Last month we began to look at Licensed Ministry in the Church of England and in particular at trends in the numbers of paid clergy. Published numbers for 1998 and 2008 pointed to a continuing decline with a 1.3% reduction in 2008 equating to about 5 posts in our own diocese. I was able to give re-assurance that the Budget Sub-Committee draws up the budget on the basis that the diocese will have its full allocation of paid clergy each year.
Although the number of paid clergy is declining, most other forms of licensed ministry have grown to more than redress the balance. Statistics of Licensed Ministers 1998 (GS Misc 561) and Church Statistics 2007/8 (ref GS Misc 930) provide the necessary evidence.
| Licensed Ministry | 1998 | 2008 | ||||
| Men | Women | Total | Men | Women | Total | |
| Paid Clergy (Full-time) | 375 | 39 | 414 | 315 | 72 | 387 |
| Paid Clergy (Part-time) | 5 | 5 | 10 | |||
| Self-Financing Clergy | 37 | 43 | 80 | 49 | 52 | 101 |
| Readers | 192 | 133 | 325 | 180 | 188 | 368 |
| Church Army | 9 | 4 | 13 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Totals | 613 | 219 | 832 | 552 | 319 | 871 |
It would be possible to just stop at the total numbers where the increase in the total is about 5%. However, that would be to miss some of the more interesting changes.
- In 1998 the statistics just didn't record the number of part-time paid clergy; any such clergy will have been converted into full-time equivalents (fte) and added to the full-time total. Now, for 2008, the increasing number of part-time clergy has led to the details being separately recorded in the national statistics.
- In the ten years since 1998 the number of Self-Financing Clergy (previously known as non-stipendiary ministers or NSMs) has grown by a quarter. However, within the new total there are some interesting details: 18 of the posts shown for 2008 are of incumbent status with 11 being House for Duty appointments. Regular readers of the church press will be aware of the increasing number of advertisements for House for Duty posts. Significant numbers of Self-Financing clergy are taking the lead in parishes.
- In the ten years since 1998 the proportion of women in all forms of licensed ministry has increased significantly from 26% to 37% of the total.
One final point: the details for Readers are taken from the national statistics and I'm not the first to have noted that the numbers seem to be at variance with a count in our own Diocesan Directory. This is being investigated by the Diocesan Office and I'll update the figures on another occasion should this be necessary.
Canon Don Cardy
23rdApril 2010