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The happiest in the world?

14 September 2011 By 2 Comments

There is an interesting piece on Forbes Magazine’s website about a piece of research which has come up with the finding that, in the US at least, clergy appear to be those who have the greatest job satisfaction for amongst many other groups, they reported themselves to be the happiest of all.

I think it is interesting to say the least though I think it raises more questions than answers. Was I, as I sat a week ago amongst the clergy of the diocese at the annual clergy conference, amongst the happiest of them all? I’m not so sure about that though there was much hilarity after hours. We didn’t even get onto telling one another funeral stories either, or not whilst I was awake anyway.

It raises the question of whether I am happy. And of whether happiness and satisfaction are the same thing. Although I have a suspicion when I’m with other clergy that they may not be the happiest bunch in the whole wide world, I think that they are generally incredibly committed to living out in some way or another the promises that they have made in life. Sometimes the patterns of the institution don’t help. Sometimes they do.

Whilst we are on this topic, do go and look at a pic of the longest serving Church of Scotland minister, who has just died at the age of 105. There’s happiness in that old face, of that I’m certain.

I think that it is a curious fact that clergy come out with a high happiness quotient as I also think very many of them would come out high in a “frustrated with the institution that I work with” measurement.

Somehow though the great moments generally keep one bouncing along in the face of the wider frustrations that are very real for anyone working in the church.

When I think back to the times I’ve been most happy in the last few weeks they are generally more to do with people than institutions.

  • Baptising a couple of babies, each from international families whilst the congregation, itself gathered from the four corners of the world, surrounded them with prayers, compassion and loving-kindness.
  • Anointing someone at the end of life, for whom little else could be done. Knowing with certainty that death was coming. Knowing with certainty that human life matters as much as every hard laboured breath. Knowing that sometimes gentleness and kindness are the only tools of the gospel that matter.
  • Sharing in the wedding of a couple obviously in love. Absolutely confident that I’m in the joy business.

All moments from the last couple of weeks. None of them, alas, at the clergy conference and interestingly, falling into the birth, death, marriage pattern of life.

Do you experience clergy to be happy? Or satisfied? Or miserable?
If you are ordained, which bits supply the joy that carries you through?

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Clergy Morale

14 June 2011 By 15 Comments

Anne has posted about the all too palpable sense of low morale amongst the clergy which she notices at General Synod last week. She reports that she is working on a CMD handbook.

I think that it might be worth trying to think about the things which contribute to lower morale. One thing which came out very clearly at synod was a weariness of dealing with building problems that people didn’t ever feel called to sort out and have never really be trained to deal with either.

Here are a few questions that might be worth asking:

  1. Is the (disputed) assertion that stipendiary clergy are office holders rather than proper employees contributing to decline and low morale? Might offering people employment rights make them feel more secure and more valued?
  2. Are the morale issues amongst non-stipendiary clergy the same issues as amongst the stipendiary clergy? (I suspect that they are not).
  3. Does it make any difference to clergy morale when stipend is raised by less than the rate of inflation and particularly when no lay person complains about that?
  4. Why don’t we think it is worth establishing an HR department and learn best practice from other organisations? My doctor recently observed to me that if the churches did this it would probably save thousands of pounds a year and almost certainly save some people from dropping out and leaving their posts prematurely. It seemed to be his view that we were particularly poor at treating one another well at work.
  5. Where does the balance lie in our Canon Law and decision making processes between consensual decision making and visionary leadership? Is there a balanced tension between these two modes of decision making?
  6. Would clergy feel better if more lived in their own homes and had a greater number of choices to make around where they might live in retirement? (Here I speak from personal experience in that I do live in my own home and that makes me feel much more confident about remaining in church work until I retire than I felt when lived in a Rectory).
  7. Given that significant numbers of our clergy are either male, gay, female, straight or some combination of these things, might clergy morale be boosted by refraining from giving any honoured place or priviledge to anyone in the church who works to limit or restrict the ministry of others on grounds that would be seen as discriminatory (and illegal) in any other organisation?
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On the election tomorrow

4 May 2011 By 6 Comments

We’ve a Scottish parliamentary election tomorrow. My good wishes to all candidates – I know what it feels like to be a parliamentary candidate. You enter into this strange other worldliness where nothing else matters.  The focus narrows and all you know about is the task in hand and the team that are hopefully working their socks off around you. It is intense, it’s physical, you meet more people than you can remember and you have to speak coherently in public at odd times of day. Its all a bit like putting on Holy Week.

I was a Liberal Democrat candidate in 2005 in a Westminster election and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I learned a lot and was surrounded by great people who, bemused as I think they were by my day job, taught me more about mission and outreach than anyone ever did during my priestly formation.

I don’t campaign any more – when I came to Glasgow I realised that this job was a choice which ruled that out, at least for a time. I needed to concentrate on the task at hand and that was a good choice though I know that it did disappoint some folk and I can’t say it wasn’t made without sometimes wondering what might have been had I taken another path. It was widely known when I came here in the congregation what I’d been up to, so I’ve never felt as coy about talking about my own politics as some clergy do.

Not surprisingly, I feel for Liberal Democrat candidates this time around. People will have been working intensely hard, campaigning for years for a seat which a year ago might have seemed almost with their grasp, only for everything to fall apart as national disappointments about the current national Conservative – Lib Dem coalition have reached fever pitch. People feel betrayed by the Liberal Democrats over the tuition fees debacle and tomorrow is very likely to be payback time.

The last year has shown that the Liberal Democrats were barely ready for government. We might have guessed that by the run of silly gay sex scandals of a while ago in the Westminster parliamentary party and the lack of any really well developed economic policy. The disappointment is terrible, particularly for those who were looking for (and were promised) something different and have found politics to be business as usual but with an added dose of ideological right-wing cuts being rolled out in the name of conquering the all too real economic challenge.

“So,” people say to me, “how will you vote now?”

Well, I’m as disappointed as anyone else in the year that is past. So, I’ve made it my business to read the manifestos of the parties and made my decision based on them.  (If you want a quick shortcut, the Scottish Vote Compass will give you a quick quiz and then tell you which party you are nearest to).

So, who am I supporting now?

Having looked at everything that is on offer, I’ll be supporting the Liberal Democrats. It’s not a vote in support of the Coalition – I’m no more supportive of that than I was on day one. Its because I’m still a liberal at heart and policywise, that’s the party that I’m closest to. I didn’t become a Lib Dem because of Nick Clegg nor any personality. I didn’t become a Lib Dem because of success – indeed the idea of Lib Dems in government when I joined was, well, pretty unthinkable. I became a Liberal Democrat because of policy. Indeed, when I did apply to be a candidate, it was policy which carried me though – that and a humdinger of a mock speech, which I’ve still got knocking around somewhere.

So its clear where my vote goes – it goes with what I believe in not with the failures of individuals. And there are going to need to be people around to carry the liberal vision when this current Orange-Book liberalism which is in the ascendency at the moment, collapses in the face of its own contradictions.

Well, it’s clear where it goes on the Regional List ballot paper tomorrow.

The constituency vote is another game altogether.

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The Jury is Out

2 December 2008 By 19 Comments

Now, the question is this: if you were accused in court of doing some nefarious deed, would you want to see me on the jury bench?

Well, that is not quite the question. The question is really whether or not you think that clergy should have an automatic right to be exempt from jury service if they wish it. Currently the law in Scotland is that clergy can be called for jury service but they have the right (as do a small number of people in other roles) to opt out if they choose.

The thing is, the Scottish “government” is currently carrying out a consultation exercise asking precisely this question. The consultation ends on 11 December and I was surprised to hear about it yesterday. It is the kind of thing that I think the General Synod Office might have alerted clergy to.

It is actually quite a tricky question. Undoubtedly, one wants juries to be representative of the general population. The rational behind the exemption clauses is twofold. Firstly people are automatically exempt from jury service if they have certain roles within the criminal justice system. Secondly, some people can opt out because they have roles in society that are deemed to be such that it serves the public good more to have them at work than sitting in court on a jury.

Clergy are complicated. (I know, I know). They can be involved in all kinds of ways both officially and unofficially in the justice system. Some people would think their job very necessary and others in society think them to be parasites.

Would it be acceptable to you to find that a particular priest was unable to take a funeral because they were on jury service?

Most people would accept that clergy need time away on holiday. (Though this is sometimes resented deeply too). It is also pretty hard for a lot of clergy to find cover at the moment too.

I think I am in favour of keeping the current system but I find it a harder judgement than when I first started to think about it.

The questions that the consultation raise are very interesting though and something that all kinds of people connected with the church might think about responding to.

I note in passing that Fr Dougal does not seem to be chosing to opt out this week. He might have a thing or two to say about this topic, though not of course about his actual experience.

I also note that the other roles which have the opt out include: members of the armed forces, MPs, MSPs, doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists and vets.

The consultation document is here. The relevent section is here.

What do you think? As the court hears what you are accused of and you raise your eyes nervously towards the jury, do you want to see me, in a clerical collar perhaps, sitting there?

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