The Church would be wise to champion the vital work of parish priests
SIR – Correspondents concerned at the failure of the Church of England to provide replacement vicars (December 21) quite rightly bemoan the loss of someone to lead them in worship. Yet this is not the only loss.
Until recently nearly everyone in this village, churchgoers or not, knew “Nick the vic”. He would stop on the pavement to chat, pop into shops and pubs with a pot of daffodils at Easter, and generally maintain the Church’s presence in our daily lives.
Priests like him did not preach only to the converted, but were also highly visible symbols of continuity, stability and hope. They would keep an eye on the elderly, invite the cynics to the carol service, and seek to find new ways for the Church to be relevant in the 21st century.
The parish priest, like the village bobby, was part of the glue that at one time none of us could imagine vanishing. Now both have gone, but the need they served has not. Other religions and cults are only too ready to fill the spiritual void – with some by no means as benign, or as sympathetic to the ancient threads in our nation’s tapestry.
Victor Launert
Matlock Bath, Derbyshire
SIR – As a licensed lay minister in a rural benefice of five separate parishes in the midst of an interregnum, I wish to applaud the unsung volunteers who keep the churches functioning over long periods with all the responsibility that this entails: churchwardens, members of parochial church councils and the many other churchgoers who give of their time and talents behind the scenes.
In no other big business would such dedication by so many unpaid volunteers be found, nor taken for granted – as seems to be the case in the Church of England. While a short period of reflection is indeed needed before an appointment of a new incumbent, a long “period of mourning” (Letters, December 20) is an insult, and certainly not required.
We would not survive as churches without the dedication of retired clergy from outside of the benefice, who are unstinting in their support. It is essential, therefore, that the policy of long vacancies is changed for the well being of all.
Sarah Shipman
Staveley, North Yorkshire
SIR – It seems that the prediction of the demise of the Church of England by 2060 is almost certainly true. I can confidently assert that this will not be the case for the Eastern Orthodox Church, which quietly gets on with its mission by changing absolutely nothing, rather than trying to be trendy and bending in whichever direction secular opinion is moving.
The lesson is obvious but, sadly, completely missed by our Church hierarchy: the heart of the system is the priests. Huw Baumgartner
Bridell, Pembrokeshire