Agenda Volume 3 - Methodist Conference

59. Memorials to the Conference
Allowances Committee and Connexional
Central Services Budget reports which
can be found elsewhere in the Conference
Agenda.
To underline the reasoning for the stipend
review proposals, it is important to
understand that there is a lag between
the publication of inflation index numbers
used in the calculation and the date of
implementation. This is necessary to
enable reliable budgets to be prepared
throughout the Church. Thus the
recommended stipend increase from
September 2012 is based on consumer
price and average earnings data from
several months before, currently January
data. If, as the memorial suggests,
earnings during 2012 have been rising very
slowly, static or even decreasing, then this
will be reflected accordingly in the 2013
review.
As the annual stipend review takes
account of trends in earnings as well as
price inflation, proposed rises are not
always in line with inflation. When the wider
economy is relatively depressed, as in
recent years, average earnings increases
have tended to be below the rate of price
inflation. In these circumstances the
stipend rises recommended are unlikely to
match inflation. The current policy does not
therefore guarantee inflation is matched in
stipend increases over a period of years,
and the wider economic circumstances –
with their impact on church members – is
already a factor taken into account.
The Conference notes that it is for each
Methodist employing body to set and
review the salaries of lay employees,
within its policy of ensuring that nobody
is paid less than the Living Wage. Within
the Connexional Central Services Budget
which has been before the Conference is
a proposal to increase the salaries of lay
employees of the Methodist Council by
2%. This figure is substantially below the
level of both Consumer Price Index (CPI)
and Retail Price Index (RPI) inflation, but
equated to the level of the Average Weekly
Earnings Index in February. The Strategy
and Resources Committee specifically
recommended an increase below the
level of inflation in recognition of the
factors mentioned in this memorial. The
Conference recalls that two years ago it
agreed to a budget that allowed for no
across-the-board pay increase at all for the
lay staff, again reflecting an awareness of
the pressures on churches and Circuits.
The reply to the memorial is therefore
contained in the resolutions of the
Conference.
M7
The Cannock Chase (28/8) Circuit
Meeting (Present: 52. Voting: 38 for,
8 against)
This memorial was received with the same
text as M6, omitting the final sentence of
the second paragraph. The Conference
adopts the same reply.
M8
Stipends
In the light of the current economic
climate, the Amber Valley (22/14)
Circuit Meeting (Present: 45. Voting:
unanimous) requests the Conference
to consider reducing the increase in
ministerial stipends in order to show
774 Conference Agenda 2012