Today.Az » World news » Massive unemployment cause British youth to change into priests
22 April 2014 [10:10] - Today.Az
Despite the fact work dedicated to God turn harder and harder year on year in Britain with parishes and the church treasury shrinking, young people increasingly make a choice in favour of working for the church. Anglican and Catholic The Church is bringing up a whole generation of young clerics, quite satisfied with a meager annual salary of about £24000 ($ 40000).
Moreover, a pretty good amount of people, qualified in a different field, increasingly choose clerical service, as soon as they complete a special course, the Economist reports.
Urban ministry appeals particularly to the idealistic young, targeting this social stratum as the most promising. It may involve running projects for homeless people and giving advice to refugees, apart from clerical service as such.
There are both proponents and those who take the trend with a pinch of salt, citing this very interest in God-dedicated work is explained by too many challenges in other walks of life, predominantly linked to an extremely scarce job market in the recession period. What is immediately debated in this connection is the Church providing its priests with housing, which is a crucial factor when choosing the occupation, cynics argue.
It would be wrong to assume, however, all the goals pursued are those of material nature. Notably, 29 year-old Sam Dannis believes clerical service is ideal for those who take the social and moral aspect of deformed values in society close to their heart, which makes what they do in their day-to-day job particularly rewarding. "The church is most attractive when it ceases to obsess about its status as a national institution," he says.
Not all the budding priests, or rather church trainees, are lucky enough to be placed to live and work in flourishing London, many are given the task of taking care of remote parishes. Lots of young priests also resent their seniors' skepticism about gay rights. Whatever the case might be, it is fair to point out that the recent state-commissioned polls put British clerics into the category of the happiest people in professional terms.
/AzerTAc/
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