In smaller churches, filling voluntary vacancies is a headache, not helped by an ever-increasing bureaucracy from the centre. Consider the following recent tweets from C of E clergy and volunteers. \u2018No one will be a warden,\u2019 wrote Michael Roberts, vicar of St Michael\u2019s, Cockerham. \u2018The volume of stuff from on high puts them off.\u2019 Daniel Thompson, rector of Icknield Benefice, wrote: \u2018I am trying to explain the complexity of safeguarding portals and online dashboards to a 76-year-old.\u2019 From Matt Triggs, PCC secretary at St Mary the Virgin in Nottingham: \u2018Just had an email from our diocese to put reducing climate emissions on PCC agenda. We really don\u2019t have the time or manpower.\u2019<\/p>\n
The C of E does love forms. My co-warden and I recently had a two-hour \u2018visitation\u2019 by the archdeacon. We had to fill out a 16-question form on our make-up and attendance figures; answer 55 more on parish finance; fill out a third form on when the drains were cleaned and the lightning conductor checked; and answer the questions \u2018Do you have a plan for if the boiler breaks down?\u2019 and \u2018How will you make lighting more sustainable?\u2019. My co-warden spent a weekend converting the emails by which our maintenance programme is run into a logbook as required. It wasn\u2019t looked at….<\/p>\n
Vanishing volunteers is not just a church problem. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport reports that numbers of regular volunteers has fallen by 11 per cent in eight years. My vicar, Nicholas Cranfield, says there has been a noticeable shift in availability. Early retirees are on grandparenting duty and more women work full time. Some employers ban staff from volunteering in case it damages their professional reputation. \u2018There are not so many qualified accountants out there,\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Church of England\u2019s volunteering crisis | The Spectator https:\/\/t.co\/Cth7QFtfx3<\/a><\/p>\n — Simon Sarmiento (@simonsarmiento) May 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n