Church in Wales - recruitment process
DeeValleyBantam
Shipmate
in Purgatory
Our vicar has formally resigned w/e/f a date in early September, having been de facto absent for a full year. I have been advised that it would be “very unconventional” for any steps to be taken regarding recruiting a replacement until the incumbency has actually terminated. Consequently I am advised we cannot update our parish profile, nor can the upcoming vacancy be listed in the job vacancies section of the diocesan website.
Either what I have been told is nonsense or, more likely I think, a custom has evolved which makes it inevitable that we will have a longer interregnum than necessary.
Have any shipmates had a similar experience?
Comments
They, too, were unable to do anything much, other than to keep calm and carry on, but you could, I suppose, at least do some preparatory work in the background, as it were, ready for when your vicar formally goes.
Anyway, having initiated this thread and gone back to my inbox, lo! An almost contemporaneous email from our Mission Area Leader - an oddity within the Church in Wales I think - setting out a timetable for advertisements, shortlisting and interviews. Divine intervention or coincidence? Probably the latter, but all’s well etc. etc…
I’m glad all is well!
Baptist churches, being more independent, can start the process sooner. For instance, I shall be retiring at Easter and have already told my deacons that they should start actively preparing for the future. I have seen cases where profiles have appeared on the national "Settlement List" before a minister has actually retired, although this is unusual.
Of course it can be good for a church to have a "breathing space" between ministers, to assess where it's going and the sort of minister they need to call. However these gaps can be far too long and detrimental to the congregation's health.
At present there is a shortage of Baptist ministers. I don't know about the CinW but I do know that our local Ministry Area acted pretty quickly after its leader moved on; it has now advertised twice for a successor but has had no applicants despite being in an area which, one would have thought, would be attractive.
The analogy which springs to my mind is this. I support a League 1 football team. Suppose we have a superb goalie who is attracting the interest of several Premier League clubs. We knew for months he would be off to pastures new at the end of the season. His contract is terminated with effect from the end of July. The new season now starts tomorrow. Suddenly we think “we need a replacement first team goalie. Maybe we should have thought about this earlier?” (Yes I accept the analogy is probably flawed, but that’s essentially the way I see it).
Anyway, as it happens things are now moving regarding Our Place for which I am very thankful, and relieved.
One was in a Baptist church; the Minister had had a breakdown and was incapable of work. He was always optimistic that "things would get better" although it was obvious to all that this wasn't going to happen. I'm sure that there were many long and fraught discussions among the Deacons. They knew that there would come a point when the church would simply have to "bite the bullet" and seek to appoint a new minister. However they were aware that asking him to retire could have a devastating effect on him, especially as he was living in a Manse and would have to move. This was back in the 70s so employment law was probably different to today's, in any case Baptist ministers are technically "office holders" rather than "employees" of their church. Eventually the decision was taken but it wasn't easy; the Minister actually did improve somewhat after he moved (and took up employment in a Christian bookshop) but he died in his late 50s.
The other situation was in the Church of England. The Vicar was not only mentally ill but held the living (i.e. he wasn't a priest-in-charge) and had "friends in high places". He refused all suggestions of retirement, partly as he wanted to stay in his very nice vicarage! The Diocese was at its wits' end, partly because it was between bishops, the diocesan having moved on and the suffragan having unexpectedly died. There was also no local archdeacon at the time, the neighbouring one having to carry out the job for two areas. Eventually a compromise was reached: the vicar did retire but stayed living in his house, a new priest-in-charge (still there after many successful years) was appointed and lived in a house purchased for the purpose.
I hope that neither of these are like your situation!
@DeeValleyBantam what a difficult situation to be stuck in. Has the diocese been helping in general? The idea that an incumbent can just not show up for a year seems astonishing. I feel like there ought to be some kind of legal avenue to go down in such a situation.
There could be health issues (physical and/or mental) details of which will be confidential. This happened at a church I know of, where a newly-appointed vicar became unwell, and was only able to perform 'light duties'. The latter amounted to taking a mid-week Eucharist, but not the main Sunday Eucharist.
(He immediately and forcefully dispensed with the two retired priests living in the parish who had held the fort for over three and a half years, but that’s another story.)
All the preparatory work was already taking place, developing a parish vision etc, but due process caused unnecessary delays.
Not so true in Baptist churches which are mostly self-funding; indeed giving may well go down during a vacancy as there is no minister to support (and there could even be extra income too if the manse is let out short-term).
I assumed that @DeeValleyBantam did not want to disclose potentially identifying details - although I must admit to being intrigued. I assumed that perhaps it is a multi-church situation and that the incumbent hasn't attended their church but may be fulfilling duties elsewhere in the area. I'm not sure how it works in terms of terminology like "incumbent" when spread across multiple churches/parishes.
From the CinW website: "A Mission or Ministry Area is a grouping or team of Churches, Parishes or Benefices within a geographic area who work together to share operational and administrative functions. Ministry / Mission Areas may be further split into benefices or parishes. Clerics will be assigned to a Ministry Area although they may be assigned to a specific area of responsibility. Each Ministry / Mission Area will have a Leader."
We were discussing this in housegroup a few weeks ago - our (excellent) vicar has recently moved on but even in this "best possible" situation with few complicating factors the vacancy will be at least six months and more likely a year. It seems silly for this to be the norm! A housegroup member contrasted this with his own Salvation Army background where the officer was given two weeks' notice of a move, and after one week might be told where they were going! (Which has its own problems of course...)
In these parts, the diocese expects us to have a year or so's interregnum: the idea is to allow the congregation to work through its feelings about losing the previous priest (which might be sadness over the loss of a much loved shepherd, or might be a sense of gladness that that destructive person has gone) without having those feelings polluting the start of a new incumbency.
We have a couple of priests in the diocese who do transitional work as full-time ministry: they spend a year with a parish that has lost its priest, then move to another one in similar circumstances. It's easier to do transition work with the same face every week than with a haphazard collection of supply priests.
Same for us, at least in our presbytery. There are a number of ministers who only do interim work, and quite a few retired ministers who also do interim work.
Our last vacancy last exactly two years. We had a “bridge interim” for the first few months of the vacancy, then an interim who stayed until about two months before the new minister was to arrive. Having some time between her leaving and the new minister arriving was also intentional for transitioning.
Because of the way the last pastorate had ended, we needed every bit of those two years to be ready to start with a new minister; because of the excellent work of our interim, we were in much better shape for the new minister than we would have been otherwise.
Although I can understand all that' been said above, long vacancies without interim ministers or much archdiaconal input can be extremely wearing and problematic for churches, especially those which don't have many lay people (such as Readers) to help out.
I am still of the opinion that the reason for some lengthy vacancies is to help diocesan finances.
In the Church in Wales any cleric wishing to resign must give three months notice to the bishop. So if (say) the priest-in-charge gives notice on 1 June with the resignation to take effect from 1 September, everyone knows a new appointment is needed. But if, as I have been told, nothing can happen in that three month period, not even publishing an upcoming vacancy, that’s an extra three months for us with no parish priest.
I tend to agree with @Baptist Trainfan that saving money may well have something to do with all this. Or more likely just dyed-in-the-wool administrative lethargy. You can’t imagine that if it’s known the CEO of a company is about to retire, the board wouldn’t bother to make preparations for a replacement until the retirement has taken effect. I can’t fundamentally see why the church should act differently (not that by any means am I suggesting that procedures in the world of commerce or industry should generally be adopted).
Speaking personally, I'd have no problem with church leaders discussing (in my absence) what kind of minister they should seek after I retire, indeed I'm encouraging them to do this.
I’m no ecclesiastical administrator, but I am familiar with succession planning in the secular world, even where there is a shortage of suitable candidates. It’s a matter of being in a better condition to cope.
I'm surprised that the church is expected to provide "white goods". I note that that includes a dishwasher - we've never had nor wanted one!
I also note that redecoration should be delayed until a call is given and accepted - that's very sensible as the incoming minister can choose their scheme. The problem is that professional decorators, if required, are often booked up months in advance!