Leadership – the ability to inspire, motivate, discern and envision a faithful quest to follow God’s will – is the most critical issue facing churches today. Challenges abound in the number, quality, age and diversity of people pursuing – and staying in — pastoral ministry. The effects on communities across America are profound. They include the number of people who are active in churches, the extent of churches’ outreach to the less fortunate, the church’s moral influence in society and more. Hundreds of people and programs – many of which ReligionLink lists here — are offering resources, research and training in an attempt to bolster the amount and quality of leadership. Are they making a difference? It’s clear that the face of American clergy is changing. The question is how, and what impact will that new face have?
Background
Why it matters
From the beginning of Christianity, leadership has been critical to the growth and health of the church and its ability to spread its message and live out its beliefs in the world.
Issues to explore
- Seminarians: Fewer younger seminarians want to serve churches, and many seminarians begin ministry as a second career, leaving them fewer years to serve. The Fund for Theological Education reports that fewer seminary students today, about 60 percent, intend to be ordained and fewer still, about one-third, plan to serve a local congregation.
- Churches: Most churches in America have 100 or fewer members, but most Americans who attend church now choose one with more than 350 members. That means most pastoral positions are in churches that pay lower salaries and tend to be geographically isolated, while promising seminary graduates may not be able to find jobs in areas where they want to live.
- Women’s roles: The number of women seminarians and pastors has risen, but many ordained women say it’s difficult to advance into senior pastor positions and many leave ministry after just a few years.
- Clergy status: Many pastors face low salaries, high seminary debt, high stress and unending demands from congregants who live in a 24/7 world. Public confidence in clergy has been shaken by sexual and financial crimes and scandals, but USA Today/Gallup Poll’s 2012 annual poll found that Americans rated clergy among the top six most trusted professions.
- Attitudes about sexuality: Many denominations are embroiled in conflict over the role of gays and lesbians in the church.
- Denominational differences: Roman Catholics – who do not ordain women and require celibacy of priests — and mainline Protestants have more clergy shortages than conservative and evangelical groups, many of whom do not ordain women.
Articles
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“Taking a Break From the Lord’s Work”
Read an Aug. 1, 2010, New York Times article about the burnout problem and the benefits of taking time off from ministry duties.
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“Catholic Priests Don’t Like Mass Changes, Survey Shows”
Read a May 22, 2013 Huffington Post article about the Vatican’s order to change parts of the traditional prayers and rubrics of Mass. A survey showed that 60 percent of priests were dissatisfied with the change.
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“Abuse Report Finds Six Credible Allegations Against Clergy in 2012”
Read a May 13, 2013 National Catholic Register article about the clergy sex abuse scandals and its effects on the community of clergy men and women.
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“Why not women priests? The papal theologian explains”
Read a Jan. 31, 2013 Catholic News Service story discussing woman priesthood and responses that have been evoked by the debate.
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“Students Flock to Seminaries, but Fewer See Pulpit in Future”
Read a March 17, 2006, New York Times story about how fewer seminary students are interested in leading churches. It’s posted by Netscape.
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“New England churches struggle to fill pulpits”
Read a 2008 Christian Chronicle article about the decline in attendance of New England pulpits and the struggle of working with small communities for clergy members.
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“Young Clergy Shortage”
Read a transcript of a June 30, 2006, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly episode about a shortage of younger people interested in pastoral leadership.
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“Seminarians Face Pulpit Shortage”
With attendance down in mainline Protestant churches and older ministers delaying retirement, many recent seminary graduates are finding that pastoral jobs are scarce, according to a Religion News Service story published Sept. 30, 2006, by The Washington Post.
Surveys
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Pulpit & Pew: Research on Pastoral Leadership
Pulpit & Pew: Research on Pastoral Leadership is a research project at Duke Divinity School between the years of 2001-2005 in the U.S. This study was the largest such survey ever conducted of U.S. pastoral leaders.
International sources
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International Prison Chaplains Association
The International Prison Chaplains Association works to support and connect Christian prison chaplains around the world to help each be more effective in their ministry. Contact this organization through its website.
National sources
Protestant
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James P. Wind
The Rev. James P. Wind is president of the Alban Institute, which provides ecumenical resources for congregations, and his expertise includes trends in clergy supply and demand.
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Patricia M.Y. Chang
Patricia M.Y. Chang is a lecturer in the sociology department at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. She has studied clergy career characteristics and the supply of ordained leadership in some Protestant denominations, and she co-authored Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling.
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Leadership Network
Leadership Network in Dallas fosters church innovation by working with leaders in a variety of denominations. It has support groups for pastors in different stages of their careers, and its website includes resources related to burnout.
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Adair T. Lummis
Adair T. Lummis is a religion sociologist and a faculty associate in research at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Conn. Her research focuses on denominational policies; gender, spirituality and leadership in communities of faith; and clergy concerns. Her books include, as co-author, Clergy Women: An Uphill Calling.
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Lovett H. Weems Jr.
Lovett H. Weems Jr. is Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., and directs the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Its 2012 report on clergy age trends in the United Methodist Church found that the percentage of middle-age elders continues to shrink, falling from 65 percent of active elders 12 years ago to 41 percent now. A previous report examined a dramatic drop in the number of young United Methodist clergy.
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Steven D. Smith
Steven D. Smith serves as co-executive director of the Institute for Law and Religion and the Institute for Law and Philosophy at the University of San Diego, where he also teaches constitutional law.
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Barbara G. Wheeler
Barbara G. Wheeler is the former longtime president of Auburn Theological Seminary in New York, a leading Presbyterian seminary. In November 2003, Wheeler engaged in a widely followed debate on gay ordination with Richard J. Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., a leading evangelical institution. The exchange, titled “Strangers: A Dialogue About the Church,” took place at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. In her address, Wheeler spoke in favor of ordaining active homosexuals, but also about the dynamics of the debate and its negative impact on the churches.
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Nathan Kirkpatrick
The Rev. Nathan Kirkpatrick directs Pulpit & Pew, an interdenominational research project that studies pastoral leadership issues.
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Barney Self
Barney Self is a licensed marriage and family therapist . He has counseled ministers and their families for eight years through a program run by the Southern Baptist Convention’s LifeWay Christian Resources. He is now pastoral counseling minister at Forest Hills Baptist Church in Nashville.
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Jackson Carroll
Jackson Carroll is author of God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations (Eerdmans, 2006) and professor emeritus at Duke Divinity School.
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Daniel Aleshire
Daniel Aleshire directs the Association of Theological Schools, which is based in Pittsburgh, Pa. The association has 251 member schools with 80,140 students total, of whom 64 percent are men and 36 percent are women. The ATS posts a number of tables on seminary enrollment.
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Moravian Church in America
The Moravian Church in America is one of the oldest Protestant denominations with strong missionary work and belief in traditions. The website offers resources on faith beliefs, congregations, news and publications.
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Ann M. Svennungsen
Ann M. Svennungsen is president of the Fund for Theological Education, an Atlanta-based ecumenical organization that gives fellowships and support to young women and men exploring ministry, and Texas Lutheran University in Seguin. She was elected Bishop by the Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly in 2012.
Svennungsen, who is ordained in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, also says she is concerned about chronic underrepresentation of minority faculty at theological schools. She says more than one-third report they do not have even one person of color on the faculty and that two-thirds of the African-American scholars working in theological schools were FTE fellows.
Catholic
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Edwin I. Hernández
Edwin I. Hernández is the director of the Center for Study of Latino Religion at Notre Dame University in South Bend, Ind. The center conducts social-scientific study of the U.S. Latino church, its leadership and the interaction between religion and community.
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Christine Schenk
Christine Schenk is a Catholic nun and the executive director emerita of FutureChurch, based in Lakewood, Ohio, which advocates ordaining married Roman Catholic men and women as priests to alleviate priest shortages.
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Resources for American Christianity
Resources for American Christianity is a website funded by the Lilly Endowment that “seeks to assist leaders and participants in Christian communities, scholars and other interested publics in better understanding the impact, trends and trajectories of Christianity in American society.” Under the “Economics” category, the site has a series of excellent studies, papers and experts. They are under sub-headings that include: Church Finances, Giving, Materialism, Stewardship, Wealth and Work.
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Louise Haggett
Louise Haggett, a sales and marketing specialist from Maine, is president and founder of rentapriest.com.
She says more than 3,000 Roman Catholic parishes across the country are without a resident priest.
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Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown
For statistics, see the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown, the nonprofit research organization that conducts social scientific studies for the Catholic Church.
This organization reported that in the United States between 1965 and 2006, the number of Roman Catholic diocesan priests declined from 35,925 to 28,299, while the Catholic population increased from 45.6 million to 64 million.
Demographics: age
According to research by the Lewis Center:
- The Episcopal Church: 5.7 percent are under age 35, 35.6 percent are 35-54, and 58.7 percent are 55 or older.
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: 7.64 percent are under age 35, 38.82 percent are 35-54, and 53.54 percent are 55 or older.
- The United Methodist Church: 5.6 percent are under age 35, 41.4 percent are 35-54, and 52.9 percent are 55 or older.
Demographics: gender
- The Association of Theological Schools reports that of total fall 2005 enrollment in its 251 member schools in the United States and Canada, 36 percent were women. Forty-nine percent of students enrolled in a full degree program were seeking a master of divinity degree. Thirty-one percent of MDiv students were women.
- The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America reported in 2007 that 17.3 percent of its clergy are women.
- In the Episcopal Church, women in 2009-11 made up 34 percent of the active clergy, according to research by the Church Pension Group Office of Research.
- The United Methodist Church reports that 18.5 percent of its clergy are women from a 2007 report.
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Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is a branch of Wesleyan Methodism. It is composed primarily of African Americans. Paul A.G. Stewart is senior bishop at the church’s headquarters in St. Louis, Mo.
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Christian Men’s Network
Christian Men’s Network is a Christian ministry for men, training them toward their goals as religious leaders in their families, churches and cultures. Contact through the website.
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Man in the Mirror
Man in the Mirror is an organization that helps churches reach and disciple men through leadership strategies and resources. Brett Clemmer is the president.
Regional sources
In the Northeast
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Donald Paul Sullins
The Rev. Donald Paul Sullins is a former Episcopal priest who was ordained into the Catholic priesthood in 2002. He is an associate professor of sociology at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and has written about church switching and patterns of Protestant affiliation.
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Kenneth L. Swetland
Kenneth L. Swetland is senior professor of ministry at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass., where he also leads the Oasis counseling program for seminary alumni facing a crisis or transition. He wrote The Hidden World of the Pastor: Case Studies on Personal Issues of Real Pastors.
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Nancy Ammerman
Nancy Ammerman is professor of sociology at Boston University and a leading expert on congregational dynamics, especially in mainline Protestantism. She is the author of Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life and Pillars of Faith: American Congregations and Their Partners. She is also an expert on religious movements and has written about the rise of fundamentalism.
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Margaret Bendroth
Margaret Bendroth is executive director of the Congregational Library in Boston and co-editor of Women and Twentieth-Century Protestantism (University of Illinois Press, 2001), a book of essays on the variety of women’s roles and their influence.
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James E. Dittes
James E. Dittes is a professor emeritus of pastoral counseling at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., and has researched clergy calling. His books include, as author, Re-Calling Ministry (Chalice Press, 1999).
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Dean R. Hoge
Dean R. Hoge was a professor of sociology at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. His books include, as co-author, Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry (Eerdmans, 2005). Read a 2003 speech he co-authored, posted by Pulpit & Pew.
In the South
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R. Drew Smith
R. Drew Smith is a Baptist minister and professor of urban ministry at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He has studied and written about black megachurches and has edited four volumes on American religion and public life, including New Day Begun: African American Churches and Civic Culture in Post-Civil Rights America.
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Julie Ingersoll
Julie Ingersoll is an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and can discuss religion and popular culture. She has written about faith and values among Jimmy Buffett fans.
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George Jacobs
George Jacobs, a Presbyterian minister, and Gordon Jacobs, his wife, are the founders of the Davidson Clergy Center in Davidson, N.C., which provides programs for clergy experiencing burnout.
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Milagros Peña
Milagros Peña teaches sociology and directs women’s studies at the University of Florida, Gainesville. Her expertise includes women’s issues, border issues and Hispanic ministry in the United States. Her books include, as co-author, Emerging Voices, Urgent Choices: Essays on Latino/a Religious Leadership (Brill Academic Publishers, 2006).
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Laura Olson
Laura Olson is a professor of political science at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., and is also an expert on women and gender in religion. Her books include, as author, Filled With Spirit and Power: Protestant Clergy in Politics and, as co-author, Women With a Mission: Religion, Gender and the Politics of Women Clergy. She is also co-author of a paper on mainline Protestant congregations and homosexuality.
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Michael Lane Morris
Michael Lane Morris is associate professor of management at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He has studied the effects of stress on clergy and their families.
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Reginald A. Bruce
Reginald A. Bruce is associate professor of management at the University of Louisville’s College of Business. He has done much research on pastoral leadership, including a 2005 paper titled “Leadership in High Performing Congregations: Uncovering the Secrets of Success.”
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Cynthia Woolever
Cynthia Woolever is director of U.S. Congregations in Louisville, Ky., a religious research group that is conducting the U.S. Congregational Life Survey.
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Kenneth Carder
Kenneth Carder is professor of the practice of pastoral formation at Duke University, Durham, N.C., and senior fellow of Pulpit & Pew. He is a United Methodist bishop.
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Marcia Y. Riggs
Marcia Y. Riggs is J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga. She wrote Plenty Good Room: Women Versus Male Power in the Black Church (Pilgrim Press, 2003).
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Fellowship of Companies for Christ International
Fellowship of Companies for Christ International is a membership, marketplace ministry to Christian CEOs by Christian CEOs. The organization publishes resources designed to educate and equip Christian business leaders with the assets they need to promote their business and beliefs.
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Leon J. Podles
Leon J. Podles, who lives in Baltimore and in Naples, Fla., wrote The Church Impotent: The Feminization of Christianity (Spence, 1999).
He says female clergy have caused a decrease in male participation in mainline Christian congregations.
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Sally Moran
Sally Moran of Charleston, S.C., is the author of a 2004 print-on-demand book, Women of the Covenant: The Case for Female Roman Catholic Priests.
She says important issues include parish closings, the number of foreign priests (some of whom speak English poorly), loss of social services to the needy, the scarcity of Eucharistic Liturgy to the person in the pew, and the isolation of priests who live alone and serve several parishes.
In the Midwest
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Charles W. Mueller
Charles W. Mueller is a professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. He has written about clergy-congregation mismatches and clergy job satisfaction.
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Donald B. Cozzens
The Rev. Donald B. Cozzens is writer-in-residence in the religious studies department at John Carroll University, University Heights, Ohio. His books include The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A Reflection on the Priest’s Crisis of Soul.
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Ken Davis
The Rev. Ken Davis is director of the Program for Formation of Hispanic Ministry at St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana and co-author of Emerging Voices, Urgent Choices: Essays on Latino/a Religious Leadership (Brill Academic Press, 2006).
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James R. Wood
James R. Wood is a professor emeritus of sociology at Indiana University, Bloomington, and was part of a team of scholars working on a project called “Organizing Religious Work for the 21st Century.”
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William C. Placher
William C. Placher is a professor of philosophy and religion and LaFollette Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind. His books include, as editor, Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation (Eerdmans Publishing, 2005).
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Frederick W. Schmidt
The Rev. Frederick W. Schmidt is director of spiritual formation and Anglican studies and an associate professor of Christian spirituality at Southern Methodist University, Dallas. He is the author of A Still Small Voice: Women, Ordination and the Church (Syracuse University Press, 1996).
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Howard Hendricks
Howard Hendricks is chairman of the Center for Christian Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary in Texas.
In the West
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G. Lloyd Rediger
The Rev. G. Lloyd Rediger of Albuquerque, N.M., is an author, speaker and trainer and is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). His books include Coping With Clergy Burnout and Clergy Killers: Guidance for Pastors and Congregations Under Attack.
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Mark A. Chaves
Mark A. Chaves is professor of sociology at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He is an expert on religious organizations in the United States and leads the National Congregations Study.
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Edmund Gibbs
Edmund Gibbs is professor emeritus of church growth at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. He is an expert on the emerging church and has called for seminaries and theological schools to rethink the way they train pastors for the 21st century. His books include LeadershipNext: Changing Leaders in a Changing Culture.
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Scott Cormode
Hugh De Pree Professor of Leadership Development at Fuller Theological Seminary in California. Ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Formerly served as George Butler Associate Professor of Church Administration and Finance as well as assistant dean for institutional research at Claremont School of Theology. Can discuss church growth.
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Aglow International
Aglow International is a global organization “with a single purpose: to see God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven through prayer, local groups, events and outreaches.” Contact through the website.
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Paula Nesbitt
Paula Nesbitt is a visiting associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Feminization of the Clergy in America: Occupational and Organizational Perspectives (Oxford University Press, 1997).
She says a good barometer of shortage issues might be how many women who have been ordained later in life still have a hard time finding placements with full-time pay.
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A female ‘religious leader in chief’?
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Clergy burnout: Who shepherds the shepherds?
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Clergy sex abuse: Bishops meet, review policies
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Gay clergy: The state of the debate
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Sex and seminarians: Are clergy prepared for debates on sexuality?
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House churches gain ground