Vicar expects 'to go from four churches to 11'

A vicar expects the number of churches he is responsible for to almost triple in 2026 due to a lack of clergy.

The Reverend Canon Andrew Vaughan, in charge of the Swinderby group of churches in Lincolnshire, is anticipating changes to his workload following a review by the Diocese of Lincoln.

"Most clergy will be taking on bigger areas and I'm likely to go up to 11 churches from four," he said. "There is talk in some of the rural areas of 20 to 30 churches per vicar."

The Reverend Canon Christine Goldsmith, from the diocese, said the days of one vicar, one church were "sadly gone", but congregations had been given a say on how they could "remain sustainable".

Insufficient donations by congregations means the diocese has just 116 full-time vicars and curates to look after more than 600 churches, with some now only open for festivals such as Christmas, Easter and harvest.

The diocese accounts for 2025 show a deficit of £1.5m.

In 2019, it launched a review of provision, called A Time To Change Together, to create "more sustainable ways" for churches to serve communities.

Canon Goldsmith acknowledged that vicars were being asked to do more.

"We have so many churches without the amount of money coming in to sustain all the vicars to accommodate that," she said.

Congregations had been invited to say if they wanted to become "festival churches" and some were "happy with that".

According to Canon Goldsmith, some churches would have a service taken by an ordained vicar once a month, with others presided over by lay ministers, who are trained but not ordained.

It was "very rare" for one vicar to run 30 churches and they would receive extra support.

Canon Vaughan said the review was "now at the nuts and bolts stage".

He and others would need to rely heavily on volunteers and lay ministers if his workload increased to 11 churches.

However, he said the diocese was "very good at managing our workload".

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