Holidays and illness
Time off and holidays
All clergy are entitled to a full day off a week with 36 days (excluding Bank Holidays) of Annual Leave. Annual holidays should be fixed in good time. All clergy are entitled to have four Sundays off during the year, one of these probably not as part of the summer holidays. In addition to a summer holiday it is usual to take time off after Christmas and Easter, possibly including a Sunday.
It can be worth periodically monitoring your hours of work to ensure they are at a reasonable not excessive level. Signs of stress and excessive work may include tiredness, irritability, loss of concentration and a sense of flatness (often both in spiritual connectedness and mood) and family and friends being squeezed out.
Please inform the Churchwardens if it proves difficult to find anybody to take services while you are away. You may also consult the Rural Dean or, failing that, the Archdeacon or Suffragan Bishop. It is quite reasonable to have fewer services during your holidays, if necessary.
Illness
If you are ill and unable to work for more than a few days, do talk with the Rural Dean and the Suffragan Bishop as soon as you can, so that they can offer whatever support you and your family find helpful. This also applies if another member of your family is ill and this affects your ability to work.
In addition, if you are ill for more than four days, please send a medical certificate to the Diocesan Office who will forward it to the Church Commissioners. You will continue to receive your stipend in full during your illness, but a failure to send the certificate means that the Church loses out financially.
It is the responsibility of the churchwardens, and not yours, to find help in the parish if illness is affecting the minister in your household. Telephone them and ask them to make arrangements through the Rural Dean. They will arrange for other clergy to take services and make alternative arrangements for meetings.
Payment for services taken by other clergy during your illness is the responsibility of the PCC who may request help from the Diocese to meet additional costs.
Grants may be possible for convalescence. Please ask the Archdeacon.
As part of your review of ministry you are entitled to a routine health check. For further information about this contact the Diocesan Secretary.
St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy in London provides free treatment to all clergy, their spouses, their dependent children and other full-time workers licensed by a Bishop. It also operates a nation-wide network of psychiatrists, one in almost every diocese. Telephone the hospital for a brochure and further details and advice. You will, however, have to be referred by your local GP.
Holy Rood House at Thirsk provides both accommodation and support during illness and convalescence, St Oswald’s Pastoral Centre at Sleights is also a place to go and stay during convalescence.
Contacts
St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy, 14 Fitzroy Square, London W1P 6AH www.stlukeshospital.org.uk (020 7388 4954)
Holy Rood House, 10 Sowerby Road, Thirsk, North Yorkshire YO7 1HX www.holyroodhouse.org.uk (01845 522580)
St Oswald’s Pastoral Centre, Woodlands Drive, Sleights, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO21 1RY www.stoswaldspastoralcentre.co.uk;