Anglican Church Mice

In the Thames-side village of Cookham, the venerable Norman Church of the Holy Trinity last week was without a new minister; the post offers only $1,657 a year, and the outgoing pastor only managed because he rented out part of the vicarage as a furnished apartment. Elsewhere, a minister applied for a job as village postman to supplement his income, and the agony columns of the London Times recently carried a typical ad: "Anglican priest seeks private loan of -L-300. Please help."

This sorry state has created a major problem for the Church of England. A century ago, a pastor's income consisted of tithes (10% of each farmer's yield), plus glebe lands (owned by the parish), plus the pastor's own private income as the son of a gentleman. In those days, a man of the cloth could set a good table, collect a few rare books, and lay down some decent port. But today's private incomes have been wiped out by inheritance taxes, tithes were abolished in 1936, and most glebe lands have been sold. The parson draws his pay from a body known as the Church Commissioners, which acts like a body of church mice--60% of the pastors earn less than $2,100 a year (compared with a U.S. Episcopal pastor's average salary of $6,200).

To make matters worse, more than half of the church's "livings" are filled by "patrons"--a custom inherited from pre-Norman times, when the privilege (known as "advowson") came to be attached to the estate of the lord of the manor, who can bequeath the privilege or sell it. Thus a priest in search of a parish is never sure to what kind of patron he must sell himself. In Acle, Norfolk, for example, it is Brigadier Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe; in Parracombe, Devon it is the Misses Nind; Colonel Pine-Coffin picks the parson for St. Andrews Alwington, Devon; and Mrs. Power Clutterbuck holds sway in Ozleworth, Wotton-under-Edge. "The clergy," says the Rev. Lewis Roberts of Peasmarsh, "is the only profession without some trade union to help it improve its pay and condition."

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