Yesterday, Christian Today reported on steps the Church of England is taking to tackle clergy stress.
It's somewhat invidious to suggest that 'clergy stress' is at all comparable to the stress in professions where security of job, financial deals, or high risk strategies are all at stake. But there is one special factor. Clergy work in the realm of faith. So there is always, in every moment, that questioning of our innermost beliefs.
Clergy wear on the outside what for many remains a private matter. For example, when opening the vicarage door to a traveller asking for a train fare to Istanbul, in addition to the practical, there is that nagging question, 'What would Jesus have done?'
And it's so hard to check this out. Immediately my Christian integrity is about to be challenged. Of course, these moments of stress come at any time of the day, on the threshold of our private homes, and have to be faced alone. Clergy are 'available ' and almost always work in their own 'patch', with hardly any immediate support – not counting the Holy Spirit – but that's a bit more stress to cope with.
One other point: I have noticed a growing assumption – or impertinence – from the more middle class element that actually they could do the job of the clergy rather more effectively. Though this is absurd, the cries of 'Why don't you do this?', 'You should stop that', 'What a daft idea', can come like a torrent.
There is nothing, I suggest, that 'can be done about this'. It just adds more and more to the insidious chipping away at a clergyperson's delicate balance of life and work.
Fr David Houghton is a former parish priest in south London.
