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Monthly Letter

Clergy on strike! Would you notice?

July 2025

I represent five East Midlands dioceses on the Council of the Retired Clergy Association, which is campaigning for better pensions. When I was ordained to full-time stipendiary ministry in 1973 the Church of England told me that I would be able to retire after 37 years service with a pension equal to two-thirds of my final stipend. By the time I retired the years had been increased to 40 and the proportion of stipend had been reduced to one half.

Don’t feel sorry for me! Part of my pension is based on my stipend as a Cathedral Dean; and Hazel has a teacher’s pension. And by the time I retired we had inherited one quarter of my parents’ house and one third of my in-laws’.

Many clergy are not so fortunate. The Church of England likes to think that a pension of half a stipend plus the Old Age Pension is roughly equivalent to a stipend. It conveniently forgets that working clergy are provided with a house, their council tax and help with heating and lighting. Clergy retiring after 40 or more years of full-time ministry face a huge drop in income.

They will have already noticed that since 2011 their stipends have significantly failed to keep pace with inflation.

There are now more retired clergy than active clergy! Last year more than a quarter of all services were taken by retired clergy. You would be horrified if a quarter of all planes and trains and buses were being flown or driven by retired pilots and drivers. Would you want your operation to be led by a retired doctor?

What would happen to the C of E if all the retired clergy went on strike for a few weeks? Many churches would have no Holy Communion services, and our working clergy would be even more stressed and in danger of burnout than they are at present. Should we really allow the Church to be dependent on retired clergy?

I feel lucky to be able to continue some priestly ministry in retirement for free; most professionals are unable to do so. I love it. Once a priest, always a priest. But many clergy don’t want to carry on ministering after they are 68 or 70. Why should they? The answer: persuade one or more of your churchgoing friends to offer themselves for Ordination.

The Very Rev Geoffrey Marshall