Dear Colleagues,
The Church is blessed by the ministry of its clergy.
Entering ministry is a profound recognition of calling and exercise of vocation in service to others. For stipendiary clergy, and their families, it comes with stipend and pension, and for many, tied-housing, which enable ministry but often create different personal circumstances compared with contemporaries.
The Church of England Pensions Board is privileged to be part of the ministry journey – by overseeing the pension benefits set by the Church, and providing housing at retirement on behalf of, and financially supported by, the Church. In doing so, we also have a responsibility to consider whether the services the Board offers are affordable and will truly meet the needs of clergy and the Church, in the decades to come.
In that spirit, we are putting forward a proposal to rethink how the Church best supports future cohorts of clergy with retirement housing to enable choice and enable individuals to be in the driving seat of their retirement housing plan throughout their ministry journey, with a smoother transition to retirement.
Today 1 in 6 retiring clergy need help with retirement housing, with a service (sometimes known as CHARM) that is almost entirely focused on one specific type of housing support, rental, at one specific moment in the ministry journey. This requires a huge and increasing investment from the Church and it is hard to imagine how this can continue as it is. We think that there might be a better way: more suited to the diversity of ministry experience in the future and generationally sustainable for the Church.
Here we set out our ideas to enable choice. In place of just one intervention at one point in time, we are setting out ideas for practical support, guidance, choices and services throughout ministry. These ideas have been informed by the emphasis within the Clergy Covenant of Care and Wellbeing (2019) on mutual accountability, and the values of the Coming Home report (2021), which underlines that the right housing helps individuals to thrive and build communities.
This is a discussion. We invite reflection and comment on our thinking. We welcome views from anybody connected with the Church – and we are particularly keen to hear from clergy in ministry today, ordinands, current retirees, clergy networks, Diocesan colleagues and those who support clergy in exploring vocation through to ordination, to curacy, into first post and later in life.
How many of these ideas can be taken forward depends firstly on whether the ideas resonate and will genuinely help. Moreover, specific proposals arising from these ideas will have to be considered and agreed as part of the national Church’s resource allocation decisions.
Finally, and importantly, none of these ideas imply change for those currently retired and living in Church-provided housing. Thank you for taking the time to participate in this conversation.
John Ball, Chief Executive
Clive Mather, Chair