All clergy, from archbishops down, instead will be granted “common tenure”, meaning that bishops will be able to sack lazy or incompetent clergy.

Bishops deemed to be functioning below par will also be vulnerable to losing their jobs, for the first time.

All clergy, including bishops, will be subject to regular ministerial review to measure their performances.

The plans are part of reforms that include human resources departments being set up throughout England to serve the 43 dioceses, at a cost of more than £1 million.

David McClean, a law professor and chairman of the group that drew up the review, said: “Justice requires that all clergy should have the same basis of tenure. It would apply to archbishops and assistant curates and everyone in between. They will have a high degree of security of tenure, but not the almost unbreakable freehold which clergy now enjoy.”

Under common tenure, clergy’s posts will be open- ended until retirement age and protected by employment law.

Where parishioners feel that vicars or bishops are failing to perform their duties, they will be able to complain. If the complaint is found to be justified, clergy will go through a new “capability procedure”.

Clergy who feel that they have been sacked unfairly will be able to go to employment tribunals and will have other rights under employment law, such as redundancy payments.

The changeover to common tenure will bring an end to a clerical tradition with its roots in the beginnings of the Church in Britain. The freehold dates from early Christian England, when newly converted landowners built churches, appointed priests and set aside “glebe” or land to maintain them. Some patrons abused their rights of ownership by bequeathing them to others. In 1215 the Lateran Council directed that rectors should live in their parishes or appoint a vicar with a stipend and freehold.

About 5,500 clergy enjoy the protection of the freehold, but 3,500 are without it and work on leaseholds. The proposals are likely to be welcomed by the synod when it meets in Westminster from February 14.

Chronicle to stay in the UK

ONE of the finest chronicles of late medieval life, the Macclesfield Psalter, will stay in Britain after campaigners raised £1.7 million to stop its export (Dalya Alberge writes).

The Psalter, left, created in East Anglia during the 1320s, was sold to the Getty Museum in California after the Earl of Macclesfield left his home, Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire. The Government blocked the export licence to give the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge a chance to match the price. The public donated more than £180,000 to the Art Fund’s “Save the Psalter” campaign.

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