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should not be assumed too quickly, or too universally, that a clergyman
rather than a layman is best equipped to handle parochial business
affairs.
2.3.3
Simplification possible
How serious a handicap is this from a diocesan point of view?
Short of conducting an appraisal of each parish - a possibility which
was considered but rejected because of the time factor - it is diffi-
cult to know. There is a limited degree of standardisation (at least
in the returns made to the Diocese and to London) due largely to gentle
diocesan pressure, (the Diocese has no enforcement powers) and the
Chairman of the Board of Finance regretted that it was not more wide-
spread
(C9)
. The Archdeacon of Bradford however referred to the "indivi-
duality of the parish, each wanting to do it their own way" and instanced
one who were "not even prepared to add them up"
(C7)
. It would seem that there
is a good deal of parochial reluctance to be ordered about.
Not that all parish treasurers are obstreperous, rather the faults
seem to be more of omission than commission, and at least one (Mr. Alan
Jowett) has not only drastically simplified his own parochial accounting,
but is preparing a system potentially beneficial to other parishes. As
that study is concurrent with this, and still needs further refinement,
it cannot fairly be quoted to any length, but one or two points are worth
drawing out:
(1) it needed some 250 hours of work and committee attendance
for Mr. Jowett (a banker by profession) to comprehend ade-
quately and then to clarify his parish's financial systems;
(2) in Mr. Jowett's opinion "to put parish accounting on a
sound base requires two things. First a drastic pruning
of accounts and investments, the systems tending...to be
so unwieldy as to defy rational administration. Second a
