Rural Ministry in the Episcopal Church

Discussion in 'The Commons' started by HiddenApostle25, Jan 24, 2021.

  1. HiddenApostle25

    HiddenApostle25 New Member

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    I am still a member of PECUSA, with hopes of organizing an ACNA mission locally.

    Looking back on my experience in TEC, I can't help but see mismanagement and neglect among my diocese.

    Many of the parish websites seemed to indicate that they have no full time clergy, especially rural areas.

    My former church had no priest for 8 years and depended on occasional supply visits from a retiree. During an Episcopal visit, the bishop said he hoped an ordained priest would take a job at the local Baptist college and serve as a bivocational priest. The probability seemed so remote to me, it wasn't even worth considering.

    I was really frustrated to see a small church staffed by a husband/wife team (both priests) when others were left to struggle with no leadership or clergy.

    Is this consistent among other other areas? It would seem to me that if you want bivocational priests for small rural churches, your diocese should at least be open to training them.
     
  2. Shane R

    Shane R Well-Known Member

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    It is not only a TEC problem, all of the mainline churches are struggling with keeping rural parishes open. This is leading to a lot of lay led services with little training. This also severely hampers the teaching program at a church because on the Sundays when they do get their periodic clergy visit the guy stays in the safest possible zone since he doesn't know the people that well and can't really kick off any kind of extended program.
     
  3. Ananias

    Ananias Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Rural churches have had this problem since the very beginning (and I mean, all the way back to the beginning during the time of the apostles). It's a tough problem to solve in a hierarchically-organized church. Congregational churches have a certain flexibility here that Anglican and RC churches don't have. Sometimes, you just need a Bishop or priest to physically be there and nothing else will do.

    Modern technology helps a bit; priests need to learn to use tools like Zoom to allow distant clergy to conduct services, give classes, and so on. But for things that require clergy to be physically present (Communion, for example) rural congregations have to be patient and wait for the "circuit parson" to ride through town.

    The Anglican church could do more to train and promote lay leaders, however, and not just in remote rural areas.
     
  4. Botolph

    Botolph Well-Known Member

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    I have been wondering if full-time stipendiary ministry is the road forward. The Parish where I worship at the moment has for more than 10 years had part time stipendiary ministry. 2020 has been a difficult year for the Church and there are a lot of Parishes whose finances have taken a major hit due to the pandemic. Our Parish came out positive for 2020.

    There has been a tendency to look down on art time priests as if they are second best. I can only speak from my experience, and that has been that 12 months in a parish with a 2 day a week priest has seen better ministry, more quality preaching, and more engaged pastoral care, than I saw in the previous seven years in a parish with a full time stipendiary priest.

    Now the priest's role is not to do all the ministry in the parish. Ideally the Parish Priest should not be the sole director and producer, but rather the prompter, encouraging the Church the be Church. The Parish Priest should take a role in leadership, and paving the way, and setting an example, for the Parish Priest is both shepherd and sheep.
     
  5. HiddenApostle25

    HiddenApostle25 New Member

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    The iona collaborative is a way TEC is dealing with the problem. Other dioceses have their own schools of ministry as well for training bivocational clergy. None of the dioceses in my area take part in it though.

    I think ACNA could benefit from similar programs, being that they are planting churches and can't afford full time priests at many of them.

    Another solution would be training more deacons to minister to rural parishes. They could offer Deacon's mass when the priest isn't available.
     
  6. Botolph

    Botolph Well-Known Member

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    Priestly formation requires to my mind a number of things.
    • Academic Formation (not everyone needs to be a genius, however we need clergy abreast of basic theology and Church History
    • Spiritual Formation which includes the rhythm or the office, the aspiration and responsibility of preaching, and theory of pastoral care
    • Priestly Formation matures in the context of an apprenticeship (perhaps indeed two) where they are shaped in the pattern of parish ministry.
    As a result of the high costs involved we have been taking short cuts in this process, and sometimes we pay the price of not paying the price.
     
  7. Shane R

    Shane R Well-Known Member

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    Our Ecuadoran province is woefully short of clergy at the present time. It is impacting their ability to expand geographically. They have a number of postulants in seminary that should complete the course of study in 1-2 years but for now, most of the active priests serve Holy Communion at 2-3 parishes each Sunday. The Bishop does a Matins and 3 communion services, each of those services being at a different location. A couple of the deacons do a distribution from the reserved sacrament on a rotating basis at other parishes. In short, they wear themselves out every Sunday. It was impressive to see the level of effort but one has to wonder how long it is sustainable.