What did we achieve in 2024?

Serving those who serve

In 2024, almost 2,800 clergy and their families relied on the support of a charity to get by.

We're privileged to be able to do what we do, whether it's helping Donna to afford vital dental surgery, providing Josiah with a grant for a bicycle to visit congregants across his parish, or enabling Sarah to travel to Paris to watch her daughter achieve her paralympic dream. 

However, with over £1 million of the grants we provided last year being used on clothing, heating bills and even food, we think it's wrong that so many clergy households should be struggling to afford the essentials. We continue to voice this concern with leaders in the national Churches.

In the past year, we’ve expanded our programme and we’re supporting clergy households in a range of new ways. This includes a partnership to offer online coaching sessions, a service which helps our applicants to write their Wills for free, and we’ve grown our team of Visiting Caseworkers, supporting our most vulnerable applicants in person across the UK.

The wellbeing of serving clergy

While we support both training clergy and retired clergy, we've seen the highest level of need this year from serving clergy. Whilst working to support the wellbeing of their congregants and communities, many do not have the time or space to take care of their own wellbeing.

The Revd Donna McDowell shared her thoughts on the biggest challenge facing serving clergy today: burnout.

"It can feel like you're constantly on-call. I think there are a lot of priests who feel like that. Clergy Support Trust is encouraging people to take time away with their family, with their loved ones, to go on retreat and are resourcing that, because it's so easy for people to not take proper time off and to allow themselves to be replenished."

In 2024, we provided over 1,700 grants to help serving clergy households take a holiday, sabbatical, respite break or retreat. The national Churches similarly placed wellbeing at the top of the agenda, with the governing bodies of the Church of England and Church in Wales both voting to increase the amount of time off that serving clergy can take.

Your support

Thank you to our staff, Trustees, Governors, Stewards of the Festival, supporters and donors for your unwavering support in 2024 - and to the thousands of Anglican clergy who have trusted us with their experiences and stories.

Looking to the future, we'd also like to thank the Archbishop's Council for pledging a £2 million grant to support our work with Church of England clergy.

This grant will make a dent in our £6.3m funding gap, but it is only a sticking plaster, and a meaningful increase to the stipend is urgently needed so that clergy do not continue struggling to afford the basics.

If you can make a donation through the link below, to help us continue to serve the people who spend their lives serving others, it would be greatly appreciated.

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