SHORTAGE Of CLERGYMEN

Evening Star, Issue 20135, 27 March 1929, Page 11

SHORTAGE Of CLERGYMEN

OVERWORK TRAGEDIES DEATHS EXCEED ORDINATIONS. The tragic loci, that the of the Church ol' England tire dying lasler than they ore being ordained was revealed by the Bishop of London aI. a meeting on behaf of the East London Church fund a lew weeks ago. Describing it as a “ really terrible thing.” the bishop said : “J. lost last snninier seven clergy in seven weeks and live of their wives, all from overwork and because, they had nobody to stand by them. Wo have 1o [ace this tremendous fact of the depletion of the clergy of our church.” In one rural deanery of Bethnal Green continued Ihe bishop, there were forty-seven clergy before the war. and there are only twenty-two now. They must somehow remedy that position. One way was that, parents, instead of discouraging (heir sons in public schools, should send them on to the universities and theological colleges, and thus get them to make the glorious; contribution of their young Jives to a great cause. “We find,” the bishop said, “that there is among the youth of our country an absolute willingness to he ordained, but they cannot find the money or persuade thor parents to educate them for it.” The fact that the average age of clergy of the Church of England was fifty-seven and that they were dying quicker than they could he ordained touched the church in its most vital part.