leading ethical investor very seriously.