Clergy Wanted: Must be ...

Under forty with twenty-five years ministry experience!

Recently I got engaged in conversation with a few dog collars and for once we didn't get round to funerals but the conversation turned towards finding a new posts Hence the previous post on the process being like 'playing away from home!').

On of the interesting comments came from someone who had seen a place that took their fancy and so, as per the advert', they rang one of the churchwardens to discuss the post before they requested the application form and profile. Apparently the conversation went something like this (the would be applicant is in italics):

Good morning, I'm rather interested in your vacancy, could you tell me a little more about it please?

Certainly, how old are you?

I'm nn.*

Aaah, we're looking for someone younger than that.

So can you tell me a bit about the post anyway?

Yes, we have n churches and need a new Vicar.

And that being about it the conversation tailed off - leaving the would be incumbent fuming as the call ended.

Now, I'd like to say that I thought this was a work of fiction or perhaps an isolated misunderstanding or encounter with someone who had the wrong end of the stick at one end of the telephone line or the other. Yet it appears that what this represents is a slightly less polished delivery of what can only be regarded as ageism.

Now considering the fact that many of those I chat to are looking to continue in ministry until their late sixties (and beyond with PTOs) and with the changes in lifestyles and fitness and the like - and the fact that some of those in their forties are much older than some in their sixties - it really should be that ability and, most important of all, calling should be what we are looking at.

Now I don't want this to become some sort of crusade or campaign on my part but I am aware that there is something going wrong here and that it might be something not only institutional but something the church will not do well from should it be true.

I'd be interested to hear the experiences of those who consider themselves to have been on the wrong end of ageism and would love to hear from those who might have realised that they have engaged with it from the 'need a Vicar' side of the fence.

If we are really ageist then I am not just confused but and also saddened and disappointed.

* You can insert whatever age you fancy here - suffice to say that they were somewhere between fifty and sixty