As you should all now be aware, Section 1 of the above Measure was brought into effect on 31 January 2011. This means that Ecclesiastical office holders without freehold, together with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, have now moved automatically onto common tenure. Those in freehold offices have been given the choice as to whether they wish common tenure to apply to them in their current office; some freeholders have already chosen to do so.

There are some clergy (such as those with Permission to Officiate or on contracts of employment) to whom this legislation does not apply.

To confirm, all clergy who have moved automatically onto Common Tenure (both stipendiary and non-stipendiary) should now have received a Statement of Particulars in relation to their office. Freehold clergy should have received an invitation letter.

Some of you hold offices which are a combination of work under freehold or contract combined with an office held under Common Tenure. In this case, you should have received a Statement of Particulars which relates only to the Common Tenure office.

Employed clergy (chaplains etc.) will have received a letter confirming their employment status or a notification that they will soon receive a contract from the London Diocesan Fund.

If you have not yet received anything in relation to Clergy Terms of Service and believe that you should have, please contact Paula Bailey (Head of HR) at the London Diocesan Fund as soon as possible. Paula can be contacted at paula.bailey (Email: paula.bailey [at] london.anglican.org) or 020 7932 1222.

Further information about common tenure and the legislation is available at www.commontenure.org.

There is also a handbook – the Diocese of London Clergy Terms of Service Handbook – which sets out some of the Diocese of London’s local policies. This can be found here.