The document also gives aid to the difficult process of determining what constitutes competency. The primary question underlying the use of this document is not ‘What does a person know?’ but ‘What competencies does the person need to gain in order to be able to fulfil this ministry/vocation?’
I’ve had professional reasons in recent years to make a bit of informal study of how various churches, dioceses and parishes have handled the difficult task of informing members about instances of clerical sexual abuse. There don’t seem to be any agreed upon best practices, and it seems that there should be.
“The fact that fifty years on the Church is seen as Enemy Number One of gay people is a disaster, both for our own morale and for our mission to the country.”
“Or maybe you’ve got some priests who are unhappy because they’ve fallen in love and they can’t get married. We want you to know that our priests have been getting happily married for hundreds of years now, and everyone is happier as a result.”
Christianity and punk rock aren’t typically found in the same sentence – let alone the same mosh pit. But for the Rev. Bertie Pearson, an Episcopal priest and former punk-rock drummer, they’re totally compatible. “They’re both about a hopeful vision for the world,” he says. “A rejection of materialism and inequality and injustice. They’ve shaped my whole moral value system.”
We’d like to hear from clergy who participated in the Ashes to Go initiative. How did you encounter God today?
What happens when clergy lose their faith? It happens more often than most people might think. Most clergy have to struggle with un-belief at one point or another during seminary. Not all resolve the question before they are ordained. Often time the situation returns again and again; at least according to other clergy that I speak with informally.
“…[I]mportant dynamics are at work in a pastor’s tenure at one church. In my view, a particular pattern marks the pastor’s first 10 years in one parish.”
“CEOs and other leaders go to great lengths to maintain a façade of unflappable confidence — concealing any insecurities or feelings of anxiety.”
… one of the reasons for the decline and continued decline of our Episcopal Church is a broken clergy deployment system. I think our church needs to examine this system. I want to pose this because I don’t hear anything about it in the discussions around the decline in membership of the Episcopal Church..