Disciple: Helping Priests Do Priestly Ministry...and Lay People Do Lay Ministry

How the alternate part-time model of clergy employment is helping priests and lay people live out their baptismal covenants

By By the Rev. Canon Cathie Caimano

Traditionally, small congregations in need of part-time clergy faced one of two options: find a priest to preside over the Eucharist every Sunday but miss out on pastoral care and Christian formation during the week, or ask a priest to stretch part-time paid hours into additional unpaid hours in an attempt to do the work of a full-time priest. Clergy, too, often laugh when mentioning part-time work, stressing that they typically serve many more hours than they are paid, if they can afford to do that. The traditional model of part-time work also usually precludes clergy serving more than one congregation, unless they want to spend their Sunday mornings rushing to make it from the 8:00 a.m. Eucharist at one church to a 10:30 a.m. service across the county.

The traditional model of part-time work is a stressful one for both congregations and clergy, and its challenges have deeper implications for what priestly ministry and lay ministry are and should be in a modern congregation. Examining this model is important in today’s changing churches, in which fewer full-time positions are available for clergy and fewer congregations are able to afford full-time—or even part-time—priestly ministry. Lots of conflicting demands and wishes for stronger mission and ministry have led to conversations among parishioners and clergy navigating the challenge of maintaining part-time calls in congregations.

Finally, someone asked the question: What if part-time clergy service did not mean a priest spends every Sunday with the same congregation? This is a concept for part-time ministry we have

been considering in the Diocese of North Carolina and actively discerning with several congregations since spring 2012. In this model, a half-time priest serves a congregation two Sundays per month and two other days per week, and a quarter-time priest serves one Sunday per month and one other day per week. There are several reasons for considering this alternate part-time (ATP) model. It allows priests to serve in more than one church at a time, making full-time work available to more clergy; it allows congregations that don't have a priest serving them at all to have their own clergy person; and, increasingly, it allows us all to have a deeper conversation about what priests do, the definitions of priestly and lay ministry, and what, above all, the work of the church is.

Within the alternate part-time model, as a congregation ponders calling a new part-time priest, its members also consider what they need priests for and what a priest might do in the limited number of hours she is being called to serve. No longer do we assume that priests do “everything,” or essentially work as many hours as they can and do as much of everything as they are able in the hours they serve. Instead, congregations are really called to wrestle with what is most important in terms of priestly ministry—and to consider what is most important in terms of lay ministry.

Throughout the discernment process, much lay ministry starts to be redefined, away from everything else—cleaning, buying supplies, preparing bulletins, yard work—and towards pastoral care, formation, fellowship, evangelism and prayer. The process puts into perspective how much work needs to be done by the whole church and how much we may be called to minimize the organizational busy work and instead maximize the ministry of the faith community.

This process has been very spiritually energizing to the congregations that have participated so far, whether they have gone on to call a priest to serve in the alternate part-time model or in the traditional model of presiding every Sunday. Three congregations in our Diocese—St. Paul's, Louisburg; St. Andrew's, Haw River; and Grace, Clayton—already successfully have gone through the revamped discernment process. St. Paul's and St. Andrew's called vicars to serve in the alternate part-time model, quarter-time and half-time, respectively. Grace decided to call a half-time vicar to serve every Sunday.

“When we began our search for a new vicar, the Rev. Canon Cathie Caimano took us through an excellent process where we estimated where we thought our new vicar would be spending her time,” a statement from the vestry of St. Andrew’s, Haw River, explains. “It was an amazing process to have an open discussion with Cathie about the detail of the job of the vicar, and it made us really think and become more aware of what the vicar needs to do and what volunteers can do in the life of St. Andrew’s.”

At the end of the discernment process, congregations choose whether they would rather have a priest serve in the alternate part-time or in the traditional part-time model. This is a difficult choice, and congregations often wonder what they will do on the Sundays when the priest is not there and whether the pastoral relationship will be as deep as they are used to it being. They also face the general anxiety of trying something new.

This concept really is new, not just logistically, but in the sense of rethinking how we do church and why we even gather as congregations. For instance, in the alternate part-time model, while the priest will not be in a congregation every Sunday, she will be there every week. It is possible to celebrate a weekly Eucharist, but perhaps on a different day of the week. For some congregations, even a quarter-time priest working in the alternate part-time model offers more stability and creativity than they previously experienced under the traditional part-time model.

“I was concerned that there would be less parishioner engagement with a priest who is only with us on a limited basis, but the opposite seems to be happening,” Sarah Miller, former senior warden of St. Paul's, Louisburg, said. “Being able to point to our vicar and say, ‘She’s our priest,’ even if she’s only with us a Sunday or two, has given many parishioners courage to try a term on the vestry or lay-preaching or to volunteer in some other way. Because we maintain our responsibilities for the operation of St. Paul’s, we feel like the vicar is more free to give us the things we need a priest for: prayer, spiritual guidance and teaching.”

This, of course, is an adjustment for clergy as well as for lay ministers. Some priests truly prefer to serve every Sunday, even if they are part-time. Others consider how the alternate part-time model calls them to redefine their roles as priests and as members of a religious community that also includes lay ministers. Some congregations are considering alternate part-time for assistant clergy roles and not just for vicars of missions. The Rev. Miriam Saxon, for example, serves as the new vicar of St. Andrew's, Haw River while continuing to serve as a part-time associate rector at Good Shepherd, Raleigh.

"I am excited to be part of efforts to think creatively about part-time work within our parishes,” she said. “In my own situation, I appreciate the opportunity to work full-time, with assurance that we will be evaluating how this works as time goes by to determine whether this works for my primary parish call as well as for me personally."

In the end, whether they call a part-time priest who is with them every Sunday or some other configuration of Sundays, these congregations have a new outlook on ministry together, plus scheduled check-in time throughout the year to see how the alternate part-time model is working for them. Even Grace, Clayton, which participated in the new discernment process but ultimately called a vicar who serves every Sunday, still saw benefits from this new way of imagining ministry.

“We have experienced only minor adjustment woes, having gone from a part-time priest who still liked to do everything to a part-time priest who is focusing on where he needs to be: maintaining our Sunday service,” Grace’s senior warden Marty Couglar said. “I believe that we have a great outcome to our search and as a vestry we are pleased with how things went.”

The Rev. Canon Cathie Caimano is a regional canon for the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.