Occasionally I’ve written about our parochial troubles here, I think. Our Rector has been with us for 12 years this coming August and is basically quite dysfunctional. The parish has shrunk, the number of things that go on has shrunk to almost nothing, there has been some question as to some financial transactions, and his liturgical talents are, well, questionable.
The system in the Church of England does not allow priests with tenure in the parish (referred to as the “freehold” of the parish) to be deposed unless they commit a crime. So, unlike a congregational church, which can dismiss its minister after a vote, we are stuck with him. His health is not the best, but he hangs stubbornly on, refusing to leave or retire, continuing to ruin the parish.
11 years ago we decided that the shortcomings we saw (after only 6 months of his tenure) were such that we needed to take them up with him. We wrote them down to forge a consensus, but for various reasons we never got the opportunity to sit down with him and air the problems. The document languished on my computer for 11 years. I found it, and printed it off. I had made an appointment to take the Archdeacon to lunch and talk about our parochial situation.
Without going into the gory details, I think that the Archdeacon is broadly sympathetic to our plight at St. Matthew’s. What he can do, he will do. If the Rector does not change, or move, or retire, we will have 9-1/2 more years of this and will not have any parish worthy of the name by the time he does finally go.
Oddly enough, most Archdeacons get lots of complaints about clergy from people in the parishes, but usually discount all of it unless corroborated by the churchwardens (lay presidents of the congregation, roughly speaking). Our churchwardens are under the Rector’s thumb, so they have not mentioned any of this to the Archdeacon. I hesitated to talk to him, or his predecessor (who was responsible for landing us with this Rector in any case, moving him out of one problem situation just like the Roman Catholics used to move problems priests around just before the child protection people arrived) because I was not a churchwarden. Now that I have just turned up at meetings for 7 years, regularly, people noticed me and I got on more committees. People now listen to me. So I’ve taken my opportunity.
We cannot depose the Rector. The Archdeacon is limited in what he can do. However, he’s promised to do what he can do to help the parish, and the Rector, and get us through until we have a change in clergy. I just have to stick it out longer than the Rector does.