{"id":9674,"date":"2025-07-20T05:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T05:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/9674\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T05:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T05:25:13","slug":"synod-welcomes-higher-clergy-pensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/9674\/","title":{"rendered":"Synod\u00a0welcomes higher clergy pensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

A \u201cVAST cloud of witnesses to injustice\u201d were thanked on the floor of the General Synod<\/a> on Saturday, as members voted to welcome a package designed to improve the clergy pension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The debate followed an announcement earlier this month that the clergy pension was to be restored to two-thirds of pensionable stipend: the reversal of a change made in 2011 (News, 23 May<\/a>). This will be applied retrospectively: those already retired will see a pension increase reflecting a two-thirds accrual rate since 2011.<\/p>\n

Moving the motion, which welcomed a \u201csignificant and immediate step towards correcting an historic injustice\u201d, Canon James Blandford-Baker (Ely) said that the work belonged to \u201ca vast cloud of witnesses to injustice and in many cases poverty among retired clergy\u201d. Two thousand clergy had joined the Clergy Action Facebook Group, 700 had signed a letter to the Church Times, and 192 members had signed the private member\u2019s motion, he said.<\/p>\n

The motion also calls on the Archbishops\u2019 Council<\/a> to commission a \u201ccomprehensive, independent review of what is needed to ensure that clergy and their dependants are supported in retirement with dignity and fairness\u201d. It requests that this be chaired by an independent lay person \u201cwith a working group representing all relevant interests, and engaging fully with clergy, clergy spouses, retired clergy and other stakeholders\u201d, and that it should report back to the Synod within 12 months.<\/p>\n

Sam Atkins\/Church TimesThe chair of the Pensions Board, Clive Mather, said that he was \u201cdelighted\u201d with the proposals<\/p>\n

The review was necessary, Canon Blandford-Baker suggested, to ensure \u201cwe never end up in this place again.\u201d There were \u201cdeep structural questions to be faced\u201d. Some clergy were paying the entirety of their pension back to the Church through the clergy-housing retirement<\/a> scheme (CHARM), he said. Some were unable to live near to children, grandchildren, or friends, or \u201clost on some soulless new estate disconnected from public transport and unable to access vital public services\u201d.<\/p>\n

Canon Blandford-Baker called for a pension \u201cthat provides dignity nor poverty\u201d and suggested that the current decline in ordinand numbers could be the \u201cdirect result\u201d of the current \u201cpoor provision\u201d.<\/p>\n

A layman from the diocese of Southwell & Nottingham, Ian Boothroyd, highlighted the situation of those clergy who had retired after 2022, during a period of high inflation.<\/p>\n

The Ven. Dr Adrian Youings (Bath & Wells), formerly Archdeacon of Bath, said that one quarter of all Sunday services were taken by retired clergy. The Revd Lis Goddard (London) was concerned about the inequity experienced by those who had a portfolio ministry, or by women who might take house-for-duty posts as a way of serving part-time while caring for young children.<\/p>\n

The chair of the Pensions Board, Clive Mather, said that he was \u201cdelighted\u201d with the proposals and that a \u201cunified implementation date\u201d of 1 April 2026 had been set. He cautioned, however: \u201cThis is very, very difficult. The number of individual calculations that need to be made are simply mind-bending and there are all sorts of issues around taxation and personal circumstances. . .<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t start ringing us or writing to us in the middle of April and May to tell you what is happening; we won\u2019t be able to . . . What we will do is keep you updated through the web.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Revd Dr Ian Paul (Southwell & Nottingham), who last year moved the private member\u2019s motion that served as a catalyst for the commitment to improving clergy pensions (News, 16 February 2024<\/a>), spoke of \u201cpersistence over many years\u201d and thanked colleagues in the national church institutions. He said that the chief executive of the Pensions Board, John Ball, had \u201ctaken the time and trouble\u201d to read every single story shared by the Clergy Pension Action Group. One person had written of the new settlement: \u201cI no longer fear retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A \u201cVAST cloud of witnesses to injustice\u201d were thanked on the floor of the General Synod on Saturday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[84,4176,4174,4175,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-9674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}