THE PREVALENCE OF CLERGY BURNOUT

Burnout amongst ministers of religion across all denominations remains a serious issue, particularly in the cut and thrust of todays largely secular world. In western culture particularly, there is a clearly orchestrated and ongoing campaign to marginalize the church and its clergy. Unfortunately, this negative campaign has been assisted by numerous cases of historic institutional and clergy abuse and charges of paedophilia and associated abuse. While this may apply only to a minority of institutions, church workers and clergy, there is no doubt that the impact has been felt by guilty and innocent alike. As a result many hardworking, faithful clergy and others, have felt alienated and isolated by the understandable public backlash to this extremely horrific and regrettable situation. When this is combined with the stress and pressure of their day to day role, the possibility of burnout can for many, become inevitable. The aim of this work is to provide some understand of the origins of vocational burnout and effective options for addressing and overcoming it.