Clergy of all denominations frequently joke that our parishioners assume we work only one day a week. But we are only joking. We don’t really believe you think
we are such slackers.
On the other hand, the nature of work has changed so radically over the past half century, and it is not unreasonable that folks should wonder what we do with our time. And, indeed, the rapid pace of technological advance has changed life in the parsonage just as radically as it has changed the secular workplace.
It is, I think, fair to say that the most profound changes in the nature of parochial work have been wrought by the automobile, the cellular telephone, and the computer.
The computer has radically altered the way we communicate—by no means always for the better. It is much easier to publish parish newsletters, but e–mail enables people to send ill–considered and uncharitable messages even more swiftly than by the fax machine.
The cell phone means, theoretically at least, that we are never out of touch with our parishes. It means that usually we can be reached quite easily in an emergency, but it also means we can be reached equally easily by colleagues who just want to gossip. As a consequence, time to think is a shrinking commodity.
But, of all things, the car has produced the most widereaching change in the parson’s life. Until quite recently, my cars were racking up an average of more than 25,000 miles a year. That’s a powerful lot of driving, considering that virtually all of these miles are “church miles.”
Driving an extraordinarily high annual mileage is by no means an unusual experience for today’s parsons. It reflects the radical changes that modern life styles have imposed on our parishes.
Parishes today mirror the styles and personal tastes of their members to a far greater degree than they ever have before, thanks largely to the automobile and urban flight.
When folks lived in cities and could walk to the corner store without getting mugged, they attended their local church and accepted without much complaint what was offered. In this way, families who were frequently on the move experienced the whole gamut of Anglican liturgical expressions: “high and crazy, low and lazy, broad and hazy.”
Nowadays things are vastly different. For all we complain about our road system, a half-an-hour’s travel takes us from one side of the city to the other. And this remarkable mobility, coupled with attitudes molded in the crucible of modern consumerism, has radically changed the face of Episcopal parishes.
Today people are less likely to put up with things that are not to their taste—whether in the realms of politics, food, fashion, or religion. Today people tend to shop for a church to join in much the same way they shop for everything else.
This can pose problems, particularly for traditional churches like St. Stephen’s. Basically, the choice seems to be between maintaining the theological truths expressed in one’s liturgy, or changing one’s message to appeal to contemporary tastes.
The trouble is that contemporary tastes are transient, and subject to the dictates of fashion, while God is eternal and unchanging. One thing that seems clear from the Scriptures is that people don’t change very much. In fact, we are doing exactly the same dumb things today as the ancient Isaelites were doing three thousand years ago.
Pepping up the liturgy might make us more popular, but it risks subtly changing the faith being expressed. The prophets of Baal who led the children of Israel astray were mistakenly convinced it was God they were worshipping.
The fact of the matter seems to be that the way that you worship actually defines who you are worshipping. Whether this is good, bad, or indifferent is not the point. The fact of the matter is that we have no choice but to live with it. However, it’s another headache for the clergy.
Complications also arise from the fact that our flocks no longer live within a few blocks of the church. Today they are scattered all over the metropolitan area and longer travel times have greatly increased the time taken for pastoral work, such as visitation of the sick.
Pastoral work is a joy whether it takes place just around the corner and 40 miles up the road. The extra time required in the pastoral sphere, however, means less time available for other tasks, such as sermon writing and administration—hence our reliance on computers and cell phones. GPH✠
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