ABOUT THE EPHESIAN FUND 

Yes. You will be able to indicate when making your donation that you would like the Ephesian Fund to allocate your giving to your local church. In order to receive your gifts, they will need to confirm that either the incumbent/minister and/or the PCC has endorsed the CEEC Basis of Faith, including its declarations.

Yes. You can set up a regular direct debit and regular financial gifts with a Stewardship Giving Account or a Philanthropy Services Account. 

Yes, you can. All eligible donations will be boosted by 25% Gift Aid, so the Ephesian Fund receives more each time you give.

The purpose of the Ephesian Fund is to enable continued cheerful giving to local Church of England parish ministry and has been established to facilitate choice where evangelicals wish to support their local church but not their bishop or diocese.

If you would like your giving to the Church of England to be used solely to support orthodox churches and clergy you can now use Stewardship to support the Ephesian Fund.

Yes, it is possible for PCCs to make a gift in support of the Ephesian Fund and ask that it be allocated to pay Parish Share to their diocese. It is helpful if a PCC making such a donation is also able to ‘top this up’ with a (small) unrestricted donation so that the Ephesian Fund is not just a ‘post box’ account.

Stewardship is a registered charity, number 234714. They have a Board of Trustees and are registered with the Charity Commission. They have over 100 years of experience of supporting donations made to churches and operate under all the normal charitable and financial rules and laws of the sector.

Stewardship connects and serves Christian givers, workers, charities and churches in the UK and beyond to steward their resources well and create impact for God’s Kingdom. Founded over a century ago by a small group of Christians who partnered to release generous gifts and financial support to Christian ministries, today, Stewardship helps over 30,000 people experience the joy of being generous stewards, giving more than £85 million each year to over 6,000 charities, 4,000 churches and 2,300 Christian workers.

Your allocated gifts will be assigned in accordance with your direction. Your unallocated gifts will go where the need is greatest among the churches that the CEEC serves – to encourage and equip evangelicals in the Church of England to keep mission and evangelism as a permanent priority.

There are two costs associated with running the Ephesian Fund. First, individual gifts in support of the Ephesian Fund are received by Stewardship, who deduct an administration fee – full details on Stewardship fees on their website. Second, the Fund trustees intend to meet its costs from the donor support and trusts.

Each time a new gift is made, you will be asked for your personal information so Stewardship can meet its regulatory responsibilities in accepting gifts. You will then be given the opportunity to either share your contact information (name, email and address) with the CEEC, or make the donation anonymous.

This allows you to remain in control of what information is shared. It also allows:

• Stewardship to connect donors to the partners they support in order to complete the transaction (anonymity is respected if requested).
• Partners the chance to reach out to our donors and thank them for their support if they want to share their details with the partners.

You can find out more by reading Stewardship’s Privacy Notice.

First, lay people have said to us, “I don’t want to give my money any more because when I put it in the offering plate in my church it might be used by the diocese to support non-biblical churches”. So, we are inviting people to give to the Ephesian Fund who will pass it on to your local parish church with a restriction that it has to be spent on orthodox purposes. This will enable you to continue giving to your local church, but it will mean that your PCC can’t simply pass it on to the diocese for the support of liberal parishes.

Second, clergy and PCCs are asking if they could make their voluntary parish share/common fund to the diocese through the Ephesian Fund, again with restrictions, and we are facilitating this:

• This will enable net giving churches to restrict their support for other churches to those that are holding on to the biblical and Anglican position on sexual ethics.
• If your church is a net receiver, the fact that you are ’linked’ as a recipient of the Ephesian Fund to other / larger evangelical churches in your diocese might put you in a stronger position in the event of a vacancy to resist being joined with liberal parishes.

If your church is a net receiver, the fact that you are ’linked’ as a recipient of the Ephesian Fund to other / larger evangelical churches in your diocese might put you in a stronger position in the event of a vacancy to resist being joined with liberal parishes.

For a church to endorse the CEEC basis of faith, the The PCC needs to pass a motion to that effect. The incumbent/minister can endorse the CEEC’s basis of faith via an email to CEEC.

Yes this is possible simply by indicating in the instructions what you all want to do.

The trustees will consider a wide range of initiatives including the support of ordinands, church plants, theological education and others.

The PCC of a small and/or financially disadvantaged parish still has a role and a voice in ‘speaking up’ for orthodoxy. Paying its parish share via the Ephesian Fund is one way to do so. It might also be the case that when a clergy person moves on, involvement in the Ephesian Fund would strengthen the position of the parish in resisting being joined to a liberal parish.

These will be used to support existing orthodox parishes and initiatives approved by the trustees and in need of funding. The application process to apply for such funding will be made public in due course.

No. Existing diocesan based Good Stewards Trusts are encouraged to continue until and unless they feel there is benefit in working at a national level.

The diocese will be required to inform the Ephesian Fund as to which orthodox churches will benefit from parish share grants given through the Ephesian Fund. Only then can money be released. 

Yes, parishes who are net receivers should donate their share through the Ephesian Fund for (at least) the following reasons:

1. It is a way for that parish to identify with an orthodox position;
2. It supports the national push for structural provision by adding to the Ephesian Fund;
3. It may provide you with a degree of security in the event of a vacancy or the reorganisation of parishes.

The Ephesian Fund is not in competition with existing Good Stewards Trusts (GSTs). While there may be some advantages of participating in a national fund, local GSTs are well placed to do specific and local things.

The trustees will assess all applications for support against a set of criteria.

Parish share payments will be made directly to the Ephesian Fund, not via Stewardship (and there will be 0% deductions on parish share payments).

There are several good reasons for giving through the Ephesian Fund. They include:

• Every contribution amplifies the orthodox voice.
• Every gift or payment in a net-receiving situation allows the poorer to have a voice and potentially to be protected by the bigger church/parish.
• Any net-giving parish is able to restrict its share via the Ephesian Fund to orthodox parishes only.

The advantage of doing it through the Ephesian Fund is that it will record the allocation of monies from net-giver to net-receiver churches, which in the longer term might secure a future for less financially secure churches. The Ephesian Fund will also be able to support new ministries/initiatives as/when the General Fund grows.

The Ephesian Fund does not offer advice on how much a parish should give or not give, nor does it outline what qualifies as a reasonable cost of stipendiary ministry. You will need to assess this in your context.