State of the Clergy Report – Part I

Thanks to the work of the Church Pension Fund, we have a clearer picture of the impact of retiring more priests than we are ordaining. As we shall see in this two-part look at the report and its implications, there are some ways we have been immune to this in Georgia and some ways in which it makes the work of calling priests here more difficult. The full report is online here: State of the Clergy Report 2012

Changes in Ordination Patterns
Among the key findings of the report, is that ordinations overall have fallen by twenty-six percent in the past six years. At this point, priest retirements in The Episcopal Church are outpacing ordinations by forty-three percent. Beyond this we see that the age distribution of clergy has changed drastically over time, with fewer clergy being ordained at younger ages and more clergy with older ages at ordination. Another key change is the significant drop in positions for existing clergy, whether assistant rector, curate or some other position.

The Good News in Georgia
 Having ordained seventeen priests and deacons in the three years covered by the report, Georgia is in the top ten ordaining dioceses and among the smaller dioceses in that group. Not only that, but while the average age of priests in The Episcopal Church has been climbing, we’ve watched that number drop here in our Diocese. The reason is simple-Diocese of Georgia Youth Programs. For decades, our youth programs have raised up leaders. Among the seventeen noted in the report, a handful include priests in their twenties whose first leadership role in the church came at Honey Creek. Added to that are the clergy who came through campus ministry at the University of Georgia and Georgia Southern and you see that vocations in the church are nourished through dynamic programs which give youth an opportunity to be leaders. While we have attracted priests, including young priests, from other dioceses, most of our growth has come throw raising up priests from our own congregations and our own diocesan programs. And, of course, our youth programs have also led to many of our youth living into their Christian faith at teachers, policemen, attorneys and more.

Furthermore, we have budgeted to support congregations in hiring an assistant priest and have seen this create at least two positive changes: 1) Newly graduated seminarians start out in healthy churches with good mentorship, and 2) Congregations that need a second priest, but couldn’t quite yet afford to make the hire gain an additional priest on the staff. This has helped sustain numeric growth in our fastest growing churches while providing an important training ground for newly ordained priests.
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Additionally, as we saw recently when King of Peace, Kingsland, called the Rev. Al Crumpton as Rector, they gained a priest with good experience and support provided by his time as an assistant at St. Mark’s, Brunswick. While not all clergy will move on to another post like this, we still see how providing positions for assisting priests creates a pool of proven priests for consideration in Vicar and Rector searches. We have done this while also raising up some older clergy, especially bi-vocational priests and so have been better at going against the tide than many other dioceses, especially those out of the southeast.

Defying Gravity
None of us defies gravity for long and there are ways in which the changes around the church are having a significant impact on clergy searches in the Diocese of Georgia. Next week, I will share that challenge in Part II of this look at the State of the Clergy Report.

The Rev. Frank Logue
Canon to the Ordinary

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