A new report by the
Church’s Ministry Division has been leaked, questioning the quality of many
serving parish clergy. Quality and Quantity Issues in Ministry revealed
that a third of bishops feel that half of their stipendiary (full-time, paid) priests
are not up to the challenges of ministry, usually not displaying sufficient
leadership skills in delegation and collaborative leadership. Is it possible, the report asks, that numbers
of stipendiary clergy may be being maintained by lowering, perhaps
unconsciously, the quality threshold in selection procedures? If that is the case (and I do sometimes share
just the tiniest glimmer of suspicion that this may sometimes be so), then
serious questions need to be asked of the selection process. However, like many serving clergy I’d want to
ask the Bishops in return:
- Who ordained these apparently sub-standard
clergy in the first place?
- With morale among serving clergy perhaps at
an all-time low, is this really the correct way to build morale and working
relationships?
- We are the only
profession I am aware of with no compulsory programme of professional
development beyond the first three years of ministry. With the nature of ministry changing so fast,
just what result do we expect from a pattern of ministry in which a vicar can
remain in a parish for years without any further training or development in
ministerial skills, or opportunity to nurture that precious and fragile sense
of vocation?
There are those who work
hard to try to provide these things, but the picture remains patchy.
With uncanny and tragic
irony, the report came out at the same time as the inquest verdict on Revd.
Clive Dixon, assistant curate of All Saints Church,