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Keeping the Show on the Road
A predecessor of mine, in another parish, once accused me of only talking about myself in the Parish Magazine. Perhaps he was right, so this month I won't. I'll write about the others.
There are parishes that employ a small army of ancillary staff, from personal assistants to vergers. We can't afford to employ anyone but the work has still to be done, free gratis.
Have you any idea how much the labour of the volunteers is worth? We don't have a curate but the Sunday work-load is such that it would send me to an early grave. We have a Reader who takes a great deal of the pressure off. If he was stipendiary he could expect at least £1,000 a month, plus expenses. The organists play for no fee. Did you know that the going rate for these people is £18 a service? Unlike some other parishes, there is no paid personal assistant to the Vicar. The Vicar's wife does the job. PAs in London can command a small fortune for doing what she does. Both our churches are in pristine condition. This is because volunteers clean them. Even on the minimum wage we could expect to have to pay out at least £20 a week for this job, and probably more. We have a churchwarden who risks life and limb climbing on the roof to replace cracked tiles. Every time that he does this we save about £200 in labour charges. A number of lay people take on between them the role of verger. A paid professional verger would receive a salary of £10,000 a year, including accommodation. Don't forget the books. The accountant who fills in my tax return charges about £100 an hour. Our treasurer spends hours sweating over our accounts for nothing, as does the auditor who checks them out.
If we had to pay for all the work that is done free of charge we could be looking at a bill of between fifty and sixty thousand pounds a year. That would cost the people on the electoral roll an additional £10-£12 a week on their collection! It would be nice to see those who put in so many hours remunerated for their efforts but it is an impossible dream. I only hope that those who use our churches appreciate as much as I do the hard work that the unsung heroes carry out. Jesus said that the labourer is worthy of his hire. I'm only sorry that we can't pay them for it.
God bless you all, Fr Allan.
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