The Clergy Pensions Scheme having been approved by both Houses
of Parliament received the Royal Assent on Thursday, August 5th. For two years it has been advocated and criticized in. the Church Assembly. It therefore deserves to be considered the best scheme that can be devised. The old Clergy Pensions Institution with its diocesan organizations will co-operate, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners will contribute a substantial subvention and the Central Board of Finance will also help.. But the main source of income will be a levy of three per cent. on the net incomes of the clergy. When the scheme is in full working order a pension of £200 a year will be available for every clergyman seventy years old who has done forty years' clerical work and has contributed to the scheme for fifteen years ; that is to say it applies to all clergy who are not now over fifty-five years old. The measure should enable men to retire who at present have no other means of support but are past their work, and should prevent the division of some miserable stipend between the present and the retired incumbent. The contribution of three per cent. will be a heavy burden on some clergy, and it behoves the Parochial Church Councils to see that their parishes do not let too great a charge fall upon their incumbents.
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