Categories: uncategorized
Date: 13 March 2008 07:09:48
Next time you shake your vicars hand as you walk out the door or they enter your home think about the personal risks they are taking in that act. The current issue of the Sociology Journal has an interesting article on the increased experiences being victims of violent and abusive behaviour amongst Anglican clergy.
Whilst "Anglican Clergy as Victims of Routinized Violent Activities in Urban and Rural Locations" by David Denney, Jonathan Gabe and Maria O'Beirne is a bit repetitive, and could be accused of stating the obvious in places it is a reasonable article. When they talk of the vicars wife setting the dog on somebody threatening her husband it could be straight out of a Joanna Trollope novel and the female vicar getting hassell by the local group of youths as she visits a parishoner on the local council estate has more than a touch of Irvine Welsh about it. So all in all, an article worth visiting.
However, more than the readability I would actually recommend it to all of us in churches to read. What it does is highlight the problems that our clergy face in terms of living where they work and having to balance the safety of their families with the demands of the job. It can be easy to slip into thinking our ministers are have jobs which revolve around admin, preaching and visiting "little old ladies" or hospitals. In reality they are often dealing with a huge range of people, some of whom have the types of problems most of us (quite unbiblically) try to avoid coming into contact with. When praying for our clergy perhaps we should include praying for safety a little more.