Use Of Part-Time Clergy Suggested

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31987, 14 May 1969, Page 4

Use Of Part-Time Clergy Suggested

“In our planning for the 1970 s should we be thinking of part-time clergy as well as, or instead of, full-time clergy?” asks the vicar of the Anglican parish of Ross and South Westland (the Rev. C. R. Tonks) in an Ember-tide letter to clergy in the Diocese of Christchurch.

“Why does the Anglican Church have full - time clergy?” he adds. “Why is it that people are willing to give about $4OOO every year so that they may employ a man whom they call their vicar?” Mr Tonks says that some persons no doubt feel that out of a sense of duty the parish should have a vicar. Who otherwise would teach scripture in school, bury the dead, marry the young and baptise the children? All these tasks, however, can be done by lay people and in certain circumstances are done, and done well.

“One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the generous giving of some non-churchgoing Anglicans," he says. “For some this will be a way of easing the conscience. It is easier to write a cheque once a year than to go to church regularly. For others it may be from a sense of duty, or as a form of insurance. After all, some day we will need a minister for our family needs. If we don’t help support one now, there may not be one when we need him.”

Mr Tonks says that no two vicars are the same. One will be best with young people, I another with the elderly; one

will excel in the pulpit, the other at the sick-bed. Each man, however, will seek to use his gifts for the glory of God and the good of his people, but he cannot do this without the help, prayers, encouragement, support and love of the parishioners.

The task of the clergyman is the same as that of every man or woman who claims to follow Jesus Christ—to care. “As members of His Church it is our task to seek to show the people of our world that God cares for them,” says Mr Tonks. “We proclaim this message most clearly when we show it in our lives."