Section:GDN 1N PaGe:5 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 16:06 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
Saturday 7 September 2019 The Guardian •
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Page 12Clergy struggling
to pay bills turn
to charities and
payday lenders
Simon Murphy
Harriet SherwoodHundreds of clergy are in fi nancial
hardship, with some resorting to
credit cards or even a high-interest
payday lender, despite the Church
of England sitting on a multibillion-
pound investment fund.
Some vicars are tens of thousands of
pounds in debt, with many struggling
to get by – especially those supporting
families – and relying on charity hand-
outs to make ends meet.
Clergy Support Trust – a centuries-
old charity that supports destitute
Anglican vicars, assistant or associ-
ate priests, curates-in-training and
chaplains – gave £1.8m of grants to
459 clergy last year.
In 2018 , 217 individuals who made
applications for help from the char-
ity had personal unsecured debts of
£5,000 or more, totalling nearly £3m.
The fi gures do not include mortgages
or student loans. Of them , 41% had
debts of between £5,000 and £10,000,
44% £10,000 -£20,000 and 15% above
£20,000. Four applicants had debts in
excess of £50,000.
Of the debts, 20% were for credit
or store cards, 29% were bank loans
or overdrafts, 39% were car loans, 7%
were listed as family debt and 5% as
“other”.
A 2017 C of E report found that one
in fi ve ordained ministers were either
“fi nding it very diffi cult”, “fi nding it
quite diffi cult” or “just about getting
by” fi nancially.
Clergy Support Trust’s head , Jeremy
Moodey , said that in at least one recent
case a vicar had been forced to use a
high-interest payday lender. He also
said some clergy ha d been hit by the
two-child limit on benefi ts, which
restricts the child allowance in uni-
versal credit and tax credits.
In light of dwindling congregationnumbers , the fi ndings raise ques-
tions about whether the C of E should
be doing more to help impoverished
vicars, given that it has an investment
fund worth £8.3bn that pays asset
management executives six- fi gure
sums, including one who earned more
than £530,000 last year.
The Archbishop of Canterbury,
Justin Welby – who has two grace-
and-favour homes including Lambeth
Palace – is paid £83,400. L ast year he
attacked Amazon for not paying a
living wage and railed against poverty.
Welby’s criticism of payday lenders in
2013 backfi red when it emerged the
C of E held an indirect investment in
the now defunct Wonga.
Most vicars receive a stipend of
up to £27,886 plus housing, but there
are nearly 3,000 “self-supporting”
ministers who are not paid, accord-
ing to C of E fi gures.
The bishop of Buckingham, the
Right Rev Alan Wilson, said “there’s
always more to be done” to help
fi nancially struggling clergy. “Clergy
people’s circumstances and the
stresses of ministry are becoming
more complex and diverse all the
time,” he said. “Often people are kind
and there is help out there, but there
are holes in what’s available.”
Moodey, a former banker who is
training part-time to become a vicar,
said he had been shocked by the
“ levels of fi nancial hardship amongst
some clergy” when he took over as
CST ’s chief executive.
“ Clergy are not going to be serv-
ing their communities as well as they
might if they’re worrying about pay-
ing bills ,” he explained. “They live in
a goldfi sh bowl in the vicarage; they
need to get away, but often they can’t
aff ord it if they’ve got families.”
He said they often struggled to cover
the cost of everyday occurrences, such
as having a washing machine repaired
or paying for new school uniform s.
Many clergy had an “innate tendency
not to come forward for help ”.
A Church of England spokeswoman
said: “We take the well being of our
20,000 clergy extremely seriously.
We note with concern the cases high-
lighted by the CST and we are grateful
for its support for clergy struggling
fi nancially, as well as for the work of
the Churches’ Mutual Credit Union,
launched in 2015 with the backing of
the Church of England. Problem debt
is a widespread and serious issue in our
society and it is worrying that a group
of clergy is also aff ected.”▲ The Rev Peter Owen-Jones relies on charitable handouts to continue in the ministry PHOTOGRAPH: JIM HOLDEN/ALAMYHe is a familiar face on TV screens,
fronting BBC documentaries
exploring religious issues. But
while many viewers will recognise
the Rev Peter Owen-Jones, most
will have no idea that he would
not be able to continue in the
priesthood without charitable
handouts.
The 61-year-old is a non-
stipendiary vicar – serving the
villages of Firle, Glynde and
Beddingham in Sussex – meaning
he is not paid by the Church of
England for his duties.
While most vicars receive a
stipend of up to £27,886 plus
housing, Owen-Jones relies on a
yearly charitable grant of up to
£3,000 and an “honorarium” from
the diocese of £430 every quarter.“I would not be able to continue as
priest were it not for the support of
the Friends of the Clergy,” he said.
“I get a grant from them and
I’ve had a grant from them for the
last three or four years. This is my
choice. I love being a parish priest;
I’ve taken the moral decision to be
a non-stipendiary priest because I
think that just sits easier with me. I
don’t have an issue with priests not
being paid, I have an issue with that
system subsidising what appears to
be an unchanged and an unchanging
centre.”
Last month, the former
advertising executive revealed
that in his early days as a vicar
supporting a young family he was
once so broke he ended up posing
naked for an art class.In theory, Owen-Jones’s unpaid
role – which comes with a house in
Firle – is supposed to be part-time,
but the reality is rather diff erent and
he describes the C of E’s reliance
on self-supporting ministers as
“morally questionable”, given they
are often expected to perform full-
time duties.
Owen-Jones, who is divorced
and has four grown-up children,
said: “When I tell people I’m not
paid they say, ‘ What?’ This has
been coming for 30 or 40 years. The
more and more non-stipendiary
priests, the greater the clamour will
become.”
In 2002, there were 2,091 self-
supporting ministers. The number is
now 2,920 following a slight decline
in recent years. Simon MurphyThe unpaid vicar
Reliance on self-supporting ministers ‘morally questionable’‘Clerg y are not going
to serve communities
as well as they might
if they’re worrying
about paying bills’Jeremy Moodey
Clergy Support TrustNew term, new look
The high fashion of
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