HOW ARE THE CLERGY PAID IN ENGLAND?

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume 26, Issue 3, 1 March 1936, Page 1

HOW ARE THE CLERGY PAID IN ENGLAND?

It is sometimes thought that because the English Church is "established" its clergy are paid by the State. This is not the case. On December Bth, 1908, Mr. Lloyd George, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, stated m answer to a question m the House of Commons:

"With the exception of those m the direct employment of the State as chaplains, the stipends of clergy of the Church of England are not paid out of public funds.". A small proportion of the income of the clergy is derived from marriage and burial fees, and (m a diminishing number of parishes) from pew-rents. But the great bulk of their income comes from the free gifts of past and present Church people, which have principally taken the form of — 1. Tithe: A tenth of the produce of land, voluntarily given by its former owners- and now commuted for a fixed annual payment m money, T" Glebe: Land given by owners to the Church or purchased with the Church's money. 3. Endowments m the form of money or land given or bequeathed by former owners and now administered for the most part by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. 4. Con tr i buttons voluntarily given to the Church m particular parishes or to the various Church Societies which make grants yedr by year to the various parishes. ;