Living with clergy

[Maister]

A friend raised an interesting question the other day: would it be a plus or a minus in your book to have an SO who was a ‘person of the Cloth’?

On the one hand, you got the whole ‘God’s on his/her side’ thing going on (if you subscribe to such things), but on the other it just seems like you’d always be playing second fiddle to the needs of the congregation. Seems like there’d always be a birth or funeral or a food drive or a Bible study meeting….or something going on that does not abide by normal working hours. It’s not a job, after all, it’s a calling.

Worse yet, what if you were the child of clergy? Share your views what would be desirable or undesirable about living with clergy (and if anyone here was the son of a preacher man you owe us a lengthy explanation of why the apple seems to fall so far from that particular tree)

[Whose Yur Planner]

A friend raised an interesting question the other day: would it be a plus or a minus in your book to have an SO who was a ‘person of the Cloth’?

On the one hand, you got the whole ‘God’s on his/her side’ thing going on (if you subscribe to such things), but on the other it just seems like you’d always be playing second fiddle to the needs of the congregation. Seems like there’d always be a birth or funeral or a food drive or a Bible study meeting….or something going on that does not abide by normal working hours. It’s not a job, after all, it’s a calling.

Worse yet, what if you were the child of clergy? Share your views what would be desirable or undesirable about living with clergy (and if anyone here was the son of a preacher man you owe us a lengthy explanation of why the apple seems to fall so far from that particular tree)

Pks and cks are either angels or hellions. I have friends that are pks and our experiences are very similar. I think it goes along with growing up in a fishbowl with parents that are authority figures and having to maintain a certain image.

[Coragus]

Mrs. Coragus is an ordained minister, albeit not in a mainline faith. She went through her old church's program before we met.

For me, what it means is dealing with, shall we say, strangeness.

[Cardinal]

Are you forgetting the many Cyburbians who are ordained through the Universal Life Church?

(Couldn't find the thread - it was a long, long time ago.)

- Rev. Cardinal

[otterpop]

On my office wall is my "Certificate of Ordination" from The Church of the Latter-Day Dude.

And if you don't know about that church, obviously you're not a golfer.

[kjel]

Among my friends I count a Reform rabbi, a Pentecostal minister, and an Episcopal priest. Extended family includes a Presbyterian missionary (not ordained) and a Lutheran pastor.

The rabbi and priest are quite normal and have good division of life and work for the most part. The minister is all work all the time, his wife is also an ordained minister so it works. They went to seminary together, she figured it was better that way. My great-grandfather was a missionary posted to Korea in the 1890's to 1912, he nearly caused an international incident when Russians dared to work on the Sabbath. The Lutheran pastor was all work all the time, his wife led her own life and was busy raising three girls. Those girls could not wait to get out of the house and all were pregnant and married (in that order) by age 21.

[Bubba]

One of my close friends from high school is the son of a Lutheran minister...he was always just a normal kid. Seems like his father did a good job of keeping his day job out of the house, and was always around when needed. I also knew two of a local Baptist preacher's seven kids fairly well, and both of those two meet the stereotypical image of the wild-child preacher's kid...I'm guessing that had more to do with their father being a generally lousy parent and a miserable person (and thankfully he eventually figured out that he was better off not trying to work as a preacher).