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3.1
The Basic Premise
The Church of England - at least in its material concerns (which
concerns many churchmen would regard as at least distinct from, and
probably inferior in importance to, its chief theological purpose) -
is an organisation operating on business principles (using that phrase
in the economic sense of operating under certain constraints and being
offered certain opportunities). It draws on certain scarce resources -
both capital and revenue - and by combination and conversion thereof
supplies a service to a market segment, which segment considers that
service to be of sufficient value to be prepared to make payment
therefore. There is nothing intrinsically different between that and
almost any other commercial or non-profit making organisation
operating on more avowedly cost-conscious principles, the difference
comes only in the means whereby the revenue is raised. Whereas a
commercial firm would propose a predetermined value and offer the
commodity at that price, the Church prefers to offer the commodity
openly for anyone to take ("Salvation is free"
(C7)
) and merely intimate
that an appropriate financial response would be appreciated.
In times past this response was either effectively supplied by
that small minority of the population ("the squirearchy"
(C4)
) whose
economic resources were sufficient to enable them so to do, and whose
social position may have required them so to do; or assured by the
facility the Church enjoyed to levy a compulsory rate. (A facility
which ceased formally in the United Kingdom only in 1868
(B8)
and
which still does exist elsewhere
(P11)
.) With the changing economic
situation, and in particular the decline in the financial role formerly
played by patrons (who still exist, but whose powers now are effectively
limited to nominating a new incumbent when a vacancy occurs
(C4)
), the
Church's revenue sources have undergone a slow, but fundamental meta-
morphosis. Now there is a much lower proportion being received from
