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Literature Review on Topic 5: Deployment

The literature on PSEs reveals an indecision whether PSEs stand within the parochial system or stand over against it. History suggests the latter (ref 012) (ref 013) but some commentators (ref 082) see the PSE's work as essentially part of the parish missionary effort. This dilemma may be partly resolved by carefully identifying the 'natural human grouping' (ref 098) in which the PSE's ministry is to be worked out. That the workplace is a natural human grouping has never been in doubt as the chaplaincy movement attests. A bivocational ministry will commonly be worked out in two 'natural human groupings': the parish grouping and the workplace grouping the ministry to each having its characteristic style. Integrating the two will be a challenge for the PSE just as it is for the faithful layperson (ref 099).

The parochial system and its ministry are themselves undergoing rapid change as Mead (ref 129) and others observe. Christendom has already disappeared and a new paradigm is emerging in which formation for the laity catechuminates and turning-point ministries will proive critical. American researchers Chang & Bompadre (ref 008) paint a picture in which fewer parishioners support their parish financially while the number of persons aspiring to clergy employment remain at traditional levels. Professional clergy as a result shift to minstries outside the parish context a shift which New Zealand Anglicanism appears ready to accommodate (ref 128) Chang & Bompadre predict a future in which numbers of Anglican clergy reach parity with the number of worshippers. Whether such a future should be viewed with horror or enthusiasm depends on whether one views clergy and laity as 'chiefs' and 'indians' or in some other relationship.

Bickers believes that bivocational pastors can play an important part in planting new churches (ref 086) because they know the community and are known to it. His proposition is perhaps more appropriate to his own denomination (Baptist) than to Anglicanism's established parochial system but might be adapted to provide for new worshipping centres within an existing parish. He makes the point that church growth is not numerical growth only but the growth that occurs in the lives of the members.

Bickers points to the kind of worshipping community that is most likely to welcome a bivocational pastor (ref 086):
  1. a community that wants to make use of resources other than clergy time
  2. a community that would like to hire more staff
  3. a community that would like its pastor to stay put longer
  4. a community whose laypeople are seeking to increase their ministries
On the other hand Keizer contends (ref 050) that conventional practice puts PSEs into exactly the wrong communities. In Keizer's view clergy professionalism has been concentrated in congregations with the greatest talent pools of professional expertise and diluted in those marginal places where an educated generalist would be most prized. Booth (ref 088) attacks the notion of the 'Sunday priest' a PSE who simply helps fill gaps in service rosters on the grounds that it has no pastoral component and enshrines a quasi-magical conception of the presbyter's role in the sacraments. Davis' observation (ref 141) that PSEs have a tendency to drift away into stipendiary positions bespeaks a deprecation of the unpaid ministries which should be taken into account in deploying PSEs.

Head reference for: 008 012 013 050 082 086 088 098 099 128 129 141

References not cited: 036 127