Church-estates Commissioner

The Church Commissioners is a body managing the historic property assets of the Church of England. It was set up in 1948 combining the assets of Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund dating from 1704 for the relief of poor clergy, and of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners formed in 1836.

The Church Building Act 1818 granted money and established the Church Building Commission to build churches in the cities of the Industrial Revolution. These churches became known variously as Commissioners' churches, Waterloo churches or Million Act churches. The Church Building Commission became the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1836.

An earlier Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues Commission had been set up under the first brief administration of Sir Robert Peel in 1835 with a wide remit, “to consider the State of the Established Church in England and Wales, with reference to Ecclesiastical Duties and Revenues” (Minutes of the Commission, 9/2/1835); this body redistributed wealth between the dioceses and changed diocesan boundaries, and the permanent Ecclesiastical Commission was formed the following year.

The value of the Commissioners' assets was around £5.5 billion as at the end of 2012. Most of the income is used to pay clergy pensions.

The Commissioners also oversee pastoral reorganisation, the consent of the Commissioners being required for establishing or dissolving team and group ministries, uniting, creating or dissolving benefices and parishes, and the closing of consecrated church buildings and graveyards.

The Church Commissioners are now based at Church House, Westminster, London, having long occupied No. 1 Millbank. However, the Millbank building was sold in 2005 to the House of Lords for accommodation of members and staff; the Commissioners completed the move to Church House in 2007. They used to be an exempt charity under English law.

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