MORE than £5 million of extra funding for additional clergy posts is being made available, the Church of England announced last week.
The funding — amounting to £5.6 million over five years — is being provided by the Strategic Ministry Fund and will support the equivalent of 36½ full-time posts.
In an article on the C of E website announcing the funding, the posts are described as covering ministry work in “parishes, housing estates, school chaplaincy, church plants, youth congregations and worshipping communities in deprived areas”.
The funding will “ensure that no suitably qualified curate is left without a post”, the article says.
Owing to a rise in vocations in the late 2010s, there was potentially fewer posts available than curates who had served their title, and dioceses were asked to submit applications for new posts. The new posts were decided in July. Funding has been released as appointments have been made over the course of the Past seven months.
The funds are being administered by the Strategic Ministry Board, which is soon to be replaced by a new Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, announced in January (News, 24 January).
The director of the national Ministry Development Team, the former Suffragan Bishop of St Germans, Dr Chris Goldsmith, is quoted in the article: “I am delighted that this funding has been so well used in dioceses to catalyse existing creativity and growth. Many of these roles are supporting new congregations which are bringing refreshment to existing parishes across the country.
“I am also pleased that, having listened to the ministerial needs of the wider Church, and having called for more stipendiary ordained ministers, we are able to ensure those vocations can flourish and develop, even against a challenging financial backdrop.”
One of the priests whose post has received funding is the Revd Sophie Cowan, Priest-in-Charge at St Mary at Stoke, Ipswich. “We would not have been able to afford a full-time minister without this funding. We are now seeing growth at the church, and that is exciting,” she said.
Ms Cowan said that the church had recently set up a pantry to provide low-cost food to people in the area. The after-school club now had a waiting list, and a new youth group and an informal Sunday-evening service were driving growth.