A LACK of priests and ministers in rural Victoria has forced farmers and teachers to take to the pulpit to conduct church services.
Ordained ministers from Australia’s three major Christian denominations are working more than 50 hours a week to meet the spiritual needs of rural communities.
But an ageing clergy and the tyranny of distance have left many rural parishes without a full-time priest or minister.
A recent study found that 14 per cent of rural Protestant and Anglican churches around Australia have adopted a lay church leader in the past five years.
That’s why MORNING PRAYER is available, ya’ll. Worked well in the colonies and the USA for its entire existence … even unto this day!
50 hour weeks! Egad, that’s inhuman! How can those priests and pastors bear up under such a crushing burden! The preists I’ve been fortunate to have been led by would consider a 50 hour week a luxury. And, when I was an army officer, so would I.