The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-04-26
PASTORAL POVERTY
The Trials of the Twen-
tieth Century Minister
WHY CLERGYMEN ARE LEAVING
THE PROFESSION; SOME
COLD FACTS TOLD BY
ONE OF THEM.

church of the Messiah, New York
city, showing that per cent. of the
clergymen of the Unitarian denomi-
nation gave up the active ministry
during 1910, causes one to pause and
inquire into the reasons for the in
creasing tendency among the clergy
to forsake their chosen calling. Ac-
cording to DR.. Holmes, the Unitar-
ians lost over three times as many
ministers in 1910 through withdraw
al from the active work of the min
istry as were lost through death
Thirty-siX clergymen out of a total
body numbering only 53S gave up
their work last year and are now re-
ported to be devoting their energies
to other tasks in other fields.
The proportion probably does not
hold in other denominations; in fact,
Dr.. Holmes shows that last year was
an exceptional year in this regard
with the Unitarians. The condition
referred to is more or less prevalent,
however, in all denominations, and is
said to be increasing. The constant
leakage from the ministerial ranks
of men who have been especially
trained to lead in the work of the
church has probably never been so
extensive as it is at the present time.
When one investigates the reasons
that are back Of this somewhat
alarming condition. he is impressed
first of all by the fact that a very
large percentage of ministers who
lay down their work in the church do
so for financial reasons. The increas-
ed cost of living is making itself felt
nowhere with more severity than in
the average parsonage Many a
minister and his good wife are prac-
ticing methods of economy that
would cause some of their parish
toner's to blush for shame if only
they could be made to feel their own
responsibility in the matter
In almost all lines of labor the
wage scale has increased during the
past decade-except the ministry
The Brotherhoods of railway en-
gineers and trainmen only recently
secured a % per cent. increase in
the salaries of their 100000 mem
bers. The miners in the Pennsylva-
MIA coal fields had the sympathy of
the entire country to back them in
their winning fight for higher wages
few years back. And yet the aver
age pay of clergymen, outside the
large cities, is said to be no greater
than the average wage of the miners
before the strike. The average an
nual salary paid to ministers in this
country, outside the $50 largest cit
les, is only 1913, OF" less than $50 a
month. The average policeman gets
S9OO; the average railroad engineer
receives $1,000. In one church in
Brookline the pastor is paid $500.
while the ianitor is reported to re-
ceive $1,000.
The average wage paid to clergy
men becomes more Illuminating
when we are told that the average
cost of living per family is, or was
some time ago, $751; a year Thus,
while the average policeman en-
glneer and mechanic of the better
class receives an average wage which
Is considerably above the average
cost of living, the average clergy
man, on the other hand, outside of
what might be called metropolitan
pulpits,' receives an average wage
which is considerably less than the
average cost of living.
But it is not alone the small stip-
end that ministers receive which is
drlving so many of them into other
helds. Ordinarily, in any line of
work aside from the ministry, if a
man seeks another situation he goes
after it in a fearless, open manner
confident in his own ability to do the
work in question, and believing that
his worth will be recognized and
compensated according to its merit,
In the ministry, however, a man is
hedged in by certain professional GUS
toms and considerations which make
the matter of severing one pastoral
connection and taking up another to
be matter not only of great tact
fulness and diplomacy but also one
requiring a great deal of time and
annoyance. The modern system of
'candidating' is enough in itself to
drive selt-respecting clergyman
into the insurance business or cause
him to rent an abandoned farm and
so to raising chickens.
One who has not undertaken to
go into vacant pulpit as candidate
knows nothing of the agony of the
experience. The candidate takes
the best sermon he has ever prepar-
ed, knowing full well that every
other mothers son who is seeking
the pastorate in question will do the
same. Not all candidates are as
frank and plain-spoken as the one
who, after laying his manuscript on
the desk before him, said to his wait
ng congregation: Il want to begin
my sermon this morning by assuring
you that while this sermon is by nc
means the best one | have ever pre-
pared, it is by no means the worst. "
The congregation subsequently de.
cided that it wanted preacher
whose average homiletical effort
was higher than the sample offered
them.
A candidate usually feels justified
in takingfthe best sermon he is cap.
able of producing before a strange
and highly critical audience. He
needs the confidence that his best eff,
fort lends him to Offset the nervous
ness which comes over him as he
sees the members of his congregation