Since the start of the pandemic, clergy members from religious groups across the country have been stepping down, leaving the challenging task of running a congregation to laypeople. As Ian Lovett explains, this is due to a range of factors.
The always-demanding job of religious leader, clergy members explain, has become almost impossible during the pandemic: relationships with and among parishioners have frayed while meeting only over video, and political divisions have deepened, fueled by fights over COVID-19 protocols.
Though no national data about clergy resignations exist, an October study from the Barna Group, which studies faith in the U.S., found that 38 percent of pastors were seriously considering leaving full-time ministry, up from 29 percent in January 2021. Among pastors under age forty-five, nearly half were considering quitting.
Leaders of the Conservative Jewish movement sent an email to synagogues in December, warning that at least 80 of the movement’s roughly 600 synagogues would be looking for a new rabbi this year; they expected at most 60 rabbis would be looking for new jobs. In the Reform Jewish movement, the country’s largest Jewish denomination, there are 5-to-10 percent more congregations searching for a rabbi than in a normal year, according to leaders.
Read more on Wall Street Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/houses-of-worship-face-clergy-shortage-as-many-resign-during-pandemic-11645452000?fbclid=IwAR1Q5Id0eOZs5ArKGLtm3yRyiDGCM2ZslJCGcPV7OxPY4LBc6PbkxygeBm4