Apologies on the formatting. To reproduce this article with red text entailed more time than I was willing to commit. You are bright and savvy ... and will figure it out.
Moving religious leaders around seems to be a common practice. I agree with the author that there are times when it makes sense, but to do so simply as a matter of policy is a mistake.
I used to be against the practice of moving pastors around, but, I have also seen the cult-of-personality thing, and maybe it is a good idea.
bkmk
I am SB and our minister has been here since 1978. We don’t know what we will do when he retires. He is the best.
Amen to that! Our beloved pastor retired a few weeks ago and another pastor who's not assigned to our parish but who often helps out is retiring shortly. Losing two priests in one month makes this a sad summer for us. There's something about it that reopens the wound of losing Benedict a few months ago.
That said, I like our new priest. I don't object to the change in our parish or the rotation of priests through the diocese. I just wasn't expecting to feel so much grief and loss.
I have a cousin who's a protestant minister. His congregation votes every year whether to retain or fire him. I'm glad our pastors aren't retained or let go based on popularity in the pews. There are times IMO when the pastor's job is to challenge us and make us uncomfortable. I'm glad our priests have freedom to do that without fear of being voted out for having preached on the hard stuff.