Go spread the word of the Lord? Only down South, says choosy Church of England clergy

Some jobs in the North of England are taking years to fill, warns CofE

Members of the clergy applying for church jobs in the South-East of England face tough competition while vacancies in other regions take year to fill (Getty Images)

Regional prejudice among vicars is seeing fierce competition for jobs in the South of England, while churches in the North struggle to find anyone willing to lead their congregations, senior religious figures have warned.

The problem is so acute that some Church of England posts in the regions are taking years to fill, while jobs which come up in the South-East are toughly contested – with more than 120 vicars vying for a single post in one case.

Unemployed clergy are twice as likely to look for work in the South-East as in the North of England. In London, it takes on average just four months to fill a vacancy, with three vicars applying for every post, according to research by The Church Times.

In Guildford, Surrey, there are an average of four vicars going for each job. But in York it takes a year to fill a vacancy, with just two vicars typically coming forward for each post. In Manchester, there is often only one candidate. The Rev Philip North, from the parish of Old St Pancras in north London, said: “When a London parish comes free, clergy are queuing up to fill the vacancy. Compare that to my former parish on a Hartlepool housing estate, which was recently vacant for more than two years, and you see a rather frightening reflection of the spiritual health of the Church of England.

“Christians are meant to believe in a Gospel that calls them to serve in the risky places and to express a bias to the poor, and the clergy who rise to that challenge find it to be incredibly rewarding.”

The archdeacon of Rochdale, the Venerable Cherry Vann, warned: “We need to find a way of reversing or at least slowing down the trend, otherwise those of us in the North will be faced with clergy suffering increasing levels of stress and dioceses having to make stark choices about closing churches because there are not enough clergy coming forward to serve them.”

The problem is exacerbated by the lack of religious training colleges in the north of England, with newly trained vicars more likely to stay in areas where they have studied. In an attempt to redress the balance, St Mellitus College, London, opened a new campus in Liverpool last year.

Some people still had a “sense that it’s grim up North,” said the Rev Dr Jill Duff, the director of St Mellitus North-West. “There needs to be a call to the North and a call for poorer areas. There is a perception among some people that it is more difficult in the North and the quality of life isn’t as good, but in many parts the quality of life is actually better.”

The Ven Peter Townley, the archdeacon of Pontefract, criticised clergy who deliberately targeted “attractive, middle-class” parishes over poorer ones. “We have too many people who are in the business to be served rather than to serve,” he said.

The North-South divide is not on the agenda at the General Synod, which began its biennial meeting in London yesterday. But Mr Townley said: “There needs to be a genuine debate about this, with action to follow. Why is it that so many of our parishes people can so very easily ignore, but when it comes to the attractive, middle-class, white highlands, there is a queue a mile long of people who want to go there?

“Those who are just about to be ordained and those who are already ordained need to recognise that there is a desperate and valid call to the North and, wherever we are serving, we need to make sure that those virtues of sacrifice and oblation are at the top of our list of priorities.”

The Right Rev Mark Bryant, the Bishop of Jarrow, told The Independent: “We have communities which are really struggling where there are very high levels of social deprivation … and where you have to leave parishes like that vacant for two years or more because literally nobody applies, it is a big issue.” He cited a vacancy at Peterlee which has just been filled after “well over two years”. Another, in Newton Aycliffe, “has been vacant for well over a year”.

He felt there was an “image problem” which needed to be overcome “because when people come to the North-East they fall in love with it almost instantly”.

As for those who chose to hold out for a vicarage in the South rather than move North to preach, he admitted: “I don’t want to say that people are just going for an easy life, but on a bad day it sometimes does feel a bit like that.”