Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I had someone come into my office and share that they wanted to become a priest.

This will be the fourth time that as rector I have responded to such a conversation by pulling together a formal discernment group. They will meet over nine months and at that time together with the “asprirant (is that really a word?)” they will come to our vestry if they believe the person is called to the priesthood.

Sitting on the State of the Church Committee for the House of Deputies I see the numbers on the trends in our church and the only growth statistic we have is our number of priests. Our domestic membership numbers have dropped from 2,284,233 in 2003 to 2,006,343 in 2009, a 12% drop. Even if we kept every Episcopalian in the church today, we will lose 19,000 members a year just in the difference between Episcopal births and deaths. More priests? Really?

Really.

Just under 50% of all Episcopal clergy are 55 years old or older.

Of course 53% of our general membership is over 50 but you need the priests for the church to come, not the one we happen to be living in.

So we need new priests. And young ones. Good ones. Healthy ones.

Is this how it works now? Do we say what we want for a priest or does God call priests?

It used to be a person’s call to the priesthood was between them and God with the church as a screening committee. In our evolving understanding as evidenced in the new ministry canons, today the community calls us all, some to our baptismal ministry and then some to be priests, some deacons, and some bishops. Each order is a further separation from the freest form of call that is ours in baptism. More limitations, more restrictions, more accountability to the institution instead of an unmediated relationship with God. It can be brutal.

But we need good people to take these vows with all their institutional responsibilities.

And we need them to be what the church needs because the investment that the individual and the church make in forming someone into a priest is an extensive, expensive process.

We will see how this fourth discernment group in four years goes in our community. We need priests but do we need this priest? I hope our community offers our church what it needs for tomorrow.

The first three processes? One person is a postulant to become a deacon and the other two discerned in community that their call is to serve as lay people.