What did we achieve in 2022?

Supporting clergy and their families in 2022

Last year, we helped more clergy households than ever before, with £4.96m provided in grants. Since 2019, our workload has quadrupled, from 1,600 grants to an estimated 6,500 in 2023.

We supported 1 in 6 of all serving Church of England clergy, as well as Anglican clergy families in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Europe. This number continues to grow.

In a year in which many parishes and congregations began to meet in person again for the first time, we helped fund over 1,300 much-needed post-pandemic holidays, retreats and sabbaticals.

Serving those who serve

As more and more clergy families reach out to us, we continue to reach out to them.

Events like our 367th Festival Service allowed us to connect with clergy in a way we were unable to the previous year, when the pandemic took the historic service online. We were also delighted to be able to meet clergy in-person again across the UK, at study days, meetings and conferences.

We look forward to visiting dioceses in the Church of Ireland in October as part of our engagement programme, and which has also seen us travel to The Diocese of Sodor and Man.

Alongside our core grants and services, our research programme published a major study into the wellbeing of Global Majority Heritage clergy, which informed the Church of England's Living Ministry project on how clergy can flourish in their lives and ministry.

The cost-of-living crisis

In our 2022 Impact Survey, we asked those who had received grants or used our services, what had had the biggest negative impact on their wellbeing.

The cost-of-living crisis was the most common answer. Too many families tell us they're struggling to afford the essentials.

"[With] the increase in fuel bills and the general cost of living, it's difficult to make ends meet and a constant struggle to keep fuel bills down. We're not turning the heating on as we would have done in winters gone past."