More tea, Vicar?
By the Reverend David Burgess
Most of the time, life in the Four Parishes proceeds pretty serenely. Unusually, though, I've had something of a hot question to deal with over the last six months or so – one variation or another on: “David, what's the difference between a Priest in Charge and a Vicar?”
It's a fair question. If you've not been privy to PCC discussions over the last few months, or you're not an avid follower of the Church press or an eagle-eyed reader of the Daily Telegraph appointments column, you may be wondering why it's surfaced at all.
Historically, each parish in the Church of England has provided its minister with the freehold of his or her church – referred to as the ‘living’. The minister is an incumbent and literally takes possession of the church at the time of his or her induction.
This is still the situation throughout the C. of E., though, slowly, moves are underway to place the employment situation of the clergy on a more modern footing. As things stand, though, any exception to this rule has to involve the suspension of the living.
This was the case when I was appointed 11 years ago. If (and only if) there's likely to be pastoral reorganisation within a parish or group of parishes – merger or closure, for example – the Diocese can apply to have the freehold suspended, and the minister, rather than being an incumbent, is appointed as a priest in charge.
It's a complete reversal of an incumbent's status. If a parish situation were ever to break down completely, a priest in charge could have a very difficult time of it indeed. There are isolated incidences of this happening and when it does, there are no employment rights attached to the post whatsoever; no contract, terms or conditions of employment, line management, or disciplinary and grievance procedures. Conversely, short of being found guilty of disgraceful moral conduct, an incumbent has absolute security of tenure.
Personally, I think that neither extreme is healthy, and I hope that the new arrangements being proposed will offer a balanced solution. For now, though, the Diocese has agreed that no pastoral reorganisation is in the offing, and together with four other colleagues in the Wendover Deanery I've been made an incumbent – in my case, Vicar of The Lee and Rector of Hawridge, Cholesbury and St Leonard's.
In one sense, the change is legal; in parts quite obscurely so. It certainly won't affect what I do in the parishes on a day-to-day basis – unless you've held back these last eleven years on offering me “More tea, Vicar?” because you didn't believe I was one… In another sense, though, the change is genuine. Security in employment isn't the be-all and end-all of things, but having a measure of it has made a slight psychological difference. And for the parishes as well, there's a degree of uncertainty that's been removed, and that has to be good for the consistency of Christian mission and ministry within our communities.
Postscript: I'm aware that I've left an obvious follow-up question unanswered - “What's the difference between a Rector and a Vicar?” To explain that would take almost as much space as this current article. Perhaps I'll prepare an answer for those who really want to know, and email it to those who ask. Perhaps…