Clergy

Guide

STIPENDIARY RESOURCES
1	Using the drop down selectors, identify a deanery and then either one benefice or "All benefices in deanery".
2	The formula used throughout is: Required stipendiary = Electoral roll x 1/40 + Number of churches x 1/12 + Population x 1/40000, though these parameters can be amended by clicking the F button in the 'Improve menu'. Note that does not taking into account particularities of the benefice (schools, chaplaincies, religious mix etc., but does broadly correspond to an average over England
3	If 'All benefices in deanery' is chosen, then the bar chart shows a comparison of workload, and the key to different parts of each bar is shown. The number of the benefice is the number at the bottom of the bar.
4	The parishes may be moved to different benefices by 'mouse down' on a parish in the list and moving it to another parish (or to a TOTAL line) and then 'mouse up'. The bar chart and map will show the changes proposed. If electoral roll numbers are estimated, actual numbers can be entered and the model will use them instead. The numbers can be stored using the save button.
OPTIMISING
5	If 'All benefices in deanery' is selected, the deanery can be 'optimised'. That brings up a menu for the criteria used in the optimisation.
5a	Number of tries	Potentially there are many alternatives, and this sets the number of alternatives to try. Initially it is set to 5 (i.e. 5000). There are two different algorithms for trying to find a better option, random or tabulated. The random option will try lots of different random allocations, the tabulated option will go through 5000 (or whatever you set it at) options in a logical sequence so nothing is missed. However if the number of parishes is large, say 9 or more, the tabulated option may not be able to tabulate them all in a sensible time. For instance, if there are 20 parishes, not more than 6 parishes in a benefice, and not more than 12 benefices, then there are 48 trillion possible tabulations, which most computers don't like. Hence the 'Random' box is ticked.
5b	Optimise according to workload	Optimise according to workload (trying to make it a whole number of stipendiary posts), or according to driving distances (trying to locate the benefice parishes near each other).
5c	Crossing benefices	Avoid, or not, creating benefices that are geographically split in two by another benefice.
5d	Maximum churches per stipendiary clergy	That might be 6, say, for a full-time priest which will ratio down to 2 for a House for Duty.
5e	Number of benefices	Maximum number of benefices - the model will suggest a number, which you can change.
5f	Paid clergy per benefice	Ideally maximum number of paid clergy per benefice.
5g	House for duty	Maximum number of House for Duty or part-time paid clergy, that goes with how much share would be necessary for each and whether you might run with HFD, HFD+0.3, HFD+0.7 etc.
5h	Keep parishes together	Make sure two parishes are always kept in the same benefice, or more than two...
5i	Bias results to current	If using random, you can bias (e.g. 10%) the random choice to your current deanery organisation. (currently set to no bias) None of the above parameters needs changing, when ready click GO. If the response is 'no reasonable result', then try GO, or 'Start again' a few more times. If still no reasonable result, then you may need to up the House for Duty, or number of benefices or clergy per benefice.
IMPROVING THE RESULT
6	When you have some results, click on button 1 and look at the best. There will be a Quality Score between 0% and 100%. Look at the map. The map will show the suggested benefices. (Note that the blue deanery list continues to show the current arrangement.) Initial results will probably be very poor, but the next stage is to improve. The best 10 (or fewer) will be combined to attempt an improvement. Use this multiple times to get a best result. There is a graph of results in the bottom left of the webpage, with red dots (and scales) showing the share estimated cost, and blue dots showing the quality of the results. If 'Current' is selected the model for the current deanery arrangement is shown. Stipendiary staffing/HFD and housing can be entered here to provide a more accurate comparison. These values will be lost when you exit the webpage.
7	Parishes can be removed from the optimisation by clicking on them in the blue list - the parish number will then show up in a pink box - which can be toggled back to inclusion with a second click.
8	When optimising, the churches (and therefore the parishes) can be manipulated into another benefice by picking them off the map and moving them to another church, or alternatively click on a church and it's parish will become a new benefice. When 'improve' is then chosen, the starting point will then be this new arrangement.
9	When an optimisation button is chosen, a table gives the new benefices (as per the map) together with the calculation of stipendiary priests and share, housing etc.
CAUTION
10	All results are open for discussion. Only if the tabulation is used will you get the global optimum, but that may take days, and no doubt you will need the computer for other things.
11	Hold cursor over a ⓘ for more details
Data from CofE statistical unit, many thanks. Comments to rev.adrian.low@gmail.com

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