April 28 - The Seminarian

Legislative committees were winding down on Saturday, many having finished handling the petitions assigned to them. I was late getting to Tampa and had two appointments, one at lunch with the seminarian and the other at suppertime with a one of the translators who wanted to discuss pension rights with me.

The seminarian was surprised I was not a lawyer. She expected that because of the kinds of petitions I had written for this year’s General Conference. She asked about how I got started in advocacy, the association of which I’m a part, and how I came to write so many petitions. My answers satisfied her and what she said she needed for her report to the class.

I asked how it was she was interested in my petitions. I learned that someone close to her had been poorly treated and she had been old enough to understand how the Church had operated and how that differed from her reading of the Discipline. She hoped she would be able to help somehow to improve how personnel were handled in the Church.

Then she addressed another concern she and the rest of the students were watching closely, the possible end to guaranteed appointments.

“That was written in 1956 to protect women clergy,” she said.

I did not remember that from seminary which was just a couple years later. I thought it related to the age old Methodist practice of “A church for every pastor and a pastor for every church.” I found out later that she was right.

“Frankly, as one of my classmates put it, we’re really scared. The male candidates who are Caucasian will have fewer problems. It’s we women and ethnics that are most likely to be on the list to be left without appointment,” she said.

I offered that Cabinets are under obligation to the Discipline to include women and ethnics on an equal basis and have been assured by superintendents I know that such prejudice would not be the case.

She said her class has been meeting with superintendents and has become aware that Cabinets have lists on which they prioritize the pastors in the order of their progression for appointments. The top ones are in the “A” section. Women and ethnics are in the “Z” section.

“But you still want to serve in our denomination?” I asked.

“I was born and raised a United Methodist. I cannot imagine serving in another faith, though many of my classmates are actually aiming to do that,” she said.

She packed up her notes and papers, offered a sad smile, and headed out to write up her assignment. She stopped, turned, and thanked me for the interview and conversation.

I told her I hoped she and her classmates were having a good experience and I wished her well.

Now I was scared for that whole generation of future clergy.

Update: Not only did the removal of the guaranteed appointment occur but the General Conference did not ease the requirements to become clergy. In 2008, young pastors and seminarians came to General Conference wearing artfully designed caps that looked like spotted owls. Their caps brought to the session’s attention problems young seminarians faced. Maybe the spotted owl device should have been tried again. Even the African caucus could not bring about the desired change in 2012.

Pastors, Be Prepared

When I joined the Wisconsin Annual Conference in 1962, there was quite an amazing feeling of closeness among the pastors. I learned one of the things which led to that was the support they gave each other back during the Depression, almost a quarter of a century before. Although it later seeped away as those older pastors retired, that "institutional memory" of the better off pastors contributing to a fund so that the pastors of very poor churches got financial help to survive the economic problems of that time was a very powetrful community builder in its day.

There are two signs of some serious financial problems ahead.

One is the huge national debt resulting from our war in Iraq, a debt that will be far more of a problem than the current mortgage problem.

The other is the diminishing size of local church budgets in most places at the same time that salaries of church officials and pastors have grown to where they can no longer be afforded in many places.

When I came into the ministry, I expected it to be a lifetime employment right on into retirement. But withn a few years, it became obvious that pastors had better have skills that could help them get jobs if the church could no longer afford them. That reflected the real situation of everyone else: have more than one marketable skill and expect to change jobs several times during your career.

Seminary students had better be aware of this dynamic. Many are coming over from other employment as mid-career changees. They would be wise to keep their certifications for employment in their former fields.

Other pastors need to be thinking about what kind of work they could do to support themselves and their families as the churches diminish in their financial capacities.

BUT ALL OF US BETTER BE READY TO HELP ONE ANOTHER JUST AS DID THE GENERATION THAT SUFFERED THROUGH THE DEPRESSION . . . TOGETHER.