CLERGY AND MARRIAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21326, 29 October 1932, Page 3 (Supplement)

CLERGY AND MARRIAGE

QUESTION OF STIPENDS " NOT ON £7 A WEEK " The Bishop of Exeter, Lord William Cecil, has said that a vicar is entitled to say he cannot afford to get married on a stipend of £7 a week and a vicarage. The question arises, " Can it be done ?" and one answer is that thousands of clergy are doing it. " It all depends upon the man," an official of the Poor Clergy Relief Corporation said to an Evening News, correspondent recently. "To some men," he said, "£7 a week is a gold mine. To others it represents the poverty line. It just depends upon how he and his wife manage it. Clergy are like the rest of men. Some are provident, some extravagant, some careless and some just, incapable of managing their money at all." In every diocese in England now vicars are paid at least £3OO a year and curates £250. Upon marriage the curate's stipend is increased to £3OO. Of course, there are many richer livings, but £3OO a year has now been established as the minimum stipend for incumbents. At Guildford recently the minimum stipend was raised to £4OO, and at the time the Bishop said: "It needs great care, skilled housekeeping and good health to make both ends meet on £4OO a year." With this view London vicars are in hearty agreement. A North London vicar says: " £7 a week in a country vicarage is a fairly comfortable living. In London for a married man with only one or two children it is poverty indeed. " Look at my own balance-sheet. My rates are £35 a year, income tax £2O, heating and lighting in this huge house about £4O a year. After paying insurance and wages for casual help I am left with about £IBO for food, doctor's bills, clothes and.' pocket money." This is what the Rev. H. M. Sanders, of St. Stephen's, Twickenham, vicar of a typical London suburb, says: "I entirely agree with the Bishop of Exeter. If you are prepared to live like a working man (and there is something to be said for this) you can do it. " But so long as the Church of England expects what it does of us it is impossible. I should never dream of marrying on £7 a week. A priest has always got his hand in his pocket. Everybody brings their troubles to him."