Anglican clergy to lose the right to a job for life

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1486092,00.html

[Times Online] February 16, 2005--The Church of England took the first steps yesterday to end 800 years of tradition and scrap the “parson’s freehold”, or job for life, enjoyed by thousands of clergy, within five years. The General Synod, meeting at Church House, Westminster, voted for a new system of “common tenure” to replace the freehold.

Related article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1415306,00.html
"Synod votes to remove vicars' freehold rights at churches" - The Guardian

The change has a definite downside. "Parson's freehold" enabled the Evangelicals in the Church of England to purchase livings and place in them Evangelical ministers of the Gospel in dioceses in which the bishop was hostile to Evangelicals. While the elimination of "parson's freehold" may permit the removal of incompentant priests, it will also permit the removal of compentant ministers of the Gospel in dioceses in which the bishop is unfriendly to Evangelicalism.