A Transformation on Clerical Perspective

CLERGY ARE REAL HUMAN PEOPLE

 

Having grown up in the church and living in New England for a good part of my life, my ideas regarding the clergy of the church were based on only having been taught that which I was subjected to.

As a child, I believed, like many children believe, that the clergy actually lived in the church itself-- like they never, ever left the church or lived in a parish house or private home offsite. I believed the same thing of my elementary teachers, too, that they never left the school and had individual lives of their own outside of school. Anyway, I was just a child and a bit naive about many things.

As an adolescent and adult, having been brought up in what still can be a Puritan type of regard for the church, I was taught and believed the clergy to be more than human. To be the most Holy of human beings and the highest human connection to God. I believed them to be more pious, more righteous, and most certainly more pure and free of sin. I never thought of them as everyday people living everyday lives.

I was also shown, as per the above, that other than joy and sometimes anger, that clergy really didn't show any other type of emotion. They were more stoic than anything else. And I was taught that you NEVER looked upon the clergy as a personal friend. Sure, they were there to guide and provide spiritual counsel for certain concerns or issues-- marriage, death, etc,--but that was all. You only saw the clergy by appointment in the church office and NEVER in their own home.

So, those beliefs are what I have carried with me most of my life, and took with me in this new chapter of my life in the west coast world.

Having been a congregant of now two beloved churches in Northern California, my eyes have been opened to a completely new perspective.

Firstly, clergy are most certainly just as "human" as anyone else with a whole myriad of emotions and life histories. They can be just as broken and beautiful as you and I, and just as capable of sin as you and I.

I also learned, through the warmth and compassion of certain clergy that you CAN be friends with a priest, pastor, minister, etc. These friendships have shaped that human element and human perspective for me. I have laughed with, cried with, and celebrated with friends, who, oh by the way, just happen to also be clergy.

Secondly, I never, in my life, ever thought that I would hold a weeping member of the clergy in my arms and console them, but that's where I stood today--in a very raw, vulnerable, and tender moment; Me, an ordinary human being, consoling a member of the clergy.

Lastly, I have been invited into the personal homes of these clergy, and guess what? They live every day live just as you and I.

I would like to thank these clergy persons who have opened their lives, homes, and hearts to me, and shown me that you are not only leaders of a greater flock in the service and purpose to God, but that you are just as human --with human faults and weaknesses and strengths--as anyone else. God's peace and God bless.