Clergy Grants
There are many organisations and charities that can support clergy and clergy families with grants for educational purposes or in times of financial difficulty.
Below are the main local and national charities. For more information contact the person specified. Your Archdeacon may be able to help with additional charities not listed here. Other grants for clergy are also listed in the Grants Handbook.
Local charities administered through the Diocese of Manchester
Fraser and Howarth Trust Funds
These two trust funds are administered from the Diocesan Office. Many of the grants are made to assist clergy of the Church of England serving in the diocese with the school fees and expenses of their children, but are not restricted solely to these items. Applications for grants are considered in April/May and October/November each year. The total income of the clergy family is taken into account when determining the size of the grant.
Any clergy in particular financial difficulties should contact the Diocesan Secretary, Church House, 90 Deansgate, Manchester M3 2GH for details of these trusts.
Bishop Lee Scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge
This scholarship of about £116 per annum, tenable for three years, is open to the sons and daughters of clergymen who have officiated in the Dioceses of Manchester and Blackburn for a period of five years.
Intending candidates should apply to the Diocesan Registrar, Church House, 90 Deansgate, Manchester M3 2QH for information.
National charities
Charity of Miss Ann Farrar Brideoake
This Charity is for communicant members of the Church of England resident in the Dioceses of York, Liverpool and Manchester who have some degree of poverty, hardship or distress.
The Trust may be able to help you if you are a pensioner struggling to meet winter fuel bills or a handicapped person who needs a special piece of equipment or a family in need of help for education or even a holiday. Parishioners, clergy and retired clergy may apply.
Application forms can be obtained from Mr Ware, 8 Blake Street, York YO1 8XJ, Tel: 01904 625678.
Church of England Pensions Board
The Pensions Board operates a retirement housing scheme for clergy, deaconesses and licensed lay workers and their widows and widowers. Most of the finance for mortgages and additional rental properties is made available by loans from the Church Commissioners, but over 450 properties and loans are provided from the Board's charitable funds.
The Board’s charitable funds are also used:
• to provide grants to retired clergy, deaconesses, licensed lay workers, or their surviving spouses, if they have low incomes, and
• to establish, and assist with the running costs of, residential and nursing homes for the Board's various beneficiaries.
Contact: The Church of England Pensions Board, 29 Great Smith Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3PS. Tel: 020 7898 1800; Fax: 020 7898 1801; email: enquiries@cepb.c-of-e.org.uk. Chairman: Mr Allan Bridgewater; Secretary: Mr Michael Farrell.
Corporation of the Sons of the Clergy
This fund can assist clergy of the Anglican Communion in the UK and Anglican Missionaries abroad providing they are sponsored by a UK-based missionary society. The Corporation can also help widows and widowers of such clergy, their separated or divorced spouses, and dependent children. Help can also be given to unmarried daughters of pensionable age.
For details visit www.sonsoftheclergy.org.uk.
Revd Dr George Richards’ Charity
Applications for grants are considered from clergy of the Church of England who are in need of assistance through sickness or infirmity and have become incapable of performing their clerical duties, thereby forcing them to take early retirement. Widows, widowers and other dependants of such clergy can also seek assistance.
Contact Dr P. D. Simmons, 98 Thomas More House, Barbican, London EC2Y 8BU. Tel: 020 7588 5583.
Funds to assist retired clergy and clergy widow/ers
The Diocesan Committee for Retired Clergy and Widows overseas the administration of the following funds:
• Clergy Widows and Dependents Fund (to assist clergy widows and dependents resident in the diocese)
• Miss I L Bothamley Bequest (to assist widows whose husbands served in the diocese)
• Thelma Turner Bequest
• Bishop K V Ramsey Fund (to assist retired clergy and widows)
For details, contact the Ven Alan Wolstencroft, Bishop’s Officer for Retired Clergy and Widow/ers (link).
Dioceses of Chester, Manchester, Liverpool and Blackburn
A fund for the relief of the widows and orphans of clergymen who have officiated in the Archdeaconries of Chester, Macclesfield, Rochdale, Bolton, Blackburn, Liverpool or Warrington.
Contact the Hon Secretary, Revd M S Finlay, The Rectory, Warrington WA1 2TL.
Funds for divorced or separated clergy spouses
Broken Rights
Broken Rights is a national, independent association of divorced and separated wives of Anglican clergy, ministers and Church Army officers. It is a source of support and practical help to spouses of clergy who are separated or divorced.
The local contacts are Mrs Joan Warner, 28 Cow Lees, Bolton BL5 3EG and Mrs Diane Leakey, 28 Gilda Road, Mosley Common, Manchester M28 1BP.
