Vacant Parishes
13 June 2023
There are many parishes currently without a vicar in the Diocese of Melbourne. And many of these parishes have been vacant for quite some time – over a year. I hear similar stories from other dioceses around Australia, and in several rural dioceses the lack of clergy has passed the critical point. This was already the case before Covid. However since the emergence from Covid lockdowns the rate of vacancy has increased yet further, and many incumbency committees find themselves staring at an empty list of possible candidates.
Research has shown that the longer the vacancy, the greater the rate of parish decline, yet we seem increasingly to be moving towards more and longer vacancies rather than fewer and shorter ones.
As someone who sits on incumbency committees, I am aware of a number of factors that contribute to this problem. Before Covid the first I would have named is that too few clergy want to be vicars in the current parish system because “solo” parish ministry has lost its allure. Many prefer to work in chaplaincy, or as part of a team in a larger parish. This is because many have come to understand that contemporary parish ministry is less and less about leading God’s people in prayer, worship and service, and more and more about compliance, managing disfunction, and fund-raising your own stipend. And it can be a very lonely job.
The second element, also evident before Covid, is that the processes for filling vacancies are so long and so labyrinthine that almost no-one understands how they work. This sometimes leads to fragile parishes effectively being put “on hold,” and moving into yet further decline. Recent changes to the Clergy Act have done little to address the fundamental issue of a multi-level process taking far too much time.
A third element, present before Covid but only really in full evidence in its wake, is that there is a shortage of licensed clergy, period. The experienced “boomer” generation are in the midst of a great wave of retirement, and those who have been ordained since the 1990s are much older on average than those who preceded them. This means they retire after a shorter time in active ministry. The consequence is that, although we are ordaining almost as many clergy as in past years, they are retiring or retreating from ministry at a much faster rate, leading to a net loss in available bodies.
Finally, those who are being ordained, at least in Melbourne, are often not as well-formed as previous generations to enable them to endure the changes and chances of parish life. The crisis in formation is, in my view, a direct contributor to the crisis in available clergy numbers.
Addressing the greater issue of church decline is too big a question for one short column, however we can (and should) ask what it would it take to “mission-shape” the appointments process, and at least to make it easier to fill vacancies when they arise, rather than months or even years later.
What would it take for it to be the norm for parishes to be advertised the moment a vicar is known to be leaving, and for the name of the new vicar routinely to be announced the Sunday after the outgoing vicar has said farewell? Is the idea unthinkable? What would it take to overhaul the formation process to prepare ordinands for the realities of parish life, and to develop a professional development programme for parish clergy that actively encourages and supports them to remain in parish ministry? In short, what would it take for there to be fewer and shorter vacancies?
These are rhetorical questions perhaps, but I would argue that the answer to all of them is fairly simple: We can fix at least some of these things if we have the will to do so. An additional consequence of Covid has been a loss of will and a loss of direction in many parts of the diocesan leadership. Is the crisis in appointments symptomatic of a bigger cultural problem?
