Bishop extols value of older clergy - and indeed Anna Chaplaincy- amid the UK's changing demographics
In a Church Times article headlined: 'The C of E should value its older clergy more' the Bishop of Chelmsford Dr Guli Francis-Dequani argues that in society generally 'we have yet to take hold of the opportunity of age.'
Dr Francis-Dequani said: 'Perhaps in seeking to respond to the needs of our retired clergy, we have yet to fully comprehend their value as individual women and men who have loved the Lord their God with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their mind, and have loved their neighbour as themselves in the service of God and God’s people.'
'We must value our retired clergy not simply for what they have given, or what they can do, but for who they are in Christ as faithful disciples who have responded to Christ’s call to follow him.'
The Bishop of Chelmsford was speaking at the first National Consultation of Diocesan Retirement Officers, on September 2, held at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford. She had begun her speech: 'May I start by saying “thank you” to you and to all who serve as Diocesan Retirement Officers. Thank you for the gift of your ministry, especially as you nurture and care for clergy in retirement. Your ministry is a vital extension of episcopal care to those who have given so much, and, in many cases, continue to do so as deacons and priests in the Church of England.'
She alluded to demographic changes in the UK which mean 'nearly one in five people in the UK are now over 65, which is expected to increase to one in four people by 2050, alongside a doubling in the number of people aged 85 and over. That demographic change is affecting the Church of England too.'
'The 2024 report “The Role and Word of Retired Clergy Officers in the Dioceses of the Church of England”, commissioned by the Retired Clergy Association, observed that there are around 12,000 retired clergy in the Church of England, taking an estimated 25% of regular church service, with 7,200 holding PTO (Permission to Offociate). And, reflective of the increasing longevity in our society, around 5,000 clergy are aged 80 years or older, and there are over 4,000 clergy widows and widowers.'
The Bishop drew on her own personal experience in the speech: 'Most of you will know that I come from Iran. I grew up in the tiny Anglican community there where my father was the first indigenous Persian Bishop. After the Islamic Revolution of 1979 both my family and the church were hit hard. This is a long and involved story but in short after my father had been in prison briefly, and after he survived an assassination attempt in which my mother was injured, my 24 year old brother, Bahram, was murdered and in May 1980 we found ourselves in exile in this country. I was just turning 14 at the time.
My father carried on as Bishop in exile until his retirement in 1990 but my parents’ shared ministry continued until his death in 2008 and my mother then lived for a further 8 years until she died in 2016. They were never able to return to Iran and to date neither have I. As I reflect back now, several themes emerge which seem to me to underlie their extraordinary ability to adjust graciously to their loss and to life in exile, and to be the positive life giving people they were, not just to the family but to countless others. And what they were in their old age was because of things that had taken root earlier in their lives. Patterns that were set and inhabited in such a way that they had become intrinsically part of who they were. What they had become through their faithfulness remained very much alive and present right through the years of retirement also. They were people who knew the Lord was their dwelling place, and in that place of dwelling they enabled others to encounter the goodness of God right to their end of their lives.
To be disciples of Jesus is to follow him to the end of our lives through the many challenges of life.'
Developing her theme of how church and society is missing out on the value of - and opportunities afforded by - ageing, she also went on to mention organisations like Anna Chaplaincy:
'As a diocesan bishop, I am grateful for the service and generosity of the Clergy Support Trust (Comment, 22 May), and St Luke’s Clergy Care. I am grateful for the ministry of organisations such as Anna Chaplaincy, offering spiritual care in later life, and Christians on Ageing advocating for, and challenging our understanding of, the part played by older people. I am grateful for colleagues from the Church of England Pensions Board who are working hard to respond to the needs of retired clergy.
There are many such organisations, but I cannot help but notice that, in all these vital and good efforts, responding to a need that is clear and present, we have yet to take hold of the opportunity of age.'
You may read Dr Guli Francis-Dequani's full speech here.
The event was organised by an eight-strong team of DROs led by Canon Julian Hubbard, a former Director of Ministry at the Archbishop’s Council, and for some time Diocesan Retirement Officer for Guildford and it emerged from his authorship of the 2024 report ‘The Role and Work of Re red Clergy Officers in the Dioceses of the Church of England’.
It was described as 'an intense but enthusiastic 24 hours mounted with financial support from the Church of England Pensions Board whose senior staff outlined their developing portfolio of services to current as well as retired clergy.'
'If Bishop Guli’s strong affirmation that the Church’s cohort of 12,000 retirees is absolutely not a situation to be ‘problematised’, equally memorable, and elegantly underlining her points, was Canon Julian Hubbard’s comment that ‘what PTOs offer ‘is critical to the load-bearing structures of the Church.’ (The Revd Mark Rudall)
Ministry Lead for Anna Chaplaincy Debbie Ducille also attended the September 2 conference at Cuddesdon, and was delighted to be asked to respond formally to Dr Guli's address on the day. Debbie responded:
'Bishop Guli, thank you for offering us hope and possibility, mirrored so movingly in your own lived experience. I particularly felt encouraged by your golden thread, 'Retired clergy are not a problem to be fixed, but a gift to be valued.'
Similarly I noted your reflection, 'Our tendency can be to problematise age rather than seeing the possibilities of age', so often hidden behind the clouds of resourcing and financial deficit, both in the church and societally.' In briefly reflecting on both she said: 'There is plenty of scope for wisdom, gifts and skills to be exercised in new pastures - being trained in pastoral supervision, perhaps, or as an Anna Chaplain themselves?... we happily lean into both of these opportunities as a charity!'
You may read Debbie's full response here.
Comments