The Church of England has been reviewing the conditions of service of its clergy. General Synod has received and debated two reports and an implementation group has been set up to put the reports’ proposals into effect. This will involve legislation and a draft measure will be introduced when General Synod meets at the end of this month. This is scheduled for debate on Tuesday 27 February.
The Church of England has added a section to its website about the legislation: The Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Legislation. As well as links to the two reports and other material there is a very useful set of frequently asked questions which are well worth reading.
Let no-one with (parson’s) Freehold surrender it to the vagaries of your bishop and his successors.
They don’t laurence, but then it gets lost when changing the guard – and when lost it comes down instead to matters of employment legislation and employment rights, which is a different model and a different power relationship.
As a pic waiting for pastoral reorganisation to go through later this year, I will be interested to see the diocesan take on the forthcoming legislation: will I be inducted as incumbent in the next twelve months, or will I continue on three-months-notice-to-quit licence at the bishop’s pleasure (and bishops are seldom that pleased) for the three or four years which the legislation will take to clear?
All the powers that be are insisting that this will be better than freehold. If so, perhaps they should let people choose betwen the two models….