Bad bishops bash vacuous vicars
If we are to believe the Sunday Telegraph (which is always a dubious proposition at the best of times) then the Church of England’s bishops are seriously worried that a very large proportion of the clergy are of sub-standard quality. (HT Church Times blog.) The actual figure will almost certainly turn out rather differently from this Telegraph massaging. Buried in the story is this:
A survey of diocesan bishops found that one-third believe that more than half of current clergy - as many as 6,000 - are unable to cope with the demands of the job.
That, of course, says nothing like the headline, even though it’s worrying enough. I do wonder how many clergy believe what percentage of bishops to be unable to cope with the demands of the job, but I dare to venture that more than a third of the clergy would think more than half of the current bishops to be inadequate.
Then again, this report has been produced by the Ministry Division, who generally seem to be a complete bunch of idiots who couldn’t organise the proverbial in a brewery, but have been put in charge of “strategy” for ministry and the selection of candidates. Whether under new management they will recover from the disastrous leadership of Carey’s crony Gordon Kuhrt remains to be seen. This report doesn’t suggest that they will. On the other hand, they should certainly know about being sub-standard.
This has the air of one of those own-goal moments, on a par with John Reid declaring the Home Office not fit for purpose on being appointed to run it, or Gerald Ratner’s famous description of his products as crap.
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Doug, you know me; shoot from the lip first, but here’s a few bullet point thoughts for starters …
Inability to work creatively in teams by clergy.
‘Stuckness’: parishes that will not cooperate in the release of gifts and resources, clergy who hide behind their title to the living.
Parishes unequipped to initiate selection procedures when interviewing candidates that will demonstrate that when Fr Billy-Bob says that he is a superb team worker that he is a total liar.
Failure of parishes to undertake proper due diligence before interviewing. It amazes me that parishes do not as a matter of routine make ‘private’ enquiries about candidates, and do not interrogate senior diocesan officers about candidates’ previous performance.
Candidates for ordination emerging from courses that train them to cosy up to the world in a postmoderny sort of way. The reason for studying postmodernity is to recognise the damn plank, not to go around cultivating it and holding competitions for who’s got the biggest postmodern plank in his eye.
The seeming frequent absence of relationships at a deep spiritual level between clergy and congregation so that there is a genuine shared prayer-life, vision and love.
If the selection of parochial clergy is going to become much more demanding, there needs to be a clear ownership of the relationship evidenced in positive resourcing and support from the parish(es) that receive them.
A poverty of expectation of what our glorious and incomparable God can do.
… and …
bulk purchases of hair shirts for the nice people in HQ and copies all round of ‘How to kick myself in the back-side’. Guys, and the few gals, this is happening on your watch …
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
[...] on the heels of yesterday’s observation that rather a lot of bishops think their clergy aren’t up to snuff comes a different story. This [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Not much changes over the centuries. Back in the 16th century, an Anglicn bishop did a survey of his clergy. This was about 12 years after the English Bible was made official. About 25-33% of the clergy were ignorant of basic and famous sayngs in the Bible, not knowing where they came from.