Vicars shortage threatens Sunday morning services
SUNDAY morning services may be scrapped because of a lack of priests, a senior Church of England bishop has warned.
Bishop of Sheffield, the Right Rev Pete Wilcox, said some parishes cannot guarantee a weekly Eucharist due to falling clergy numbers.
He added that they will struggle to maintain an unbroken service in the “golden slot” between 9.30am and 11am on Sundays.
His warning comes as the church faces four big problems: falling attendance, crumbling buildings, financial worries and ageing congregations.
Bishop Wilcox told the Church Times that the dwindling number of full-time clergy or “stipendiary incumbents” has caused a “threat to the parish” in his diocese.
He added: “We will be hard-pressed to sustain a reliable pattern of a weekly celebration of the Eucharist in the ‘golden slot’ on a Sunday morning – in every parish or benefice.”
Sheffield has seen the number of stipendiaries plunge from 155 in 1999 to 100 – and that is expected to fall to 83 in the next four years.
Clerics have warned previously that Sheffield has more stipendiaries than it can afford. Some parishes were grouped together under an “oversight minister”.
The number of worshippers attending Sunday services there has fallen from 20,000 in 1988 to 12,000 in 2018. An internal report to the CofE’s 42 diocesan secretaries earlier this year warned the clergy to prepare for “radical” changes and financial cuts.
The document – entitled Money, People and Buildings – said the pandemic had exposed “financial challenges” as well as the need for an overhaul.
“This is the moment to embark on radical changes to reshape existing resource patterns and ministry structures, and invest in developing a more missionally healthy and financially sustainable church.” The report said that, though “there has been some horror expressed” at the cut in the total of clergy, numbers were falling anyway. Plummeting church attendances had dropped further during the pandemic because congregations were banned from gathering in services by Government coronavirus restrictions.
The report warned that up to 20 per cent of regular worshippers may never return and it questioned “the sustainability of many local churches”.
Most dioceses intended to prune the totals of clergy and diocesan staff and to rely on volunteers to help run their parishes. The report continued: “Online worship will have become a significant part of the mainstream.
“The Church of England could emerge from the pandemic smaller in terms of engagement by at least some measures, but particularly physical attendance. This will inevitably have further impact on the sustainability of many local churches.”