What happened at Synod with clergy pensions?
by Ian Paul, Psephizo:
The session of General Synod this February 2024 contained a large number of contentious issues, so there was a general sense of dread as the sessions began. But there was an outbreak of unanimity when it came to discuss my Private Member’s Motion on clergy pensions.
I had been concerned for some years at both the decline in clergy stipends, and the related question of poor pension provision, and as a result had spoken against recommended provision in recent meetings of the Archbishops’ Council. (You can find the details of recent changes here, and more general discussion of the issues in thinking about stipends here.)
My motion read as follows:
That this Synod request the Archbishops’ Council, the Pensions Board, and the Church Commissioners to work together to find a way to make use of the whole range of assets and resources across the Church to enable the restoration of the clergy pension to its pre-2011 benefit level as soon as possible.
My deliberate aim was to avoid the technical complexities of pensions (my paper supporting the motion had a financial appendix added to it, and was then followed by no fewer than three papers offering technical commentary!) and also to avoid commending any particular solution—that was for others to work out. My goal was simply to say: there is a problem here that needs solving, and please can someone solve it.
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