A “CONSIDERABLE number” of jobs at Church Army are in danger, in an intensive restructuring that might end in the closure of great projects, the charity’s board says.
The board’s statement says that it must act now, given projections showing that, on the present trajectory, it’ll run out of reserves in the following 12 to 18 months. In 2023/2024, expenditure of £11.1 million exceeded income by £3.8 million. The downsizing and restructuring are expected to “significantly reduce” the workforce and budget by April 2026.
The chief executive, Matt Barlow, who took up post in November (News, 18 October 2024), said last week that the changes would entail “returning to our core mission of coaching and equipping not only commissioned evangelists but anyone with a way of calling to mission and evangelism, especially to those facing poverty and distress”. The restructuring had been designed to deliver a “strategic shift” away from “running high-cost projects”, although there have been plans to work with dioceses and partners to try to stop the closure of key projects.
“We’ve needed to make incredibly tough decisions to make sure a financially sustainable future for Church Army that may deliver on our mission and charitable objectives,” he said. “The changes should not a mirrored image of the fervour and dedication our staff show on daily basis of their work, nor a mirrored image of the positive impact we have now had within the communities we serve.”
The current headcount on the charity stands at 185. It is currently unclear what number of jobs are in danger, owing to ongoing conversations about the potential of transferring some projects’ work to other organisations.
The Church Army has been funding a deficit budget from its reserves for several years. While total income has increased by 21 per cent since 2020, total expenditure has increased by 55 per cent. Among the challenges has been the funding of the Marylebone Project, which offers accommodation and support to homeless women in London, and ran deficits of greater than £1 million from 2022 to 2024.
The annual report refers to “essentially the most difficult circumstances that the UK charitable sector has faced for a few years. Donated income to charitable work has fallen dramatically as the broader public has faced into pressures on incomes and the rising trends of business closure and consolidation.”
In recent years, the Church Army has been implementing its DARE strategy (doing, advocating, resourcing, and enabling evangelism). This included plans to deliver a “step-change” in fund-raising and to make use of reserves to fund ongoing work with the aim of achieving financial sustainability by 2027/28. At the top of 2023/24, unrestricted free reserves had shrunk from £11.4 million the previous yr to £8.4 million.
The Board had previously aimed to keep up £6.5 million of free reserves, but planned to set this aside and use as much as £5 million of them to deliver the strategy for sustainability. It had also secured a £2-million loan from Stewardship while it waited for the income realised by the sale of its investment properties, all of which were to be sold over the following two years.
The strategy had not “worked as hoped”, a spokesman said this week, pointing to “the numerous headwinds of cost-of-living crisis and reduced trust funding across the sector”. The Charities Aid Foundation reports that, overall, the UK public donated an estimated £13.9 billion to charity in 2023 — £1.2 billion greater than in 2022.
The Church Army currently runs 29 Centres of Mission in areas of deprivation throughout the UK and Ireland, combining community projects with evangelism, including Fresh Expressions. They are typically led by two full-time members of staff, lay or ordained, and are run in partnership with host Anglican dioceses (numbering 20 in total): the prices are shared. The funding is often committed for an initial five years. Between 2010 and 2022, 14 centres closed, ten of which were older centres with no financial partnership with a diocese.
This week, the spokesman said that the Church Army hoped that “few would close,” and it was hoped that several could be transferred to full diocesan ownership. This could mean a number decreased in the dimensions of their budget. Most dioceses are themselves running deficits. The Church Army expected to retain “a small number” — about eight — “as a part of an illustration of best practice of evangelism and mission on the margins”.
The Church Army offers the one recognised training pathway for licensed lay evangelists within the Church of England (Features, 10 November 2023), funding all training, residential, and travel costs. The training is validated by Durham University, and candidates are admitted to the office of evangelist by a bishop acting on behalf of the Archbishops. A 2022 report by the Church Army Research Unit counted 50 paid Church Army evangelists serving in its Centres of Mission, making the charity “the biggest provider of paid pioneer ministry within the British Isles and Ireland”.
In total, there have been 218 Church Army commissioned evangelists of working age in 2023/24, not all of whom were funded by the Church Army. Under the restructuring, the Church Army plans to proceed to coach commissioned evangelists, but additionally to review the prices and funding of the training.
The spokesman confirmed that the Church Army was considering selling the Wilson Carlile Centre, its Sheffield headquarters named after its founder and launched in 2011 after a £2-million constructing project and a relocation from London. It currently offers conference and accommodation facilities. The Church Army’s research unit — which has conducted in-depth evaluations of C of E projects and initiatives — is in danger, but conversations are under method to consider its becoming an independent entity, run by members of its team.
The Church Army has all the time combined evangelism with social motion, running, during its history, hostels, homes of assorted kinds, youth centres, and job-training centres. Although residential work has declined in more moderen many years, it has maintained the Marylebone Project, in London, offering 112 long- and short-term beds for homeless women, including emergency beds for immediate need. The spokesman said that conversations with third parties were “progressing positively, which supplies us hope for the longer term of homelessness work out of buildings in London”. The annual report refers to partnership work with each Westminster Council and Crisis. It also refers to challenges in recruitment and retention and increased use of agency staff, at higher cost.
The Amber Project, which supported young people in Cardiff scuffling with self-harm, closed last yr. There are not any plans to shut Ty Bronna, supported accommodation for homeless young people in Cardiff, or the Ruby Project, which seeks to assist women “select a life without sexual exploitation”. No changes are planned to vary the Missional Youth Church Network, an initiative that, with the assistance of a £190,000 grant from the C of E Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, seeks to determine 125 such churches by the top of the last decade.
The final proposals, agreed at board meetings in January and February, and presented to staff on Wednesday of last week, are currently subject to a consultation.
“We are investing in compassionate transition support for affected staff, including profession assistance and pastoral care,” Mr Barlow said. “We recognise the impact this can have on our staff and people we serve — especially individuals facing poverty and distress. We are committed to providing support through this transition, and ensuring that those affected receive appropriate care and support.”
The restructuring was “a chance to position ourselves to fulfill a growing openness to God”, he said. “I think we will grow to be the place that churches and dioceses turn to at any time when they’ve an evangelist they need equipping, or a social-action project that they’d like to see actually lead people into relationship with Jesus, in addition to showing them God’s love in motion.”
The Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, who chairs the board of trustees, said: “Our trustees have made this difficult decision alongside the leadership team with deep reflection and prayer, knowing that our responsibility is to sustain the work of this 140-year-old charity for future generations. We remain committed to financial integrity, transparency, and mission-driven motion and open to what God is perhaps leading us towards next.”
The Church Army was established in 1882 by Prebendary Wilson Carlile, an Anglican priest who held open-air evangelistic meetings in London and resigned his curacy to spend more time on mission work in deprived areas, training evangelists for this work. Recognised by the Church of England in 1883, it became the Church’s largest home-mission society. In 2012, it became an acknowledged religious community.
