Diocesan Investment Programme

Background

The aim of Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment (SMMI) is to enable the strategic priorities and the bold outcomes of the Church of England’s Vision and Strategy for the 2020s to become a reality in local parishes and communities across the country.

The £340m allocated to the Diocesan Investment Programme over the next three years goes directly to dioceses to advance their plans for the Vision and Strategy in local parishes and communities. This includes the Lowest Income Communities Funding.

The new programme builds on the intentionality and accountability of the funding arrangement introduced in recent years where national funding has supported dioceses to undertake significant programmes to support local parishes develop mission within particular geographical areas and demographic groups, to develop and deliver diocesan-wide transformation programmes and to increase the number of newly ordained ministers.

Funding Strategy

The purpose of the Diocesan Investment Programme is to focus investment on enabling the Church’s Vision & Strategy to become a reality in parishes and communities, prioritising investment in the most deprived and resource-poor contexts.

This will enable dioceses to develop new areas of mission, revitalise mission and build on missional approaches that are proving effective.

Approach

The new funding arrangements will operate in the following ways:

• The way in which dioceses access the funding will shift from supporting discrete projects by application towards a strategic development approach over the next nine years.
• There will be a tailored approach of funding and support to each diocese, recognising that different dioceses are at different stages of development in terms of their mission planning.
• Diocesan leadership teams will have the time they need to work with front-line ministries to plan and discern what is needed to develop mission in their diocese.
• Funding proposals from dioceses should detail how national funding can best support them in delivering their own strategy, in line with the Church’s Vision & Strategy.
• There will be a transparent process for putting forward funding proposals and a prayerful assessment process of those proposals.