(Photo: Church of England)
The cost to the Church of England of its bishops came under the spotlight at the February 2026 General Synod, raising the spectre of a cull in the hierarchy.
In a written question in advance of the five-day Synod in Westminster, Daniel Matovu, a lay member from Oxford Diocese, asked the Church Commissioners, which manages the C of E’s £11 billion investments, about the ministry costs of bishops and archbishops on top of their salaries for 2026 to 2028.
He asked for an itemised breakdown of the ministry costs over the three years, “setting out what are the intended goals of each item and how any anticipated outcomes are to be monitored and assessed”.
In a written answer, Alan Smith replied as First Church Estates Commissioner:
“The allocation for Bishops’ and Archbishops’ ministry costs for 2026-28 amounts to £146.3m and is split as follows:
– £115.2m for bishops’ costs (113 bishops’ posts)
– £23.1m for archbishops’ costs (May 2025 staffing 95 headcount)
– £8.1m for Lambeth Palace Library (May 2025 staffing 33 headcount)
An allocation of £115.2m was made available within the 2026-28 Spending Plans for bishops’ ministry costs. This includes £87.6m for bishops’ ministry grants, £21.3m for bishops’ housing and office premises and £6.3m for bishops’ legal fees.”
He added: “Costs allocated to a bishop’s post include items such as the cost of their staff team as well as their office premises and diocesan bishops’ housing.”
Debbie Woods, a lay member for Chester Diocese, ratcheted up the pressure on the bishops. She reminded Synod of the Archbishops’ Vision Strategy launched in November 2020 for the C of E to become “simpler, humbler and bolder”.
She asked the Church Commissioners what plans there were to reduce the £146 million spend “under the commitment to being ‘simpler, humbler, and bolder’ as part of our strategy”.
Alan Smith said “savings targets” were incorporated into the spending plans. “It has been decided that a Review Group will be created to consider options and provide recommendations to the Church Commissioners’ Board, the Archbishops’ Council and the House of Bishops”, he said.
At the first live Q&A session on February 9, Sam Margrave, a lay member for Coventry Diocese, followed up his written question about the cost of bishops with a supplementary: “Having raised the issue for over a decade and welcoming the Review, can I ask whether the Commissioners will ensure the review hears the voices of those in the pews, the public, and Synod members and enables them to contribute on ideas for potential savings on bishops’ costs, for which I’m sure we’ll all have many?”
He got a very positive response to his suggestion from the Third Church Estates Commissioner, Sir Robert Buckland. He thanked Margrave warmly for his “persistence”.
“I can say to him a resounding yes to his request,” Buckland declared.
The tone of the responses from the Church Commissioners was politically significant. It contrasts sharply with the way Margrave was treated by the Bishop of Leicester, Martyn Snow, at the February 2023 General Synod. With the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, applauding, Snow attacked Margrave over the manner of his campaigning for the Church’s traditional teaching on marriage and sexual morality.
Now the Church Commissioners are thanking Margrave and agreeing to his request for a public consultation over the cost of bishops. They realise that dissatisfaction with the bishops is running deep both at the General Synod and in the wider Church. The failure of the bishops to deliver standalone services of same-sex blessing and permission for clergy to enter into same-sex civil marriages has angered revisionists. And conservatives are unhappy with the bishops for allowing same-sex blessings to take place in existing services.
The culture of deference towards bishops amongst their C of E paymasters is apparently at an end. The bishops cannot fail to have noticed that and must be braced for some quite radical changes to the bureaucracies they have built up around them.
Julian Mann, a former Church of England vicar, is an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.
