Vicars face end to job ‘for life’ culture as Church of England fights extinction -Daily Telegraph

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Church of England’s financial arm considers dipping into £6.1 billion investments to fund new expansion drive amid fears there will otherwise be 'no church in future' to support

John Bingham. Daily Telegraph. 16 January 2015

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2 thoughts on “Vicars face end to job ‘for life’ culture as Church of England fights extinction -Daily Telegraph”

  1. I have just posted a comment based only on the details given in the article. Newswatch has an article from Christian Today which also deals with these proposals but does headline the redundancy aspect http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/newswatch/bishop-pete-broadbent-church-of-england-is-near-last-chance-saloon-christian-today/. It gives a link to the proposals https://www.churchofengland.org/media/2139963/gs%201980%20-%20simplification%20task%20group%20report%20final.pdf see page 25 and following

  2. This proposal raises several difficulties. There are not enough details given to form a judgement on it. A “job for life” is something that evangelicals have held dear as preventing liberal bishops removing evangelical clergy. Statutory redundancy is a minimum and many organisations exceed this. Comparisons need to be made, traditionally teachers have been looked to but we should look wider. This measure is a reduction of existing “rights”. The coalitions battles with firemen, teachers, policemen etc show how sensitive this is. The church needs to be clear or the difference between a post ceasing to exist, declining ability due to ill health and misconduct. more broadly, retirement has been incorrectly used as a solution to misconduct.

    I would say that clergy being asked to retire at 60 should receive as a minimum the pension they would have otherwise been entitled to from this point.

    The article does not go into what is regarded as the unit of “employment”. If a church is closed and the vicar is redeployed within the diocese, the compensation should be modest. All service since ordination should be taken into account, not just in the current position. I understand that the West Yorkshire reorganisation led to several senior clergy receiving substantial redundancy payments and then finding positions in other dioceses. No system is perfect and fairness towards the office holder should take priority over church finances. If there is unjust enrichment, perhaps the best answer lies in the hands of the recipient.

    The clergy should be advancing the argument that generous pension and redundancy rights are part of the compensation for previous service and should not be reduced

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