A “CONSIDERABLE number” of jobs at Church Army are at risk, in an extensive restructuring that could result in the closure of significant projects, the charity’s board says.
The board’s statement says that it needs to act now, given projections showing that, on the current trajectory, it will run out of reserves in the next 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 training and equipping not just commissioned evangelists but anyone with a sense 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 were plans to work with dioceses and partners to try to prevent the closure of key projects.
“We’ve had to make incredibly tough decisions to ensure a financially sustainable future for Church Army that can deliver on our mission and charitable objectives,” he said. “The changes are not a reflection of the passion and dedication our staff demonstrate every day in their work, nor a reflection of the positive impact we have had in the communities we serve.”
The current headcount at the charity stands at 185. It is currently unclear how many jobs are at risk, owing to ongoing conversations about the possibility 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 more than £1 million from 2022 to 2024.
The annual report refers to “the most challenging circumstances that the UK charitable sector has faced for many years. Donated income to charitable work has fallen dramatically as the wider 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 use reserves to fund ongoing work with the aim of achieving financial sustainability by 2027/28. At the end of 2023/24, unrestricted free reserves had shrunk from £11.4 million the previous year to £8.4 million.
The Board had previously aimed to maintain £6.5 million of free reserves, but planned to set this aside and use up to £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 next two years.
The strategy had not “worked as hoped”, a spokesman said this week, pointing to “the significant 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 more 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 costs are shared. The funding is typically committed for an initial five years. Between 2010 and 2022, 14 centres closed, ten of which were older centres without a 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 would be transferred to full diocesan ownership. This could mean a number decreased in the size of their budget. Most dioceses are themselves running deficits. The Church Army expected to retain “a small number” — about eight — “as part of a demonstration of best practice of evangelism and mission on the margins”.
The Church Army offers the only recognised training pathway for licensed lay evangelists in 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 largest provider of paid pioneer ministry in the British Isles and Ireland”.
In total, there were 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 continue to train commissioned evangelists, but also to review the costs 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 building 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 at risk, but conversations are under way to consider its becoming an independent entity, run by members of its team.
The Church Army has always combined evangelism with social action, running, during its history, hostels, homes of various kinds, youth centres, and job-training centres. Although residential work has declined in more recent decades, 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 gives us hope for the future of homelessness work out of buildings in London”. The annual report refers to partnership work with both Westminster Council and Crisis. It also refers to challenges in recruitment and retention and increased use of agency workers, at higher cost.
The Amber Project, which supported young people in Cardiff struggling with self-harm, closed last year. There are no plans to close Ty Bronna, supported accommodation for homeless young people in Cardiff, or the Ruby Project, which seeks to help women “choose a life without sexual exploitation”. No changes are planned to change the Missional Youth Church Network, an initiative that, with the help of a £190,000 grant from the C of E Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, seeks to establish 125 such churches by the end of the 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 career assistance and pastoral care,” Mr Barlow said. “We recognise the impact this will have on our staff and those 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 “an opportunity to position ourselves to meet a growing openness to God”, he said. “I believe we can become the place that churches and dioceses turn to whenever they have an evangelist they want equipping, or a social-action project that they’d love to see actually lead people into relationship with Jesus, as well as showing them God’s love in action.”
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 action and open to what God might be 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.
