Times have changed

From Name withheld, Mar 14, 2007 I feel a strong urge to respond to “Singing the unemployment blues.”  I was in a position similar to the author’s some 40 years ago … I sent out some 200 letters. Even though I couldn’t afford to supply return postage, my return rate was close to 100 percent.

Answers were courteous. Are music department heads that much more sympathetic than bishops and search committees? Or are the latter too overworked to answer their correspondence? Perhaps. Or less thoughtful? Possibly. Absent-minded or less Christian? I hardly think so. Or is the system for placing priests hopelessly antiquated and clumsy? I’m afraid so.  Can we do better? Yes. Will we? That remains to be seen.

DDOs need behavior code

From Name witheld by request, Mar 14, 2007 I was glad to read the “Singing the unemployment blues” article in [January’s] Episcopal Life.  It was comforting to read, as it is identical to my experience. It helped me not take these experiences personally.

It’s amazing how (at best) thoughtless or (at worst) rude people can be, from diocesan deployment officers to parish search committees.  Unreturned phone calls and e-mails, and stale job postings are routine. Conversely, a DDO sometimes decides not to post [jobs] at all, and you must find out about them from friends or the grapevine.

This apparent detachment of the call process affects parishes as well, and some have a difficult time calling their first or second choices because they didn’t communicate with the candidates or assumed it was a buyer’s market.

My experience of clergy looking for new cures is that they “shotgun” all potential openings because the calling process is a) so ponderous and b) not very efficient.   Potential poor communication at all points in the process yields an atmosphere of mysterious incompetence.

Add to this the issue of sexual orientation.  As a gay priest, I also find that the designation “women and minorities especially welcome” does not mean gay clergy in most cases.  In many parish profiles, they speak of how warm and welcoming they are, yet their profile seems to convey a wonder of why they don’t grow. Well, hello, guess what — there is a relationship! 

There is a need for DDOs to ask search committees and vestries to deal with this up front instead of putting all the stress on the gay clergy candidate. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” does not work in the parish calling process. Should we expect the candidate to come out just as he/she is being called?  “Oops! Well you had all the gifts and skills we want, but we think the Holy Spirit made a mistake in our selecting you.”  I had this happen to me a few years ago. 

More training and communication with the diocesan deployment officer is needed in most cases for search committees. And DDOs need a code of behavior that is understood in the way they function with both parishes and clergy in search mode.

In most dioceses, it’s a free-for-all.  Some DDOs keep in constant close touch, coaching both parishes and clergy in that search process.  Others show them how to fill out their search profile and screen clergy candidates to give them a list and that’s it.  [There is] no detailed coaching of what happens between profile and call, so that all participants in the process feel cared for. This can be done without any serious breach of confidentiality.

Our deployment system in the Episcopal Church is broken and needs radical repair/overhaul to serve the real needs of the whole church — parishes, dioceses and clergy.

Revealing a ‘mixed message’

From Carmelita Blake • Brooklyn, N.Y. Mar 14, 2007 As I read the article “Singing the Unemployment Blues,” it was evident that many people in the Episcopal Church are unaware of how our lives often preach a mixed message.

The silent response to the applications demonstrates a little meanness from the vestry and the search committee to applicants. Communication seemed to be lacking in every aspect of the writer's application process, the poorly maintained website, the poorly informed deployment office and the unresponsive search committee.

What seemed most apparent was that vestries have become a silent choir and are no longer the voice of the people. They are not held accountable by anyone and fail to hold others accountable.  Therefore, when thrust in a situation that requires leadership, they are poor performers.

The priest/author of this article was a job seeker taking the road traveled by many, but in an environment where churches value process above people; an environment where longevity of employment by clergy impacts on current knowledge of human resource practices during the clergy-selection process. The priest will heal, perhaps slowly, but the scars will remain.

Unemployment is not leisure.  It is a life-changing loss that causes an emptiness that many fail to understand until they, too, sing the unemployment blues.  Whether you are the unemployed victim or not, job loss will happen to someone you know.

The Episcopal Church needs to spend less time communicating statistics, emphasizing empire building through housing acquisition and starting programs and begin focusing on what is happening in dioceses and parishes. There is a great need to lend an ear or be a shoulder to cry on for congregations. A wind of change in the employment and performance-evaluation process for clergy is an appropriate place to start.

‘Blues’ ring true

From The Rev. Laura Toepfer • Alameda, Calif., Mar 14, 2007 I say Amen! to the article on "Singing the Unemployment Blues."  I, too, have had to question my skills and employability as I have spent the past 18 months looking for a new position, although fortunately from a position of employment.  I have also had the great blessing of receiving support from my former bishop and from others, but I still have some stories to make one's toes curl. 

My personal favorite is when I received a profile through the Church Deployment Office and decided to talk to the church's diocesan deployment officer about it.  When I asked if he wanted me to send him my resume, or if that would simply add more paper to his desk, he said, "No, that's all right; I have a shredder."  Strangely enough, I did not get the position.

Blessings upon the writer in the continued search.  And God give our church wisdom in the best use of its clergy resources.

Silence the wrong answer

From Tom Pellaton, rector • Church of the Ascension • Munich, Germany Mar 14, 2007 I feel I must comment on this article as it parallels my own experience. I have been rector here in Munich at the Church of the Ascension for 10 years. We have had a very good time together growing over three times in size of congregation. Three years ago, for family reasons, I thought it would be best to try to get back to the states to be closer to my family.

In this period I have not been totally ignored … but the most common reaction to my search follows what this article recounts. Hours spent answering questions and then no response. E-mails go unanswered as well as calls. Deployment information is often out of date or misleading. I feel discredited and rudely treated.

"No, we do not see a fit here" is an appropriate answer. Silence is not. I feel like I have been treated like of piece of meat and not a human being. Certainly we can do better in the church.

True search impeded

From Ronald L. Benjamin • Mansfield, Pa. Mar 14, 2007 Thank you for printing "Singing the unemployment blues" by an Episcopal priest (January). Besides minimal help, outdated job listings and silence from potential employers, the Episcopal priest forgot to name the "Good Old Boy Network."

In December 2004, at our vestry meeting, our priest of 20-plus years announced he would retire in July 2005 and we needed to do a priest search. In late January 2005, a diocesan official came to a parish meeting and told us what we needed to do to form a search committee, etc. I suggested we also place an ad in the Episcopal Life classified employment opportunities section.  The official got immediately hostile and said, "Yes, we can do that, but the diocese has other plans."

I did not make it onto the search committee of seven people, but those who did were sworn to secrecy by the diocese and never communicated the search process to the congregation, or their spouses. Our senior warden sent us a letter in July 2005 announcing the successful candidate. I asked the senior warden how many candidates we interviewed, and she was evasive for several weeks. I later found out we had one applicant and one candidate.  The fix was so obviously in, I e-mailed the diocese and asked why the Episcopal Church did not lead the way in equal employment opportunity?  I did not receive a reply.

We are a nice, small college town that is a "plum" assignment, and many folks would surely have bid for the job, if it had ever been posted!