February 25th, 2021

Introduction

WATCH has been publishing an annual analysis of data based on statistics collected by the Church of England Research and Statistics Department. This year the report also includes a table comparing the proportions of women in roles defined as incumbents and those in roles defined as “incumbent status”, and one comparing the proportions of women in each diocese licensed to stipendiary roles with those licensed as SSM.

Over these years the proportion of women holding stipendiary parish posts has been increasing in most dioceses. However, there are still only eight dioceses where more than a third of such stipendiary posts are held by women.

• A significantly higher proportion of men are licensed to incumbent roles and a higher proportion of women are licensed to incumbent status roles.
• Women clergy are more likely to be in SSM roles than stipendiary and in some dioceses the difference is significant. For example, in Rochester 70% SSM clergy are women but only 23% of stipendiary clergy. This raises a question about the culture of these dioceses, and whether women will be able to flourish in ministry there.
• The majority of men are selected and trained while aged under 40, while for women the opposite is true.
• WATCH is aware that we have not considered the proportions of women clergy who are BAME. This is because we cannot find this information, despite asking. This is of concern, particularly because all professionals who work to promote an egalitarian culture will stress the importance of an awareness of intersectionality. However, we are glad to congratulate the Rt Rev Guli Francis-Deqani on her appointment as Bishop of Chelmsford.

We also recognise that the role of lay women is not shown this year. The patterns shown in previous reports for the gender of LLMs continue to be very similar. It continues to be hard to find meaningful data on the many ways in which lay women contribute to the ministry of the church. This is a reflection on both the way women are regarded in the Church of England and also laity in general.

General synod elections have been delayed a year. In 2015 32% of elected members of the House of Clergy were women and 50.5% elected members of the House of Laity*. We would like to encourage women to stand in General Synod elections this autumn in both the House of Laity and the House of Clergy. In 2015 there were some dioceses where no women stood for election. WATCH thanks those members of General Synod who have served an extra year, particularly those who have worked through Synod for greater inclusivity in the Church of England.

*(Thinking Anglicans blog, Friday, 30 October 2015)

Table 1: Proportion of stipendiary parish clergy who are women in each diocese

Since 2012, WATCH has published the percentage of women in each diocese holding incumbent and incumbent status stipendiary posts. This group forms the majority of (paid) parish clergy. This year we compare the proportions of women in such posts over two year intervals from 2013 to 2019.

• In 2019, in half of all dioceses 29% or more of stipendiary clergy were women, compared to 2013, when the median figure for the proportion of women in such posts was 23%.
• In 2013, fifteen dioceses had under 20% women in stipendiary incumbent/incumbent status posts and in seven dioceses the proportion was 13% or lower. By 2019 five dioceses had under 20% women in such posts.
• In 2019 the dioceses with the lowest proportion of women of stipendiary incumbent status were Exeter and Chichester with 16%, and Europe with 14%. The Channel Islands also have only 15% of such posts held by women.
• Ely remains the diocese with the highest proportion of women in such roles, but the proportion of women has not increased since 2013, remaining between 41% and 43%. We would not like to think that this is a natural ceiling for the proportion of women in stipendiary parish ministry.
• We note that from 2013 onwards, some dioceses have consistently increased the proportion of women by a significant amount. eg Liverpool, from 25% to 34%; Worcester from 23% 33%, Bristol from 17% to 28%.
• In other dioceses the proportion of women has decreased: eg Hereford from 38% to 31%; Sheffield from 29% to 26%.
• The dioceses of both archbishops continue to be in the lower half of this table. In Canterbury only 24% of stipendiary parish clergy are women and in York only 26%.

We do not have any information to indicate whether dioceses have strategies to increase the proportion of women among their clergy or even if they monitor gender diversity. All dioceses will be aware that diversity is important in being able to respond to a changing world and use the gifts of all the people God has called. Dioceses need to monitor diversity, including the proportions of women in all roles, in order to create strategies to increase diversity.

Table 2: Comparison of incumbent and incumbent status roles of female stipendiary clergy

Parish clergy can be licensed as “Incumbents” or to a post which is classified as “incumbent status”. In general, most people in a parish do not know, and certainly don’t worry about, the legal status of “their vicar”. This is why in our annual analysis of proportions of stipendiary clergy who are women (table 1) WATCH combines these two groups because the sort of role they have is so similar. However, clergy with jobs which in the church might be regarded as “more senior” or carrying more responsibility such as Team Rector, or the vicar or rector of a large church, are normally licensed as incumbents, and roles such as Team Vicar or priest-in-charge are normally classified as “incumbent status”.

A complication in making comparisons between dioceses is that different dioceses have different proportions of clergy licensed as incumbents. In Blackburn 92% of clergy are classified as incumbents, while in Worcester the proportion is 53%. However, a comparison of the proportion of female clergy classified as either incumbent or incumbent status in each diocese showed at once that women are under-represented in the group of incumbents and over represented in the group of incumbent status clergy. It is clear that a smaller proportion of women clergy are licensed to posts traditionally regarded as carrying more responsibility. There are only three dioceses where more than a third of clergy licensed as incumbents are women, and no diocese has more than 38% women in such roles. In 21 dioceses, the proportion of incumbents who are women is 25% or lower.

However, if we compare clergy classified as “ incumbent status”, the proportion of women with such roles is 33% or higher in 29 dioceses. In seven dioceses, over 50% of “incumbent status” clergy are women.
It is also worth noting the dioceses where there is a significant difference between the proportions of women who hold these two sorts of licence. For example, in Newcastle 54% of incumbent status stipendiary clergy are women, but women are only 19% of incumbents. In Blackburn, 50% incumbent status clergy are women but only 19% of incumbents are women. In Canterbury and Winchester, 36% and 37% (respectively) of incumbent status clergy are women but only 17% of incumbents are women. Gloucester and Exeter dioceses are the only ones where proportions of women licensed as incumbents and to incumbent status roles is equivalent.

There may be several reasons for these discrepancies, such as clergy who are incumbents often remaining in the same post for longer than those who are incumbent status, so changes take longer to have an effect. However, the data suggests that although the proportion of women in stipendiary ministry is rising slowly, the proportion of women appointed to roles such as Team Rector continues to lag behind. This is something dioceses should be auditing and taking account of in any pastoral reorganisation.

Table 3: Comparison of proportions of SSM clergy and Stipendiary Clergy

A significant number of parishes are only able to keep offering ministry to their communities because of the time and commitment of clergy who are not paid (Self Supporting Ministers). There continues to be a significant gender imbalance between SSM and stipendiary clergy.
The Church of England Ministry Report (June 2020) published several tables with information on numbers of SSM clergy (Appendix 1, tables 4 -7). From the tables it can be seen that

“Although only 32% of all active ordained ministers were female, they made up half of all non stipendiary and self supporting ministers.”

From the published tables we can see that:

• 35% ordained women with roles in licensed ministry, including chaplaincies) are SSM while
• 18% ordained men with similar roles are SSM
• 48% female SSM clergy are in rural ministry, compared to 41% male SSM clergy.

Table 3 compares the proportion of women who are Self Supporting Ministers, with the proportion who are in stipendiary parish ministry, in each diocese.

• On average, 28% stipendiary clergy are women, while 50% SSM clergy are women.
• In many diocese, the proportion of SSM female clergy is nearly twice the proportion of female stipendiary clergy.
• In four dioceses, the proportion of women SSM clergy is about 3 times the proportion of women stipendiary clergy: Carlisle, Chichester, Exeter and Rochester, (the Channel islands also have a noticeably higher proportion of SSM women clergy)
• The proportions of stipendiary and SSM clergy who are women are roughly similar in only three dioceses: Ely, Leicester and Southwell and Nottingham.

In dioceses where there is a significant imbalance in these proportions, questions need to be asked about why this might exist. Is it unconscious bias against stipendiary women clergy, a lack of role models among stipendiary clergy who are women or something else? What assumptions are being made?

SSM clergy are essential to the ministry of the Church of England, but the church needs to value this ministry fully, and ensure that women in such roles who are under pension age are not being exploited by lack of pension and NI contributions.

Table 4: Women in leadership roles

The numbers of women in senior roles in diocese have not changed significantly since Dec 2019, when the figures were collected by the Research and Statistics department. WATCH has compared these figures with the data for December 2020, and the results are below. There is no significant difference in the numbers of women in these roles over the past year. (Vacancies are not included).

• In 2019, three new diocesan bishops were appointed (although two were not installed until 2020). All three were male.
• In 2020 two new diocesan bishops were announced (not yet installed), one male and one female.
• In 2019 eight new suffragan bishops were appointed, including the Bishop of Dover who is an ex-officio member of the House of Bishops. Seven were women and one was a man.
• In 2020 eight new suffragan bishops were appointed. One was a woman and the other seven were men.
• At the end of Dec 2020, 12% diocesan bishops are women; 30% suffragan bishops are women; 32% of archdeacons are women and 16% cathedral Deans are women.
• Currently three diocese have no women among their (ex-officio) senior staff (senior staff defined as bishops, Dean and Archdeacons): Peterborough, Chester and Hereford. Hereford has recently appointed a woman to the role of Archdeacon of Ludlow. Sixteen dioceses have only one woman among senior staff.

A recent report exploring why women are under-represented in senior positions, analyses key reasons and suggest strategies and actions which could enable the Church of England to become more intentional about promoting diversity.
“Using the lens of women’s ordained ministry, how can we grow diversity within the strategic leadership of the Church so that all may flourish?”

Click here to see the above report.

This gendered pattern has not altered but it is still not recognised in press releases and official statements made by the Church of England reports. Until this pattern is acknowledged it will not be possible to plan strategically, and use money strategically, to start to remove this imbalance

Table 5: Ages and Gender of ordinands starting training in 2019 and 2020

The number of female ordinands has increased slightly in recent years. However, what has not changed is the pattern of age and gender distribution of ordinands. The number of female ordinands under 40 decreased by two from 2019 to 2020, and the proportion of all female ordinands under 40 continues to be at 40% or under. If we look at the proportion of ordinands under 35, the “young” ordinands that the Church of England wants to encourage, the percentage of women is even lower: only 33% of all ordinands under 35 are women.
The link between gender and age is shown starkly in the table below which shows the division of the 2019 and 2020 cohorts of ordinands by age and gender:

This gendered pattern has not altered but it is still not recognised in press releases and official statements made by the Church of England reports. Until this pattern is acknowledged it will not be possible to plan strategically, and use money strategically, to start to remove this imbalance.

Table 6: Modes of ordinand training (data from answer to Qu 4 November General Synod 2020)

Table 6 illustrates one result of this age imbalance. The Church of England gives a block grant to dioceses based on the number of ordinands it sponsors. This grant is weighted towards younger ordinands. Ordinands aged 32 or younger are given the highest grant, and from the age of 40, the block grant does not cover the cost of residential training. As can be seen from Table 6, nearly twice as many men as women train in a residential setting and nearly twice as many women as men train on a part- time course. Different people will benefit from different modes of training, but the current data strongly implies that the choices of all ordinands are closely linked to gender.

There are several other results of the age/gender imbalance of ordinands:

A higher proportion of women are ordained into SSM roles, as older ordinands will not normally be selected for stipendiary ministry.

The proportions of women and men in ordained ministry will remain weighted in favour of men. This will be even more noticeable among stipendiary clergy, the majority of whom will continue to be male.

Young ordinands training in residential institutions are likely to be in a group with a majority of men, and so they will continue to be formed in a culture that normalises clergy being male.

Acknowledgements and Sources

Data in tables 1 – 3 based on the Report “Ministry Statistics 2019” published June 2020 and produced by Church of England Research and Statistics, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3AZ It is available online using this link.

Table 4 is based on information published on diocesan and cathedral websites Dec 2020

Tables 5 and 6 based on data provided in response to Question 4, asked in General Synod Nov 2020