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At the end of the day it's hard not to conclude that TEC is so deeply entrenched in fixed assumptions about how things must be run and structured that even small changes are dismissed out of hand
Say that we need to come up w/ ways to make us more financially efficient. Some basic, simple ways to trim as much as 50k a year would be to
- use a bcp instead of bulletins
- yoke small parishes to keep clergy full-time
- bring back parsonages
- use a bcp instead of bulletins
- yoke small parishes to keep clergy full-time
- bring back parsonages
People tell me lots and lots of reasons why we can't do these things, all of which were the norm very recently. INSTEAD what I get are exhortations about how we need "missional," "innovative," "entrepreneurial," "bi-vocational" priests and ministries
This neoliberal logic (I said it) would rather put downward economic pressure on new, and usually newly indebted clergy, to work for less and do as much INSTEAD of easy, basic fixes. Because shiny corporate words are more meaningful to current leadership
Or to use a different example. We hear about how strapped for time priests are. How they often have to make hard choices in ministry between Sundays and pastoral visits. We could trim the fat from Sunday productions, but that's a bridge too far. "How will we disciple people?"
Theologically we've spent a couple generations convincing ourselves that ""the liturgy"" can do far far more heavy lifting than it actually can. We wish that Episcopalians knew their Bibles better, but if most of what they get is just on Sundays then what can we expect?
