Save the Parish, a campaign group within the Church of England, published a report Sept. 4 warning that the number of stipendiary parish clergy has fallen to crisis levels and that more priests are now leaving ministry by resignation than by retirement.
The report, "Parish Ministry: Addressing the Crisis in Stipendiary Clergy Numbers in the Church of England," follows a two-day consultation the group convened March 23-24 at St George's House, Windsor Castle. Participants included two bishops, two archdeacons, principals and lecturers from theological training institutions, two diocesan directors of ordinands, four staff from Church House and representatives of the English Clergy Association.
The document identifies problems in three areas — attracting candidates for ordination, training them and retaining them in post — and sets out six lines of action. Among them are fully funded ordination training, a halt to diocesan clergy cuts, a "covenant of care" for serving clergy and a new method of measuring what parish ministry achieves. In its announcement of the report, Save the Parish said the consultation had produced a consensus among participants on the need to reform training, rebuild trust between clergy and church structures, and secure funding for those preparing for ordination.
Church of England ministry statistics published in May 2026, cited in the report, record 6,682 clergy in stipendiary ministry and 2,440 self-supporting ministers. The largest group of active clergy are retired priests holding permission to officiate, who number 8,368. Of those in stipendiary ministry, 3,153 — close to half — are over 55.
The May figures included data on departures for the first time, according to the report. They show 379 clergy resigned during the year, against 278 who retired.
Entries to ordination training peaked at 591 in 2020, the report says, then dropped to 370 in 2024, with a partial recovery to 417 in 2025. The 2025 figure was supplied to the consultation by the Rev. Canon Nicholas McKee, the Church of England's director of ministry.
Marcus Walker, chairman of Save the Parish and rector of Great St Bartholomew in London, wrote on the social media platform X that the fall in ordinations and the rate of departures together threaten the church's basic functions.
"This is existential for the CofE," he wrote. "If we don't have men and women coming forward for the priesthood we can't have priests ministering the sacraments, preaching the Gospel, visiting the sick, baptising babies. And we won't have priests coming forward if the clergy are burnt out."
Save the Parish described the parish priest in its announcement as becoming an "endangered species."
Wellbeing identified as the main obstacle
The report draws a direct line between the condition of serving clergy and the shortage of candidates. At a national vocations conversation held in York in 2024, 71% of participants — heads of theological colleges and diocesan directors of ordinands — identified clergy wellbeing as the primary factor working against vocations, outweighing demographic change and lack of resources, the report says.
It cites the Living Ministry survey, a longitudinal study of clergy conducted between 2017 and 2025 and published by Church House in December 2025, which found that 29% of clergy recorded scores indicating possible mild to clinical depression and that two in five reported feeling isolated. According to the same research, administrative workload rather than total hours worked is the main source of stress, because it displaces pastoral work. The survey also found that only 3.9% of respondents regarded the church's leadership as a source of hope.
Participants agreed that parish clergy are often deeply unhappy, the report states, describing them as feeling "undervalued, under-resourced, overworked, frustrated and vulnerable" — and therefore poorly placed to encourage others toward ordination.
Several groups at the consultation identified a breakdown of trust between parish clergy and dioceses or the national church. The report attributes this to the emphasis on numerical growth, pastoral reorganization, lack of job security, parish finances and a sense that senior leaders are unaware of local pressures. Competitive bidding for funding from the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, it says, places parishes in competition and sometimes sets clergy up to fail.
Insufficient theological education
On training, the report says a large majority of participants across disciplines considered theological education to have become functional and managerial, with insufficient teaching in Anglican ecclesiology, liturgy, history and theology. A majority held that theological and biblical formation needed strengthening.
Participants also raised the relationship between initial ministerial education before ordination and the training that continues afterward, arguing the two phases are neither properly integrated nor clearly distinguished. Shifting theological content into the post-ordination phase, without the resources of a training institution, risks that material never being taught, the report says.
Candidates frequently arrive with little knowledge of Anglican liturgy, orders or theology and struggle when they reach parish ministry in their curacy, according to the document. It also records that dioceses often lack the resources for vocations work and that candidates have no access to grants for travel or books, which the report says disadvantages those with less money.
Recommendations to pave a way forward
The report's central argument is that recruitment, training and retention all depend on a clear theological account of Anglican priesthood. Without a confident understanding of the office, it argues, neither candidates nor serving clergy can be sustained.
Its recommendations include a course in "Anglican basics," delivered in parishes or deaneries with accompanying online material, beginning as a pilot and intended for national use.
Other proposals are a national conference on the nature of Anglican priesthood; full funding for ordination training in both residential and non-residential modes; grants for candidates' travel and books; and removal of the fixed retirement age for clergy, alongside representation for retired clergy on synods. Retired clergy conduct about half of all services, the report says, yet have no formal representation.
Under the heading of a covenant of care, the report calls for an end to clergy post cuts made as a savings measure, a support and study group for every ordinand, and a mentor for every cleric, separate from any formal assessment.
The Rev. Gillian Straine, chief executive of the Guild of Health and St Raphael, will work on an alternative model of impact that measures ministry by lives touched rather than by numbers, the report says, to be piloted alongside research into the wellbeing of the clergy taking part. The report also suggests a return to part-time or time-limited diocesan roles so that senior clergy remain close to parish work.
A review of theological education to be led by the Rt. Rev. Martin Seeley, the retired bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich who chaired the consultation, may take forward the work on initial ministerial education, according to the report.
The consultation took place against a background of diocesan deficits and reductions in stipendiary posts, the report acknowledges, adding that its recommendations may appear modest in that setting.
Speaking to Christian Today, Walker said clergy who find joy in their work are the church's most effective recruiters. "This report isn't the answer to everything, but it has got all the right people into the room to start working out how we can use the money, talent, passion, and grace we have been gifted to revive the spirit of the priesthood in the Church of England," he said.
Save the Parish said it would seek funding to produce short videos commending parish ministry to young people and would look for a theological training institution to partner with on the proposed conference.
