ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that the present situation with regard to clergy employment rights is unsatisfactory and then looks at three possibilities: to set out clearer principles for the courts to apply, to confer employment status on the clergy and finally to ask what employment rights the clergy would wish to have without having the actual status of an employee. This last possibility is argued to be the best way forward and, on this basis, some basic principles are set out and then schemes used by the Methodist Church and the Church of England are examined to show how other churches might develop a similar scheme of clergy employment rights. The chapter then suggests that although it should be left to each church to develop its own scheme, five fundamental points should underpin all schemes.
