Being an issue that amuses, confuses and, more often as a Missioner, confounds. I started a bit of an informal league table with regard to the number of 'exciting' and 'wonderfully attractive' churches on offer and the top of the table position is occupied by an advert' offering eleven congregations. This is (dare I say 'obviously'?) a rural setting and having been told of it by a friend who also vacancy watches for the. Interesting, strange and extremely odd, I have to say that it was a very pretty setting indeed.
The problem is that thinking of the workload of some of my rural colleagues acros the country I find them doing about the same as me but spread across a number of churches. Each and every one tells me how stretched they are and how they depend daily upon the goodwill of parishioners and the help of retired clergy and willing laity to supplement any other clergy provision in their patch (if other clergy provision there be!).
Many of my colleagues are struggling with conflict because they have churches that are not sustainable and yet are surrounded by communities who are unwilling to see them close, but are unwilling to be part of them outside of the Christmas Carol service and their children's weddings and/or baptisms. Yet the rural setting, if done 'right', is a place of close communion and growth but are hampered by the inability (unwillingness) of those who plan and lead our diocesan structures to staff such opportunities.
We are surrounded by words of growth and encouragement and yet, generally, reside within a reality that is managing decline.
The other challenge that seems to be more and more prevalent is the inability to understand what a full working week looks like for the clergy. Now, being someone who is often told to 'do less' and to remember that my working week is Sunday plus five days (I didn't tell that to the dying person I sat beside on my last supposed day off and the days either side of it: 'Can you get on with it, tomorrow's my day off!' doesn't seem to give the right impression or match my own attitudes and beliefs!). But if a full-time post is Sundy plus five working days; each working day being split into three where one of them is my time. The six 0.17 days (I've generously rounded up) result in a whole. The problem is that I have of late seen 0.5 posts which speak of a Sunday and three days, which is four times 0.17, which is 0.68 of a full-time post.
I asked one of the people who have advertised a post with the above timings and how they had calculated it as a 0.5 post. Their response was that three days amounted to 0.5 of a clergy working week (yep: 3 x 0.17 = 0.51). 'But what about the 'extra' day that is Sunday?' I asked. 'Well, they'd be expected to do that because they are ordained clergy so we don't include it!'
'O my!' I thought (see I am getting holier!!) rather incredulously. Sunday is not a working day but a day when, as I'd be in a church services somewhere (I am a Christian first and foremost), it is fair game for it to be regarded as something other than work because it is my own personal act of worship, does this mean that I can pop off to another church to enjoy a visiting preacher or to be blessed and communicated? Nah, of course not!
I tried to explain this to the person in the line but they merely got a little exasperated and started blustering about goodwill and being willing to contribute and the need to get more bang for our buck (my term, theirs was much more drawn out and irrational).
I countered that with the fact that they were billing four days as 0.5 of the normal clergy working week and so doubling that gave a full-time working week of eight day which, when a day off was added meant that somehow in the diocese of Goodwill, the working week had somehow extended to become nine days. I also pointed out that zero point anything meant a zero point anything contribution to pension funds and so any point something job was a goodwill gift from the minister that just kept on not giving in the shape of a pension when retirement came.
The combined result of less than a whole cleric and more than enough churches to shepherd is, for me, a missional nightmare. I struggle with those who talk of opportunities for the laity when what they mean is 'not paid for' help! We should always have been collegial and engaging in all-member ministry, the problem is that some are embracing this as a financially necessary move whilst others are struggling to take up the roles being passed over to them (even though, ironically, many of them have for years they've said they could do better than the Vicar)!
Is it any wonder that I am confused - look at the reality and tell me its not the product of a warped imagination!
We are surrounded by words of growth and encouragement and yet, generally, reside within a reality that is managing decline.
The other challenge that seems to be more and more prevalent is the inability to understand what a full working week looks like for the clergy. Now, being someone who is often told to 'do less' and to remember that my working week is Sunday plus five days (I didn't tell that to the dying person I sat beside on my last supposed day off and the days either side of it: 'Can you get on with it, tomorrow's my day off!' doesn't seem to give the right impression or match my own attitudes and beliefs!). But if a full-time post is Sundy plus five working days; each working day being split into three where one of them is my time. The six 0.17 days (I've generously rounded up) result in a whole. The problem is that I have of late seen 0.5 posts which speak of a Sunday and three days, which is four times 0.17, which is 0.68 of a full-time post.
I asked one of the people who have advertised a post with the above timings and how they had calculated it as a 0.5 post. Their response was that three days amounted to 0.5 of a clergy working week (yep: 3 x 0.17 = 0.51). 'But what about the 'extra' day that is Sunday?' I asked. 'Well, they'd be expected to do that because they are ordained clergy so we don't include it!'
'O my!' I thought (see I am getting holier!!) rather incredulously. Sunday is not a working day but a day when, as I'd be in a church services somewhere (I am a Christian first and foremost), it is fair game for it to be regarded as something other than work because it is my own personal act of worship, does this mean that I can pop off to another church to enjoy a visiting preacher or to be blessed and communicated? Nah, of course not!
I tried to explain this to the person in the line but they merely got a little exasperated and started blustering about goodwill and being willing to contribute and the need to get more bang for our buck (my term, theirs was much more drawn out and irrational).
I countered that with the fact that they were billing four days as 0.5 of the normal clergy working week and so doubling that gave a full-time working week of eight day which, when a day off was added meant that somehow in the diocese of Goodwill, the working week had somehow extended to become nine days. I also pointed out that zero point anything meant a zero point anything contribution to pension funds and so any point something job was a goodwill gift from the minister that just kept on not giving in the shape of a pension when retirement came.
The combined result of less than a whole cleric and more than enough churches to shepherd is, for me, a missional nightmare. I struggle with those who talk of opportunities for the laity when what they mean is 'not paid for' help! We should always have been collegial and engaging in all-member ministry, the problem is that some are embracing this as a financially necessary move whilst others are struggling to take up the roles being passed over to them (even though, ironically, many of them have for years they've said they could do better than the Vicar)!
Is it any wonder that I am confused - look at the reality and tell me its not the product of a warped imagination!
I would like to cut and paste this and send to ****** and ***** to make a very strong point, but then I would be painting myself as a troublemaker. However you have nailed it with one minor exception. The thinking that produces this .5 percent role is the same thinking that doubles that and expects the rest of us in rural ministry to stay sane in our 'full-time' posts. I would be more impressed if ***** and ***** and ***** were to say to me, "Look we know we're asking the impossible, so instead of pretending that you have additional help, or that the your parishioners are fit and able enough to do all the extra assumed jobs even though that would make us all feel better (because we too are operating under difficult constraints) we will simply say a heartfelt 'thank you' for what you are able to do, and seek to support you in Christ. We will now remove the following non-essential tasks... ***** .. because they do not contribute to the Kingdom"
ReplyDeleteI still grow niggled when I remember being asked to ask the question, 'What should a stipend pay for?' The only possible answer is 'everything!
ReplyDeleteI feel for my rural colleagues - they seem to go into the game a goal down before the first kick is made :-(