Diocesan Quota 1937

(Note: The Diocesan Quota is a sum of money which parishes have to pay to the Diocese each year for certain essential services which it provides to the parishes.
In 1937 this did not include the Rector’s stipend , or salary , whereas it does include it today.
In 2014, the Diocesan Quota for St John sub Castro was £21,000.)

The Rector reported that with regard to the work of church and parish, it has been a matter of great satisfaction to him to know that they had been able to raise the Diocesan Quota in full.
They had been assessed for some years at £86 per year, (about £5,500 today), and a year or two ago this matter was discussed because they came to the conclusion that it was a very large sum of money to find annually, but when he approached the Assessment Committee he was told that they could not help in the matter of a reduction, and it was also pointed out that at the present time the Diocese was very badly in debt.
He thought they all knew that the Chichester Diocese was in very low water indeed, and had an overdraft of something like £9,000 (about £580,000 today), so that a great deal of the work throughout the Diocese was being carried out with borrowed money.
That was, of course, bad finance, but the expenses of the Diocese were so great that there was no other course possible.

(Extract from Annual Parochial Church Meeting, 30th of March 1937)