Church to consider fewer bishops

The Church of England's ruling body, the General Synod, is to debate whether to reduce the number of bishops in a bid to save money.

The plan's supporters say the Church could use teams of more junior parish clergy to do the work of bishops.

Bradford vicar John Hartley told the BBC that a "revolution" was needed in the way the Church worked.

But bishops say their workload is larger than ever and cutting their numbers would be problematic.

There are currently 114 bishops in the Church of England, including the 44 most senior who head the country's dioceses.

Together with deans and canons of cathedrals and archdeacons they make up a body of senior staff that has remained largely unchanged in number for 50 years.

However, in the same period the number of junior clergy has plummeted and forced some parishes to merge.

Supporters of a cut in the number of bishops say it could help stem the decline in junior clergy numbers which have fallen by almost half over the past 50 years.

Unpaid volunteers

They say one bishop costs the equivalent of about 10 junior staff.

"Our workload is not looking like it's going to decline any time soon"

But bishops say their workload has increased in recent years, in part because of the need to implement an increasing body of new legislation.

They also say they are responsible for recruiting and managing the rest of the clergy, including a body of unpaid volunteer priests who now make up more than a quarter of the Church's workforce.

Bishop of Lincoln Dr John Saxbee told BBC News: "A bishop's job is to make sure that there is appropriate ministerial cover.

"Some of that will be stipendiary, that is paid, [and] some of it will be part time or voluntary.

"Now, all of them look to the bishop, so perhaps our workload is not looking like it's going to decline any time soon."

But Mr Hartley argued that it was not a case of "simply having fewer people doing the same job and the system to grind to a halt".

"What we're really asking is whether there's a new way of working the church," he said.

The synod is meeting at the University of York to discuss a number of proposals aimed at cutting the Church's costs.

Among them is a plan to increase the retirement age of clergy from 65 to 68 in order to reduce the pension bill.

The current full service pension for clergy - earned after 40 years - is £13,093 a year with a lump sum of £39,279.

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