In Church of England usuage, a Stipendiary Minister is a person in Holy Orders who is paid a stipend, an annual support payment, so that they may be free of the pressure to earn a living in order to work as a full-time minister.
Almost all English parishes have a Stipendiary Minister responsible for them although for reasons of size and location they are likely to have been grouped with others into a multi-parish benefice. The SM will have a leadership role in a staff team that might include other SMs of junior status (such as Stipendiary Assistant Curates) and also Non Stipendiary Ministers who may include clergy, readers and other pastoral assistants.
Technically, clergy employed as chaplains in the armed forces and public institutions such as hospitals are not stipendiary as they are salaried employees of the public authority in question.
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