The Cleaver Ordination Candidates Fund supports Anglican ordinands and clergy who are committed to the traditional catholic understanding of the priesthood and episcopate. Our focus is on priestly formation, theological study, and the importance of continuing sound theological learning among the clergy.
We offer grants to enable
Potential ordinands to serve as pastoral assistants on schemes that include a course of directed study;
Ordinands
to build up libraries of lasting value that will support their preaching and teaching ministries, and/or
to pursue academic study as part of their preparation for ordination;
Clergy
to undertake postgraduate research in theology and related subjects;
to purchase books or library subscriptions that will facilitate continuing theological study;
to engage in sabbatical projects involving serious academic research and writing.
The Fund was founded in the Will of Mrs Friederica Frances Swinburne (1842-1916), a worshipper at the leading London Anglo-Catholic church, All Saints, Margaret Street. It is thought to have been named after Fr W. H. Cleaver (1834-1909).
The original trustees named in Mrs Swinburne’s Will included many of the leaders of the contemporary Anglo-Catholic movement, and the Fund’s early history shows that the intention was to support Anglo-Catholic ordinands. The present Trustees administer the Fund accordingly. All applicants are therefore asked to submit a brief ecclesiological statement expressing their understanding of the place of the Church of England (or the Anglican church to which they belong) within the Universal Church, and also to show evidence that they belong to the tradition that the Fund exists to support.
