Bishops feel strain from targets to grow flock

PRESSURE on bishops and clergy to grow their audience is leading to “clergy selfharm”, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, has said.

Speaking to an audience at the charity Sons & Friends of the Clergy, Prof Martyn Percy, who also teaches in the theology faculty at Oxford University, said bishops “need to stop being the CEO of an organisation that is chasing growth targets”.

Clergy stress was “fuelled by anxiety about growth and organisation and professionalism,” he said. “The church has become too organisational and bureaucratic.

“Sharp missional evangelistic thinking has created a culture where clergy feel like employees, chasing targets – and they feel guilty when they don’t achieve those targets, or when they can no longer relate to what has become an organisation.”

He gave the example of “affairs” as a type of “selfharm” which can lead clergy to be removed from post via a disciplinary measure.

Problems include a focus on “blue-sky” or “visionary thinking” and “aims, objectives and outcomes,” he said, which should be replaced with “a culture of realism”.

Leaders need to focus on “getting alongside clergy and understanding that the role on its own is, for many, quite overwhelming and completely exhausting,” he said.

Last week the Church launched a “covenant” to preserve clergy’s mental health amid reports some were struggling to cope. The model, based on the military covenant between the Armed Forces and the nation, would ensure the Church’s responsibility to offer “appropriate pastoral care”.

Prof Percy said the Church under the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was becoming increasingly corporate and focused on growth. The Archbishop, who comes from an evangelical background, is a former oil executive who worked in industry for 11 years.

The decision follows a debate at the Church’s general synod earlier this year, when the Archbishop said being a parish priest was the “most stressful” job he had done.

Commentators have argued that the influence of evangelicals had led to a focus on conversion and getting people into services.