A Step-by-Step Guide to Retirement for Clergy * Retiring from full-time stipendiary ministry is a major step for clergy which has far-reaching consequences for them and also for their close family. It also has important consequences for the parishes in which they are working when they retire and for the diocese generally. This brief guide is intended to give those thinking of retirement an outline of how to go about it and offers some questions they will need to consider about their life and ministry after retirement. However, it cannot be taken as a comprehensive guide in all situations and it is important that clergy contemplating retirement seek proper advice, not least from their Archdeacon. Because beneficed clergy are office holders rather than employees there are certain considerations surrounding retirement which are different from many other people; they also need to take steps to check for themselves that proper arrangements are in place for their departure from full-time ministry and also from the place where they have been living. Step 1: Thinking about retirement People differ in their approach to planning retirement; some make plans well in advance, others leave it until much closer to the eventual date before formalising what they intend to do. Clergy are normally obliged to retire from full-time stipendiary ministry on attaining the age of seventy; though it is occasionally possible, with the diocesan bishop s permission, to continue for a stipulated period beyond that point. However, many people retire before that age, possibly when they are entitled to a full pension; or at some other point. It may be that a priest s retirement is planned to coincide with their spouse s retirement. Sometimes plans may either be postponed or brought forward because of an unforeseen situation, such as illness; so it pays to have some idea of what you hope to do, even if it subsequently changes. Whenever you are thinking about retirement, you should be giving it serious thought by the age of sixty. To this end, the diocese in co-operation with the other East Midlands dioceses [Derby, Leicester and Southwell & Nottingham], offers through Continuing Ministerial Development an annual pre-retirement course specifically designed for clergy. This usually takes place in May and is advertised in mailings; if you are interested in taking part, contact the CMD Officer and ask how to book onto the next course. Attending the pre-retirement course does not commit you to retiring at any particular date, but it offers practical information about issues relating to retirement, including: - Pensions and finance - Housing - Preparing yourself and others for your retirement Issues around ministry in retirement are also considered. These are explored in more depth at a CMD event in Lincoln later in the year, which has a specific focus on our own diocese. It is open to those who have worked in the diocese before retirement and also to those who have worked elsewhere and have moved in after retiring. Details of this event are also available from the CMD Officer. * The majority of these notes are written with stipendiary incumbents in mind, not least because for them the transition involves not only ending paid work but also moving to a new home. However, voluntary clergy are covered by the same expectations over ministry in retirement.
You should also seek advice on these matters for yourself, including exploring the availability of pensions from employment prior to ordination and the specifics of housing, particularly if you are looking to live in a house provided by the Church of England Pensions Board. Housing in retirement is not automatically available and you may need to think carefully about what is practicable for your future. Step 2: Making more definite plans Going on a pre-retirement course should provide at least the basic information for thinking about retirement, but this doesn't commit you to any particular time to retire. When you have got a more definite idea of when you might like to retire, even if that may be a year or two into the future, it is important to initiate a conversation with the diocesan staff. This is partly for your benefit, but also for the parishes in which you work and for the diocesan staff, since having early notification of potential retirements is helpful in planning for the future. Again, an exploratory conversation does not commit you to a specific date for retirement. Whenever you have a potential date for retirement, you should contact either the Bishop of Lincoln or your Archdeacon to have an exploratory conversation, even if you simply have in mind the year in which you wish to retire. The Bishop or Archdeacon can give practical advice about planning the process. It is important to avoid any public announcement of a retirement until a clear date is agreed and that is generally three months from the planned date. However, it may be helpful to have at least informal conversations with churchwardens and other parish officers to prepare them in advance for your departure; you should, however, seek advice from the Bishop or Archdeacon about doing this. Step 3: Putting your plan into action At some point you will decide on a definite date for your retirement. Unlike most other people, retirement for stipendiary clergy means losing the parsonage house which goes with your appointment, so it is particularly important that the availability of your future housing is settled before any other definite steps are taken. If you are moving into a Pensions Board property, this needs to be finalised with them; but if you are intending to move to a house which you own you need to be sure it is ready for you, especially if it has been leased to tenants in the meantime. You will need formally to notify the Bishop of Lincoln of your intention to retire and this should be done either in a face-to-face conversation or in writing. The Bishop will arrange for the necessary formalities to be completed, including the formal public announcement of your departure from your benefice. Although you may wish to speak about this confidentially with church officers, the official announcement in the benefice should not be made before the diocesan announcement. In order to give effect to your retirement, you will need to sign a Deed of Resignation, which is provided by the Diocesan Registrar at the request of the Bishop. The Deed terminates your active ministry in the diocese from a stipulated date. From the date on which it takes effect, you will: - cease to have a licence to undertake public ministry in this diocese; and therefore will no longer have permission to officiate anywhere in the Church of England or elsewhere; - no longer have the right to occupy the parsonage house in which you live; - no longer be entitled to be paid a stipend. Because it has such significant consequences, it is important to plan carefully the date from which your Deed of Resignation takes effect. It is not necessary to arrange matters so that the Deed
takes effect on the last Sunday in which you will be working in the benefice and it may help to allow yourself time not only to finish work but also to move house before this happens. You may have holiday due to you which can be used for this. Although you have no right to continue living in the parsonage house beyond the date your resignation takes effect, if circumstances demand it, an extension of time can be authorised by the Diocesan Bishop; but this should not simply be assumed to happen if you encounter last-minute difficulties. It is particularly important to recognise that the Deed of Resignation is irreversible; once signed, you cannot have it set aside in order to remain in post. It is also important to understand that your resignation nullifies your licence to officiate in the Diocese of Lincoln. This in turn means that you do not have cover from the diocese s public liability insurance to undertake any form of public ministry for which such authorisation would be required; and it also means that you should not undertake any public ministry requiring a licence in any other diocese. Sometimes clergy have agreed to officiate at family occasions immediately after retirement, but this can only be done with the express permission of the bishop of the diocese involved and this should be sought as early as possible. It is the policy of the Diocese of Lincoln not to grant Permission to Officiate to anyone within the first six months of their retirement. Step 4: Finishing work As mentioned in Step 3, the Bishop will arrange for an official date on which to announce your impending resignation, usually three months prior to your final Sunday in the benefice. From the point when you gave formal notice of your intention to retire, you will have been required to complete a questionnaire giving details of the benefice for the benefit of those producing the documents for advertising the post and appointing your successor, and these should be completed in good time before your departure. You should also be given a final interview with your Archdeacon to cover any matters of significance pertaining to your leaving. As with any departure from a post, you should take all necessary steps to inform those who will be responsible for maintaining the life of the benefice of any matters relating to their responsibilities, including any pastoral information to ensure continuity of ministry, such as those receiving home communions and regular visits. However, you are not responsible for arranging cover for services after your departure. It will also help to ensure that all your claims for working expenses and any other financial matters, especially those relating to Occasional Offices, are processed before you leave. As part of the process of appointing your successor, the benefice will need to produce a Profile and also a Statement of Needs for the diocesan staff. You should not be involved in drawing up these documents even if the work is started before you leave. No doubt the benefice will arrange some kind of occasion to mark your departure on the appointed day Step 5: Beginning ministry in retirement From the day you retire from full-time stipendiary ministry you cease to be an incumbent, but you do not cease to be a priest. One of the challenges of retirement is to re-shape and re-
imagine your ministry as a priest so that it does not depend on doing the work associated with being an incumbent. The people who make the transition into retirement most effectively and happily tend to be those who understand this and work to achieve it. In the Diocese of Lincoln all clergy who have retired are not given Permission to Officiate for the first six months of their retirement, a stipulation which applies equally to those who move into the diocese from elsewhere and to those who retire within the diocese. This is to allow a coolingoff period in which you can adjust to the reality of retirement; it also means that you are not enlisted for lots of service-taking as soon as you retire. Some people find this period very difficult, but it allows time to think carefully about what you might want to do by way of ministry in retirement and where might be a good place to do it. The enforced break from ministerial activities can also give you a much-needed period of relaxation. There is no requirement or expectation for retired clergy to exercise any public ministry at all if they don t wish to do so. However, many people want to do something and this can be thought of as a choice between three main options: - to be available for occasional service-taking, perhaps to cover holidays, but otherwise to have no regular involvement; - to help out in some aspect of public ministry in a benefice, perhaps once a month; - to play a regular part in the ministry of a benefice as a voluntary priest. Any public ministry in retirement requires Permission to Officiate from the Bishop of Lincoln. It is your responsibility to contact the Bishop to request PtO, which will be granted for up to three years at a time. By having PtO you accept the obligation to undertake regular safeguarding training and to abide by the terms of the diocesan safeguarding policy. If you have previously worked in the diocese of Lincoln, you will need to give careful consideration not only to where you will live but also to where you will exercise a continuing ministry. It is customary for clergy not to continue living within the benefice from which they retired, or to live in any former benefice where they have worked. However, this is a recommendation rather than an enforceable stipulation; and anyone who has spent many years in ministry in the diocese will probably have contacts in a variety of places. In terms of Permission to Officiate, though, if you continue to live within the deanery in which you worked when you retired [for example], the Bishop may decide to restrict your PtO so as to exclude that deanery, or parishes within it. As always, it is important to discuss these matters at an early stage, preferably while forming your plans for retirement. Some things to think of in shaping a ministry in retirement; some seem obvious, others less so: - Being an incumbent can be an all-consuming task, however satisfying or enjoyable it might have been; stopping work can leave you feeling very tired, so give yourself time to adjust to the new situation. - Working full-time can leave little time for hobbies and interests; take time to re-discover old interests or to find new ones. - Working in a benefice brings you into contact with other people; finishing work and moving away means you need to take time to build new contacts and friendships.
- Make an effort to get proper regular exercise and take care of your health, even if that is simply going for a longish walk every day. - There may have been things you would have liked to do when you were in full-time ministry, but there wasn t time; this could include offering spiritual direction, acting as a mentor to more recently ordained clergy or teaching some aspect of ministerial practice or theology. These might be possible to do in retirement and could make good use of your experience and insights. - If you offer regular ministry in a benefice, it is probably a good idea to have a written working agreement with the incumbent which sets out clearly what you are offering and when, plus any other significant information. The conversation leading up to writing the agreement is probably as important as the document itself. - You need to think carefully about future attendance at meetings; some people are only too pleased at the thought of not having to go to meetings, but sometimes it can help to do so. If you have regular involvement in a benefice with a ministry team, it may be a good idea to be a member, even if you don t go to every meeting. - Similarly, give consideration to attendance at deanery Chapter meetings; it can be good to keep in contact with fellow clergy, particularly if you are reasonably active in retirement, but some deaneries have far more retired clergy than those in full-time ministry. If in doubt, talk to the Rural Dean about this. - Retired clergy offering public ministry are volunteers and volunteers work has been described by the management consultant Charles Handy as gift work. Using this image, it is important to remember that gifts can be refused by their intended recipients; and that once given, the gift can be used in ways the giver might not have intended. However carefully you may have thought about what ministry you want to offer in retirement, it may not be what the church in that place needs or wants. Similarly, even the best of plans may not work out as expected. Sometimes this can be a fortunate discovery something you never anticipated can work out to be better than what you planned. However, there is no formula for success in voluntary ministry and it s important to keep what you are doing under review. Some pitfalls to avoid in retirement: - Many of these pitfalls are a consequence of your changed ministerial status when you retire; however long you have been ordained and however responsible a post you have held, these things cease to apply on retirement. As noted above, you need to re-negotiate your priestly ministry when you retire. - You have no right to conduct services or exercise public ministry in retirement; anything you do should be with the agreement of the incumbent of the benefice concerned, just as your permission would have been needed to allow someone else to minister in the benefice where you worked. Always respect other people s professional boundaries. - The same considerations apply to offering other kinds of ministry in the diocese. If you feel called to offer spiritual direction or to be a mentor to another priest or minister, this is best done through the diocesan structures. Apart from other considerations, being part of the diocesan provision means you can receive training and have colleagues with whom to work.
- These considerations apply particularly to conducting occasional offices, especially funerals. The diocesan claim form for wedding and funeral expenses and fees requires a signature from the incumbent of the parish in which the couple, or the deceased, lived so it is important and courteous to gain their agreement to your doing this in advance. This applies to all funerals, even if they are entirely at the crematorium. - Likewise, take care to negotiate with the incumbent any involvement in your previous benefices over weddings or funerals. They may be entirely content to leave you to conduct the service yourself, but they may wish to conduct at least part of it themselves as they have a right to do and to invite you to assist them. - However much, or little, involvement you have in active ministry after retirement, take care not to make or appear to make any adverse comments on your successor s ministry in your previous benefice; or to publicly criticise clergy or others where you are now living. This applies not only to face-to-face comments, but also to those made through social media of any sort. Retired clergy are still covered by the Clergy Discipline Measure and by the Diocese of Lincoln s Social Media Policy. Useful links: Church of England Pensions Board: https://churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/cepb.aspx Bishop of Lincoln s Advisor for Retired Clergy: The Ven. Geoffrey Arrand; g.arrand@lincoln.anglican.org Continuing Ministerial Development Officer; [for details of pre-retirement course and other provision] The Revd. Dr Bill Goodman; bill.goodman@lincoln.anglican.org Neil Burgess 12 th April 2016