TO REACH your 100th birthday is a milestone worthy of celebration — even more so when you are in robust health and looking forward to your next century. To give a sense of perspective, the Church of England Pensions Board is still younger than the oldest living members of its pension scheme, while the youngest will be receiving their pensions in the 22nd century. I just hope that one of them is not called Methuselah. . .
Over the decades, the Board has carried on its work through wars, economic crises, global warming, pandemics, and endlessly changing government regulation. The pensions profession is seen as boring, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is certainly complex, but never dull. As one of my colleagues noted drily, here you meet all human life, broken down by age and sex.
Let’s go back to the beginning. The Church of England created its Pensions Board in 1926. It was a pioneering move for the time. In exchange for contributing three per cent to this new pension arrangement, from the age of 70, clergy would be entitled to a retirement income proportionate to their length of service. Ten years later, the scheme had 14,000 members and had paid out £1 million in pensions. By the mid-1930s, there was provision for widows and dependants, too.
Meanwhile, the fact that it was possible to retire introduced a new difficulty: where to live? In 1947, the Church asked the Board to take receipt of property given for retirement housing. One of the first is still going strong today: Ramsay Hall Community Living, in Worthing. A public appeal brought gifts of money and property.
But the scale of the challenge could be met only with substantial loans from the Church Commissioners. To this day, the provision of housing for those in need remains dependent on loans to acquire properties and funding from the wider Church to sustain them.
The laity were not so well provided for. It was 1953 before the Church began to offer pensions to lay staff. Today’s “Pension Builder” arrangement is the direct descendant.
THE Church’s provision of retirement services has evolved over the decades in light of changing needs and necessity. In this centenary year, we are launching new financial-well-being services to provide more support with retirement and financial planning, saving, and even home ownership during ministry.
We are also implementing historic improvements to clergy pensions. Very few private-sector defined-benefit schemes remain in the UK, and this package of new retrospective benefits is, perhaps, without precedent. Implementing all these changes without additional cost to the Church is possible only because of the transformed fortunes of the pension fund. It now totals £3.5 billion, achieved through average annual investment returns of more than eight per cent for more than two decades.
With such capital come great opportunity and responsibility — after all, “What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Responsible investment is at the heart of what the Pensions Board is and does, delivering strong and sustainable returns while addressing climate change, conflict, and other risks facing the world. Our members overwhelmingly support this.
One example of this began on 25 January 2019, in Brumadinho, Brazil, when the retaining wall of a dam holding back millions of cubic metres of mining waste failed catastrophically. The ensuing tidal wave of toxic waste killed 272 people and spread environmental damage for miles. That weekend, the Pensions Board began convening a coalition of asset-owners and investors (together responsible for $25 trillion of global capital) to meet representatives of the world’s mining companies (News, 8 February 2019).
In the very room in Church House where Winston Churchill delivered famous wartime speeches, the Pensions Board called for the industry to change — and for the global finance community to pay attention. By 2025, this had translated into adoption of a global standard on mining safety in the industry; a global register of tailings-waste facilities; satellite monitoring of dams at risk; and a global institute to carry forward this work (News, 13 February).
Its broader legacy is an ambitious ten-year vision for the mining sector, which is crucial for all our lives and for the climate transition, but deeply challenging. It is no coincidence that the regions with the greatest mineral riches are often the places of greatest conflict and pain.
WE DO this not because we are perfect. We know — and God knows — that we are not. We do it because we are part of a messy world, and engaging with its messiness is our calling. Being a pension fund helps us to understand what “long term” really means.
So, what is my point? First, a well-managed pensions board offers its members a lifetime financial partner, managing risks that individuals are ill-equipped to manage themselves. Second, and vitally, it also enables members to make a profound difference through the impact of their collective investments. Surely, it is incumbent on all of us to strive for a world worth retiring into.
It is my honour to chair the Pensions Board in this special year, and to witness how, through its convening power, active engagement, and wise stewardship, the Board is able to achieve such remarkable results. My thanks to dioceses and other employers for their faithful support, to all trustees and staff for their dedication and expertise, and to our heavenly Father who watches over us.
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