THE Church of England took the first steps yesterday to end 800 years of tradition and scrap the “parson’s freehold”, or job for life, enjoyed by thousands of clergy, within five years. The General Synod, meeting at Church House, Westminster, voted for a new system of “common tenure” to replace the freehold.

Clergy will also be subject, for the first time, to a new “capability procedure”, allowing bishops to dismiss them if they are deemed to be lazy or incompetent.

But clergy and laity resisted moves to transfer ownership of vicarages, churches and churchyards to diocesan boards of finances. Instead they made it clear that they wanted the property to remain in the control of the parish. Parsonages and churches are currently vested in the clergy through the freehold, although they benefit from none of the advantages of property ownership, such as the surge in values, because they are not free to sell them.

Of the church’s 9,000 stipendiary clergy, including deans and bishops, 4,900 enjoy the freehold. The remainder are in fixed-term posts, but the synod has already agreed that non-freeholders should move to a system of common tenure.

Common tenure will give open-ended employment with job security and, for the first time, protection under employment law, allowing clergy to seek redress from employment tribunals if unfairly dismissed.

Clergy made redundant will be entitled to severance pay of up to £36,000 for the first time.

But freehold clergy will lose the protection that makes it almost impossible for a bishop to dismiss them unless they commit a serious misdemeanour leading to disciplinary proceedings, such as an adulterous affair with the organist’s wife.

David McClean, architect of the proposals and a synod lay member, acknowledged the fear that the end of the freehold will mean the end of the eccentric and the loveable maverick. Professor McClean said: “Witch-hunts of that sort, even if they won the support of the church panels, would never survive the scrutiny of an employment tribunal. I would say to clergy, ‘You can be as eccentric and difficult as you like, but if that drives colleagues to nervous breakdowns, or if it prevents you dealing appropriately with the penitent, the dying or the bereaved, a responsible church must intervene’.”

However, Canon Jim Wellington, of the Leicester Diocese, described the proposals as a “revolutionary upheaval”. He said: “It will shift the balance of the ecclesiastical ecosystem in the direction of the diocesan administration. It will cost the Church about £1.5 million, the equivalent of about 40 parochial posts.”

The Church of England will also have to pay pensions to the partners of gay clergy, the General Synod was told.

The new Civil Partnerships Act, which comes into force this year, obliges all pension schemes to provide benefits to the registered partners of scheme members.

A group of bishops is examining the implications of the new legislation for the Church, which still does not ordain gay clergy who admit to being in an active relationship.

CHURCH AND ESTATE

Freehold gives clergy “ownership” of their vicarages and churches but they cannot profit from them. It is almost impossible to evict clergy from their houses, once installed

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