I went out to lunch with a clergyman. We ate on a patio on a street turned into an outdoor mall, small town, snow occasionally, average high of 45 in winter.
Suddenly he's hunkering down and half covering his face (my back is to the mall). "That's Joe the homeless guy, I don't want him to see me."
After Joe disappeared I asked what's his story. It's the typical, substance and mental issues. He said he bought Joe a train ticket to home in Florida (no way Joe could make it onto an airplane). Clergymen often have a discretionary fund for stuff like this. Joe's mother bought him a train ticket back. Then he sent him by bus somewhere else but someone sent him back. He said you can only do so much for people then you have to write them off. Let them be another clergyman's problem or whatever.
He said sometimes it works, he sent another guy to Colorado by bus and he never showed up again. He asks them where they want to go and buys them either a bus or train ticket.
Is that the purpose of the fund? I can understand the frustration, but something is not sitting right with my understanding of the situation.
Can we take up funds to send certain clients away? [sarcasm]Or is that a write off under the category Professional Sabotage? [/sarcasm]
No sabotage intended.
My Dad was an Episcopalian Priest. Like every other profession, you can't solve every problem someone might have. When I practiced for private clients I got to where I would decline to get involved in a person's private war with their neighbor.
The purpose of a discretionary fund is so that he can use professional discretion to help someone, or not. Maybe a parishioner lost their job and needs car repair money, that sort of thing. It can also be used for positive things like sending a kid to camp. Or a homeless person says if they could only get to XYZ place they would have a place to live. Ok here's a bus or train ticket, good luck to you!
Colorado
Yeah, Mile high city. I can see them never coming back!
🙂
N
I have a good friend, now retired, who spent many years in Wichita Falls, Texas working at a mission for the homeless. He is well-versed in religious matters and has even served as a minister for a non-denominational church. He has told stories very similar to Dave's story above. He had one fellow who only appeared during the winter months. That fellow would hop a freight train and end up somewhere in Minnesota for the summer months, then reverse the trip to be back in Wichita Falls before hard winter hit Minnesota. My friend was on a trip to Minnesota a number of years ago and ran into this fellow on the street. Sort of a needle-in-a-haystack type of occurrence.
The stories he shared with us ranged from the tragic to the sublime. Some people are sponges, always taking and never giving back. Others believe in giving back in the limited ways that they can.
Problems of other professions (clergy)
Preachers are just people, like you and me, that answered a higher calling in their life. That doesn't mean they're immune to all of life's road grime that gets in everybody's wheelwells.
We use to attend a Congregational Church (for those that have never heard of Congregationalists, we call ourselves "any old church will do") and both the building and the congregation were small.
One morning between Sunday School and Morning Services I was outside talking with the preacher. He confided in me how disappointed he was because his bicycle had been stolen the previous evening. Being a small community there was a good chance that it had been taken by either a member or a member's child.
I told him a good way to flush the culprit out during the sermon would be to give the whole church the Ten Commandments, one by one. I told him when he gets to "Thou Shalt Not Steal" he needed to pause a little bit and scan the pews with a piercing stare. I bet the thief would be awash with guilt and he would be able to tell who it was that took his bicycle. He thought that was a pretty good idea.
The sermon came and he gave us a pretty good "hell fire and brimstone" brow beating with the Ten Commandments. But it seemed to me he just kind of breezed over "Thou Shalt Not Steal". After the service we were all standing around and shaking hands outside by the doors. I leaned over and asked him why he didn't give the sermon more punch. He whispered back that he thought he got started real good, but when he got to "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" he remembered where he had left his bicycle...:snarky:
Problems of other professions (clergy)
Shame on you, Paden. That story's so old it could file for Social Security payments.
But I love it every time I hear it!;-)
Problems of other professions (clergy)
Another story involving a preacher.....
It seems a young fellow straight out of the seminary had been sent to lead the congregation of a small rural church way out in the boonies far from his boyhood home and family. To say his family was proud of him would be an understatement. That added to his intense desire to always report to them the best news possible.
As he had been appointed suddenly to this little church, he had no time to meet any of the locals ahead of time. In fact, he arrived late on Saturday evening. So, early Sunday morning he headed to the church to get his bearings before anyone else showed up. He opened the big front door and walked in timidly anticipating the experience he would have that morning delivering his first sermon to his first congregation. But, to his amazement and chagrin, he discovered that the church had been robbed and every pew had been stolen. There was no time to do anything and he really didn't know what to do in this community. So, he boldly stood at the big front door and introduced himself to the church members as they arrived and explained about the theft. The congregation was very pleased to have a new preacher so they directed him to go on as if everything was normal, which he did.
The next day he wrote a letter to his parents explaining of the warm welcome he had received and how every seat was taken and fifty were left standing throughout the sermon.
Problems of other professions (clergy)
The Episcopal Church started to go downhill when they let padded pews in.
WE AREN'T BAPTISTS, FOR GAWD'S SAKES!
