{"id":132134,"date":"2024-10-21T17:12:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=132134"},"modified":"2024-10-21T19:15:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T23:15:59","slug":"church-times-vocations-down-vacancies-up-in-the-church-of-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=132134","title":{"rendered":"(Church Times) Vocations down, vacancies up in the Church of England"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without a rise in the number of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/vocations\">ordinations<\/a>, the number of stipendiary clergy in the Church of England will fall to 5400 in 2033 \u2014 more than 2000 fewer than the target set under\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/renewal-and-reform\">Renewal and Reform<\/a>, and a 40-per-cent reduction on 2000 numbers, projections by the Church\u2019s national Ministry Development Team suggest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The figure was reported by the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/topics\/bishop-of-sheffield\">Bishop of Sheffield<\/a>, Dr Pete Wilcox, in a diocesan-synod address in July. The forecast was based on current levels of ordinations for stipendiary ministry (an average of 250 over the past two years) for the next ten years. Extrapolating from the trend since 2012 put the figure at 6100, while the most optimistic forecast of the Triennium Funding Working Group was 6600.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Numbers recommended for ordination have fallen from 591 in 2020 \u2014 the highest for 13 years \u2014 to 370 (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/articles\/2024\/12-july\/news\/uk\/number-of-ordinands-plummets-synod-hears\">News, 12 July<\/a>). This is almost half of the goal set under Renewal and Reform in 2015: an increase in the number of candidates selected for ordained ministry from about 500 each year to 750. The goal was to create a \u201cstable pool\u201d of about 7600 full-time clergy by 2035. Meanwhile, numbers retiring have increased from 435 in 2020 to 531 last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.churchtimes.co.uk\/articles\/2024\/18-october\/features\/features\/vocations-down-vacancies-up\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u201cSometimes, there doesn\u2019t appear to be any rhyme or reason. What we may think is an attractive job doesn\u2019t elicit much interest, and what we may think is going to be hard to fill brings in several applications&quot; &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Guli_FD?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Guli_FD<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fMufDEor0K\">https:\/\/t.co\/fMufDEor0K<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Church Times (@ChurchTimes) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ChurchTimes\/status\/1848248996252323940?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 21, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Without a rise in the number of\u00a0ordinations, the number of stipendiary clergy in the Church of England will fall to 5400 in 2033 \u2014 more than 2000 fewer than the target set under\u00a0Renewal and Reform, and a 40-per-cent reduction on<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=132134\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,184],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-england","category-parish-ministry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132134"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132139,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132134\/revisions\/132139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}