Laurie Brock who blogs at Dirty Sexy Ministry discusses dating and the single priest.
Over the past weeks, I’ve gotten several emails from single female clergy wondering about the life of dating and living single as a priest. Some were referred by friends, some are friends newly-single, and others found me through the blog. The only expertise I have in this area is that I am single and dating and a priest who is a woman. Given the number of books I’ve read on clergy who write about how to be the parish church in the modern age who have never actually pastored a church, I figure I’m one-up on the standard of whatever the publishing world deems an expert. I do live it.
…
1. Being single or being married as an ordained person isn’t easier or harder. Both bring gifts and challenges. As a single priest, no, I don’t have to come home to make dinner for the family or help with the kids’ homework. On the other hand, since Evie the Wonderdog hasn’t learned how to grocery shop, there’s no one to pick up milk on the way home after I’ve had the longest day ever. So no, the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence. There are flowers and weeds in both gardens.
…
3. Clergy, don’t date parishioners. Again, that priest-parishioner relationship is holy and does not need to be mucked up by all that is messy and crazy about dating. If you’re a member of a church and you are crushing on your priest, either get over your crush or go to another church, attend there for a while, then ask her/him for coffee.
Read all nine “rules” here.