Fund Loss Delays Some English Ordinations

June 4, 2009

The organization which manages the Church of England’s financial assets announced recently that its portfolio had declined by more than 20 percent, or $2.1 billion, during the recent economic downturn.

As a result of the loss, the church cannot guarantee employment for all of this year’s graduates from theological colleges. In the Church of England, graduates cannot be ordained until they have secured placement as a curate.

One theological college principal, who was interviewed by the Daily Mail, called the jobs crisis a “tragedy and a travesty,” and suggested that he and his colleagues would complain to the House of Bishops about the decision to cut funding for curates.

“The Church of England agrees these individuals are called to the priesthood,” said the Rev. Richard Turnbull of Oxford’s Wycliffe Hall. “It agrees that they have been fully and successfully trained. It says they are ready for ordination as priests. Then it just walks away.”

Fr. Turnbull said the church already had spent the equivalent of nearly $50,000 training each student. He said at least 11 graduates still had not found employment, and several others have accepted secular employment. Nearly all the unplaced students had trained at three evangelical colleges, according to Fr. Turnbull. He suggested that they had been denied employment because many English bishops do not approve of conservative theology. the rest