A diocesan bishop is the Ordinary of his or her diocese, and has wide-ranging legal and administrative responsibilities. The diocesan bishop is responsible for providing leadership and direction to the diocese, alongside the governing body of the diocese which is diocesan synod.

Every diocese of the Church of England is required (by Measure, 1925) to have a diocesan board of finance. This is a charitable company which holds the financial and other assets of the Diocese and is responsible for oversight of their good stewardship. In Lincoln a company for this purpose was formed in 1908 and was called the Lincoln Diocesan Trust Ltd. With the advent of the 1925 legislation the company became known as the Lincoln Diocesan Trust and Board Finance Ltd (LDTBF) and the name has remained unchanged since then. Since 2018, the membership of diocesan synod also constitutes the membership of the LDTBF.

The LDTBF is a charity registered with the Charity Commission (No 249355) and a Company limited by guarantee (registration no 97256). This means that the trustees of the charity which make up the membership of the Bishop’s Council of Diocesan Trustees, are also the company’s directors and that the Trust is bound by charity and company law and regulations.

The Bishop’s Council of Diocesan Trustees acts as the standing committee of diocesan synod, the Diocesan Mission and Pastoral Committee (DMPC) and the Bishop’s Council, as well as the board of finance in order to ensure that mission and money are discussed in the same room and by the same key stakeholders.

Diocesan Synod and the Bishop’s Council of Diocesan Trustees delegate various responsibilities to committees, in order for the ‘heavy lifting’ to be done away from the main trustee meeting. These non-statutory committees and working groups are combined with other statutory committees such as the Archidiaconal Mission and Pastoral Committee (AMPC) and the Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC) to form the governance structure of the diocese.

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A copy of the 2023 Governance Book, which contains the structure, Articles of Association, Standing Orders & Terms of Reference, can be found here.

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Please find the meeting dates for committees for 2023.

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Annual trustee reports, financial statements and summaries prepared by the Bishop’s Council of Diocesan Trustees can be found here.