Life on this Side of Heaven
Talking with Jane Gober, Canon for Transition Ministry, on her calling.
As canon for transition ministry, the Rev. Jane Gober (simply put) helps find clergy for our congregations and helps those individuals discerning a call to ordained ministry. This year, the diocese has 26 people in process for ordination. The most since Bishop Gutierrez began in 2016. We sat down with Gober to learn more.
Q. Tell us what kinds of trends you are seeing in people seeking positions and in churches seeking priests?
Three important shifts directly impact congregations seeking new priests. The first is that the average age of a newly ordained priest is slightly younger than it used to be, and we're seeing substantially fewer people seeking ordination of the priesthood as a second career. This is one of the contributing factors to why in this diocese calls with rectories can get twice as many applicants.
The second is that most priests are married and typically in two career households, and more and more of those households are two clergy households. That means that more clergy are less likely to make a big move, and perhaps have a choosier approach to what regions to seek a new call in.
The third is that the priesthood is no longer the job for the third son. It is a sacred calling and those who pursue it are choosing this complicated path over more lucrative options. Today’s priests are substantially spiritual and religious and more likely to be both humanly progressive and theologically orthodox.
As for trends in churches it is the transitional discomfort (and immense opportunity) in the post-pandemic reality.
Many of our churches are now permanently hybrid, and that experience is one that is life-giving and pastoral for persons who schedules don't match our Sunday morning model or who struggle with mobility and health issues. And, even households with young children with a multitude of responsibilities and expectations.
However, we're still really new at what it means to nurture Christian community in a hybrid model and so one of the things that more churches are looking for is curiosity and adaptability and experimentation -- although they don't usually call it that -- for how to continue in the practices of Christian discipleship in a hybrid manner.
The other post-pandemic impact trend is that congregations have let go of activities and ways that weren't serving the Gospel or their well-being, but they haven't figured out how to use that openness to meet current needs just yet.
Q. What surprised you the most about this job?
How much time would I spend on the phone! Every application for a rector or priest in charge opening means at least two phone calls, which sometimes take multiple emails to schedule. Sometimes my whole day is mostly phone calls with my equivalents in other dioceses, and/or clergy who are applying for openings here. I have met some amazing clergy over the last year through these phone calls, and time in conversation with my colleagues is always good, but it does take away from some of the projects I have in mind that could help congregations make their way through this journey with more confidence.
Q. What is the easiest and the hardest thing about the work you do?
The hardest part is the heartbreak. The people whose materials pass through our office have poured their hopes and dreams and daring into this seeking of a sacred vocation. Whether it the people wondering about ordained ministry or priests seeking a new call, very few come lightly. Many come with the well-being of their families resting on a possibility. Not everyone gets the call they had their heart set on - every congregational call process has more no’s than yes’s. I would love for everyone to be healthy and happy and a good fit for just the call they desire, but that isn’t life on this side of heaven. So, the no’s are the hardest.
Second to that is the volume. It is a good thing. Right now we have an extraordinary number of people in the curious or formation process right now. And, we have had several attractive openings in this amazing diocese over the last year, so that is its own delightful challenge.
The easiest part is visiting the congregations: getting to know them, sometimes visiting as presider and/or preacher. We have dozens and dozens of lifegiving congregations in an amazing variety of practices and communities all in the embrace of Jesus and the Episcopal tradition. If I were not a minister I would probably be a sociologist of religion because I find “religiousness” fascinating. This means that seeing a different congregation nearly every week is good fun.
