Celebrating 60 years of the Pensions Board

“On 4 December 2008 the Pensions Board celebrates the 60th anniversary of its work in providing accommodation for retired clergy and their spouses. From its humble beginnings in Worthing in 1948 to the present day arrangements which provide assistance to some 3,500 clergy pensioners and their spouses, widows or widowers, this is a story of service to the Church of which the Board is justifiably proud.”

Shaun Farrell

Pensions Board Secretary

Thank you! for all the donations over the past 60 years

We need £2m in charitable funds each year to support clergy, their widows or widowers and licensed lay workers in retirement with their housing needs. Without your help we cannot maintain our current level of assistance as we are totally reliant on gifts and bequests from parishes and individuals.

For more information see www.cepb.org.uk/appeals

What do the residents say?

Watch our new DVD and find out more about the supported housing schemes

For more information contact

The Housing Department,

The Church Of England Pensions Board

29 Great Smith Street,

London, SW1P 3PS

Telephone: 020 7898 1800

Email: enquiries@cepb.c-of-e.org.

website: www.cepb.org.uk

FACTS AND FIGURES – the Pensions Board

• Established in 1926: trustee and administrator of the clergy pensions scheme and other Church pension funds
• Trustee of a charitable fund – for clergy, widow(er)s, deaconesses and licensed layworkers providing housing assistance and grants for those on low incomes
• 1948 first residential home opens, Board has 2,541 clergy pensioners, charitable funds provide £3,763 of support
• 2008 Board has almost 12,000 clergy pensioners, needs around £2m in charitable funds, runs seven supported housing schemes plus a nursing care home
• Under the Church’s Housing Assistance for the Retired Ministry (CHARM) the Board is also able to help with retirement accommodation via the Shared Ownership scheme and properties for rent

Moving to bungalow thanks to caring bequest

Revd Captain Frank Fletcher and wife Leila are about to move into a property which has been recently bequeathed to the Pensions Board.

“What I’ve seen – I’m very impressed by it. It’s a lovely place to be,” Frank says of peaceful Huntington near York, where their two-bedroom bungalow is ideally positioned for the local church and amenities, and for visiting family in Wakefield and Leeds.

“We don’t have to worry about putting a house on the market,” adds Leila, describing the process of moving from a Pensions Board terraced house in Northallerton to something more suitable, “and we don’t have to move in until the decorating is finished.”

A former prison chaplain who felt called to ordained ministry following two decades as a Church Army evangelist, Frank and his wife have served in London, Stafford, Buckinghamshire, Stockport, Bury St Edmonds and Wetherby - and when the time came to retire in 2004, they appreciated how the Pensions Board provided accommodation in return for monthly ‘maintenance’ payments.

Having thought at first they would not be able to stay living in Yorkshire, Leila understands how much bequest properties can mean to retired clergy and their spouses: “It does make a real difference to what the Board can afford to do.”

Comfortable accommodation for life

Clergy widow Evelyn Green lives a few doors down the road from the Fletchers in an attractive two-bedroom bungalow.

“Certainly for us as far as we were concerned we hadn’t thought much about retirement, and if it hadn’t been for this system that the Pensions Board has it would have been quite difficult for me,” she says. “It was very reassuring - as when my husband died I was able to stay on here.”

Retiring to comfortable accommodation means a lot to priests and their spouses (and widows/ers), especially after so many moves through the years of ministry: for the Greens, a curacy in Catford preceded incumbencies in Glasgow, County Durham, Sheffield and North Yorkshire.

Originally from Battersea and Wandsworth, they settled in a bungalow bought by the Board in Huntington in 1993. Since becoming a widow in 1997 Evelyn has been particularly appreciative of the support of friends and neighbours and the local church.

“Certainly you don’t think about this part of your life in your earlier years,” Evelyn reiterates, a reflection on how priests dedicate their working lives to the work of the Church. “In our situation we didn’t have any finances to buy a property on retirement,” she continues, “but the Pensions Board was there, assessed our situation, worked out how much ‘maintenance’ we had to pay, and looked after us.”

www.cepb.org.uk/housing