Day 2
Synod Agrees to Establish Select Committee on Clergy Tenure
Synod Agrees to Establish Select Committee on Clergy Tenure
Members of General Synod this morning (Saturday May 13) agreed to allow Standing Committee establish a Select Committee to review clergy tenure.
Proposing the Motion, Bishop Michael Burrows (Tuam Limerick and Killaloe) spoke of the importance of security of tenure. But he said a beneficed priest with a freehold could not be removed, except in extraordinary circumstance, unless they were dead.
He said that a number of things had led him to propose the motion among them the Commentary of the Constitution of the Cchurch of Ireland (published in 2018) which highlighted the issue of tenure. Sir Paul Girvan stated that the existing rules in relation to tenure do not take in to account occasions when there may have occurred pastoral breakdown within a parish but where no ecclesiastical offence had been committed and therefore no formal complaint could be justified.
The Bishop said that there were situations where there may be pastoral breakdown but the Constitution did not have a mechanism to deal with a foreseeable problem.
He said the Church had been faced with the challenge of asking parishioners to raise the finance for an increase in clerical stipends but thought that this request would go down better if the issue was addressed.
He sought to reassure clergy. “I want to emphasise that I do not want to turn clergy into the pawns on a clerical chess board. It is a recognition that their security depends on a certain degree of textured accountability. In so far as tied houses, there is also a recognition that a tied house is a family home,” he stated.
He said that a Select Committee of Synod, which would report to Synod having considered over time, could carry out the work. He asked Synod members to give the committee time to explore the subject of how to deal with a foreseeable problem and appealed for space for that work to be done.
Speaking to the motion Ken Gibson (Hon Sec) pointed out that pastoral breakdown referred to in the schedule was restricted to a parish setting and asked that it be extended to other settings in which priests served.
Canon Paul Arbuthnot (Cork Cloyne and Ross) spoke of the joy of vocation and the sacrifices it involved for those in ministry. He encouraged members of Synod to reject the motion as it changed the relationship between a bishop and clergy. He asked if the bishop was to be seen as pastor pastorum or a HR manager. He also asked how the membership of the committee was selected and suggested that there should be someone with HR experience involved. “We are told that it is only a few cases but then why are you changing it for the 99% of the diligent clergy of the Church of Ireland,” he asked.
The Revd Dr Tom Woolford who is visiting from the Church of England said he understood the intention of the measure but worried about how the mechanism for removing clergy might be utilised by lay people. He said that in the Church of England they were currently seeking measures to protect clergy from being bullied by lay people. He said he understood the intention of the measure.
Eric Driver (Cashel Ferns and Ossory) said he was a member of the diocesan review commission for his diocese he supported the exploration of the motion. He said that during their review they met people far throughout the diocese and found that where there might be difficulty between clergy and parishioners they were not helped by the current situation on clergy tenure. He encouraged Synod to explore the motion.
Responding the Bishop of Tuam said he was aware of the sensitivity of move and reiterated that there was no agenda of creating an episcopal chess board. He described the ever present sacrificial work of the priest and said that if that was happening all of the time then there would be no need for the motion. He said that the committee could co–opt two further people. The committee would have to come back to general synod who would have the final say. He said that the Dignity and Church Life had been dealing with bullying and that document was under review. He concluded by observing that any recommendations of the group should also apply to bishops.