pensions-for-clergy-rwanda | Caring & Sharing East Sussex

Pensions for clergy, Rwanda

The Anglican church in Rwanda is poor. Its clergy survives on the small amounts their congregations can afford, and are given 23% of the collections every Sunday. Of course, if the congregation is small or, as so often is the case, very poor, then this percentage amounts to very little.

Pensions for clergy

Caring and Sharing provides a pension for retired clergy and widows in four Anglican dioceses. The pastors have no pension except the money provided by Caring and Sharing.

However, not all of the people dependent on us are elderly. We also support many widows and some orphans. Some of the widows had husbands who were killed in the genocide in 1994 and have families to feed and educate. Many of the clergy, even the elderly ones, have an extended family which needs their support.

The pension is used to buy essentials such as sugar, soap and seeds. Money is also used for mending houses, to buy animals such as a cow or goat, to pay school fees and to buy spectacles and medicines.