Posted on 03/18/2006 9:57:27 AM PST by sionnsar
The number of young men being ordained [in ECUSA] has plummeted more than 90%from an average of 278 a year in the 1960s to 25 a year since 2000, while the number of older men is fairly steady.
Younger women represent a small fraction of ordinations, and their number has dropped substantially since the 1980s.
Women over 35 filled the ranks in substantial numbers after ordination for women was approved in 1976, averting a critical shortfall in qualified clergy.
Alan F. Blanchard, Clergy Wellness and the Stewardship of Abundance, recently released by the Church Pension Fund, page 102
Update: Bishop Frederick H. Borsch has a review of this booklet here.
Nonsense. Right-thinking people know that vocations flourish whenever priests are allowed to marry, and a church that is always changing itself constantly to keep up with the Zeitgeist will never lack for young men to join the clergy.
Younger women represent a small fraction of ordinations, and their number has dropped substantially since the 1980s.
More lies. Young Episcopalian women have been yearning for generations to become priestesses, since the days of Bishop Seabury, and before that, to the first Anglican women in the time of Henry VIII. Progressive thinkers all know this for a fact.
Women over 35 filled the ranks in substantial numbers after ordination for women was approved in 1976, averting a critical shortfall in qualified clergy.
So the Episcopal clergy is becoming a second career for middle-aged busybody women. We can all see how the Episcopal Church has benefited from the unique charisms of these latter-day Marthas. At least, all open-minded and tolerant persons of faith can.
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