On 1st September 2025, the Second Church Estates Commissioner, Marsha De Cordova MP, gave the following written answers to questions from MPs:
Religious Buildings
Andrew Rosindell MP (Con, Romford): To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the National Church Institutions have issued guidance on the use of sacred places of worship for secular purposes.
Marsha De Cordova MP (Lab, Battersea): Church of England parish churches are public spaces. Their primary use is for worship, but for centuries the church has welcomed appropriate use, alongside worship, for the benefit of the community and the church.
Currently the Church is the largest provider of space in local communities where amateur and professional art, culture, and music can be enjoyed. In addition churches run coffee mornings, warm spaces, food banks and credit unions. They are also used for election hustings, planning enquiries, emergency relief in floods or natural disasters, public community meetings, and official announcements such as the proclamations made at the Demise of the Crown.
Churches respond to local need, and other creative ideas include village shops, community banks, children’s social and holiday clubs, wellbeing and mental health support, libraries, nursery and play spaces, and flexible office space. In rural parts of the country, churches are also supporting their communities by using their buildings to broadcast internet and wifi to support and retain the viability of local businesses and schools.
The Church publishes case studies to share examples that inspire others, along with guidance and policies for initiatives such as ‘Support for struggling churches’ (found here: https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/churchcare/church-buildings-council/how-we-manage-our-buildings/struggling-churches(opens in a new tab) ) which recognises broader use alongside worship as part of a sustainable future for church buildings.
There is extensive guidance, including videos, about making changes to churches (which can be found here: https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/churchcare/making-changes-your-building-and-churchyard/develop-your-vision(opens in a new tab) ) and this guidance covers many non-worship uses of the space.
Clergy: Retirement
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, representing the Church Commissioners, what financial support is available to retired clergy.
Marsha De Cordova: Church of England stipendiary clergy are members of the Church of England defined benefit pension scheme, which provides a guaranteed income for the whole of their retirement, plus an at-retirement lump sum and benefits for surviving spouses or civil partners. In July 2025, the General Synod voted to increase the pension scheme’s benefits.
In addition, stipendiary clergy households that do not own their own home have access to the Church’s retirement housing scheme, which provides a secure lifetime tenancy of a rental property, subsidised to circa 60% of equivalent market rent.
The Archbishops’ Council and Church Commissioners have committed £95.7m over the period 2026-28 to support and subsidise the retirement housing scheme and provide new services to clergy to assist them in making provision for their retirement.
In-retirement support includes access to specialist advice services and a charitable grant scheme to support those on the lowest incomes.
All the foregoing are provided by the Church’s national bodies. Additionally, support is available from other bodies, including the Churches Mutual Credit Union, the Clergy Support Trust, and other clergy charities.
Churches: Closures
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, how many churches have closed in each year since 1997.
Marsha De Cordova: Starting at 1990, the figures per decade are as follows:
1990–1999: 274
2000–2009: 243
2010–2019: 210
In the current decade:
2020: 15
2021: 26
2022: 11
2023: 17
2024: 15
Over this period the Pastoral and Closed Churches Committee of the Church Commissioners has received formal closure schemes for 811 churches in total.
To put this in context, the Church of England has stewardship of approximately 15,700 consecrated buildings. Church closures are occurring at their lowest rate since the 1970s, when 760 closures took place across the decade. The figure for the 1980s was 485. Since the 1990s annual closures have remained steady at approximately 20–25 per year, with no increase following the pandemic.
The Church also opens around 10 new churches annually, and has seen significant growth in worshipping communities in homes, schools, cafés, and digital spaces. Since 2020, dioceses have launched or are developing 3,500 new worshipping communities, contributing to the Church’s goal of 10,000 by 2030 under its Vision and Strategy.
Closure does not mean withdrawal. Every community remains covered by a Church of England parish, with continued access to worship, baptisms, marriages, and funerals. In many cases, ministry is reconfigured locally to maintain pastoral care.
The Church operates under the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011, which allows buildings no longer needed for pastoral use to be closed and repurposed. Closures are typically initiated by local parishes, often due to demographic shifts or challenges in sustaining leadership.
Further information can be found in the Church Commissioners’ annual reports, which are available on the Church of England website or in the House of Commons Library.
Clergy: Vacancies
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, how many parishes have a vacancy for (a) an incumbency and (b) a priest-in-charge; and how many (i) incumbent and (ii) priest-in-charge vacancies there have been in each of the last five years.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, how many rural parishes have a vacancy for (a) an incumbency and (b) a priest-in-charge; and how many (i) incumbent and (ii) priest-in-charge vacancies there have been in each of the last five years.
Marsha De Cordova: The National Church Institutions do not hold information centrally about the number of vacancies in urban or rural parishes; the deployment of clergy to benefices is a matter for diocesan bishops and their leadership teams.
Data on benefice vacancies are only available at a diocesan level. However work is underway to update the national modelling of projected clergy populations, and the National Church Institutions are considering how they might gather and monitor data on vacancies.
To understand the local context in Romford or in the wider Chelmsford Diocese, it would be best to contact the Bishop of Barking, or the Archdeacon of West Ham. Contact details are available on the diocesan website.
Clergy
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, how many clergy of incumbent status have been dispossessed by diocese in each of the last five years; and how many (a) dispossession of office and (b) other schemes are being prepared.
Marsha De Cordova: In the period 2020-2025 there have been 11 dispossession cases under the Mission and Pastoral Measure 2011. There are 7,340 stipendiary clergy, meaning dispossession cases represent a very small (less than 1%) proportion of overall clergy numbers.
By diocese these break down as follows:
• Portsmouth – 6 cases
• St Albans – 2 cases (plus one in process)
• Southwark – 1 case
• York – 1 case
• Leeds – 1 case
Church of England: Slavery
Neil O’Brien MP (Con, Harborough, Oadby, and Wigston): To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2025 to Question 63010 on Church of England: Slavery, whether the £5 million to be spent on project Spire in the triennium spending plans 2026-28 remains the Church’s forecast.
Marsha De Cordova: £5 million is not a forecast figure the Church Commissioners recognises in relation to the Spire programme in the triennium spending plans for 2026-28. The Church Commissioners’ triennium spending plan process involves forecasting high-level commitments over a three-year period to provide strategic direction and flexibility, recognising that actual costs and timings may vary across a multi-year programme
As this is a figure the Hon. Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston has also mentioned in a prior question (UIN 63009) and during oral questions on 3 July 2025, I wish to clarify the Church Commissioners’ financing in relation to the Spire programme.
In response to historic links to African chattel enslavement, the Church Commissioners has committed £100 million for a new charitable fund, to enable grant funding and further research. As per the answer to question UIN 63010, the Church Commissioners requires Charity Commission authorisation to settle income from its general fund on a new charitable fund to enact this response. Until such regulatory authorisation may be obtained, the Church Commissioners will not deploy any of the £100 million, which therefore remains in its general fund. As mentioned in answer to question UIN 63009, expenditure on this work to date, therefore, has been limited to proportionate research into the Church Commissioners’ source of funds and consideration of its response to that history.
Neil O’Brien: To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2025 to Question 63010 on Church of England: Slavery, how much has been spent on this project so far.
Marsha De Cordova: From 2019 to the end of the financial year 31 December 2024 inclusive, the Church Commissioners’ expenditure in connection with Project Spire was approximately £1 million. This is related to commissioning research and developing our formal response
The Church Commissioners’ spending in this period relates to forensic accountancy, risk management, consultation, engagement events, communications, governance and ancillary matters. This figure does not include any estimate of internal staff time, as it is not possible to separate this from the general administration of the Church Commissioner’s Secretariat and would incur a disproportionate cost to the organisation.
Religious Practice
Sam Carling MP (Lab, North West Cambridgeshire): To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, how many rites of deliverances have been carried under Church of England deliverance ministry guidance in each of the last 10 years; and how many of these were children.
Marsha De Cordova: This is not a matter for the National Church Institutions and no data or records on numbers or type of deliverance ministry cases are held centrally.
The House of Bishops determines Guidelines for Deliverance Ministry and oversees resources and training for this ministry, but how deliverance ministry teams operate within dioceses is the responsibility of each individual diocesan bishop.
The Church of England has published the following information on its website about best practice in this area, regarding safeguarding, which includes children, vulnerable adults or where an individual is thought to be suffering from a mental disorder.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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