U.S. Catholic numbers are out, and they show a pattern of grim decline in most areas including infant and adult baptisms, priest ordinations, marriages, confirmations and first communions. Even the total Catholic population may be down, based on some messy calculations stemming from errors made in 2005 and the uprooting of people from Hurricane Katrina, some of whom can no longer be accuately accounted for.Catholics can commiserate with mainline Christian religions who seem to be reporting their own declines with each succeeding year.

The 2,043-page Kenedy Directory, published in June, is chocked full of data about the nation and worlds largest Christian group. The Catholic News Services says the Kenedy tome offers a Jan. 1 snapshot of the church. The 2005 directory reportedly had a 2.1 million person miscount in the Boston Archdiocese, incorrectly skewing numbers. Rather than the 3,974,846 that went into the tally, it should have been 1,845,846 Catholics. Thus, statisticians say the net decline in the U.S. from 2005 to 2006 was about 300,000. The final Catholic tally is put at 67,006,254.

In the Phoenix Catholic Diocese, they counted 551,721 registered members, or about 4,000 fewer from the year before. Catholic marriages, first communion and infant baptisms all showed a slight decline, reported the latest issue of The Catholic Sun. The drop in numbers were attributed to incorrect data received from the parishes or unavailability of information at all. On the bright side, this diocese had about 5,600 adults joining the church, sharply up form 2,323 in 2005.

The Catholic Sun, in an editorial this week, criticizes the fuzzy math” of the latest directory and questions how the diocese could actually be losing Catholics when new parishes have been established and some churches are popping at the seams. “For a local chuch such as the Phoenix Diocese, whose makeup changes as quickly as a new housing subdivision is established, church leaders would be better served with monthly updates through recent Web technologies, rather than a yearly census of sorts,” it said.

These are some national numbers Catholic News Services gleaned from the report: church recognized marriages: 212,000, a drop of 11,000; confirmations, 630,000, a drop of 15,000; first communion, 833,000, a drop of nearly 40,000; infant baptisms, 943,300, down by 34,000; adult baptisms/reception into church, 154,000, unchanged; 438 priests ordained, a drop of 29; students in Catholic high schools, 680,000, a drop of 13,000; enrollment in Catholic elementary schools, 1.76 million, a drop of almost 84,000; teachers in Catholic schools, 173,000, a drop of 8,000; high school students enrolled in parish religious education programs, 729,000, a drop of 26,000; and elementary school enrolled in religious ed, 3.5 million, down 81,000.

And the decline goes on: children in faith formation were down by 204,000; students in Catholic colleges and universities, 764,000 or 9,000 fewer; priests in U.S. dioceses and religious orders, 42,271, or 1,151 fewer than 2005 (but only 740 fewer if New Orleans priests were included); women religious, 67,773. a drop of 2,000; religious brothers, 5,252, a drop of 265; permanent deacons, 14,995, a drop of 32, but New Orleans’ data would mean a slight increase.

The data shows that the U.S. had a net loss of 305 parishes, down to 18,992, even with 46 new parishes added during the year. There were eight fewer Catholic hospitals, but they served 2.5 million more people.

Those are the number even with continued growth of the American population and human migration from Mexico, most being of Catholic heritage, It remains to be seen whether Catholic leaders will be troubled enough by the report to do anything more than theyve been doing. There is one bright spot. In the past year, Catholics increased membership on the U.S. Supreme Court from three to five with the confirmation of John Roberts and Samuel Alito, where they now hold a majority.

It was 9:30 on a Sunday night and I was fully asleep. I was rustled from slumber by a solicitor calling for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, seeking another donation. She went through about five sentences about the pressing need before my sleepy brain could discern things. I could have been mad about MADD’s intrusion (yes, I have been on the no-call list from its inception), but I committed my usual $20 and was just grateful her supervisor didn’t have to come on the line or call me back to verify things.A couple hours before a man confronted me in a parking lot about his cars motor blowing up and how he was stranded and needed to get back to Tucson immediately. I had three bucks in my wallet and gave them to him. No questions asked. Both incidents caused me to evaluate our patterns of giving. My wife and record most of our donations and tally them at tax time, somewhat amazed at the wide spectrum of largesse — or reluctance to say no.

So often, we are arbitrary as to what we give to and when we opt not to help. Since the requests come randomly, our responses may reflect our moods at the moment and how much the demands on our resources seem to be at that time. Weve always taken seriously what we put into our church offering envelope each week. It really adds up, and at tax time when we itemize, it is a sizable part of our charitable giving. Certainly, the thought crosses my mind: What if we had all that money over the past 35 years that we gave to the church? We could have invested it in a nice summer cabin in Pinetop or traveled to all the best spots in the world.

And I wonder about colleagues and friends who dont actively practice religion: Are they taking that same equivalent money and making their personal lives more comfortable or exotic? Certainly some are. Are we misguided by the sacrifice we make in faithfully paying our tithes and offerings, or paying extra for the capital campaigns and emergency causes? Would that money be better spent in college funds for our grandchildren or “moving up” to a better home?

I think not. Most people of faith, of course, believe what they have is already a gift of God. And it behooves us to wisely spend our money where we discern it will do good, especially in the ministries and charities that raise up and benefit others. The corollary is that as we give gladly and freely, more will flow to us to take care of the college funds and the comforts of our lives.

MADD may forever be fighting an elusive dream to reign in drunk drivers, and there might be an XYZ organization that could spend my latest $20 better. The man in the parking lot who got my “last $3″ may have taken it and used it for a six-pack of Bud Light. But it was like a $3-bet or gamble on humanity. My prayer is that it helped a needy man. Over the years, there has been a lot of such discretionary spending on spontaneous people and causes. If nothing else, it was useful that I was a witness to their need. We are taught that it could be Jesus himself standing before us in desperate straits.

One Sunday, a young Mexican man showed up at my church and simply wanted desperately to go back home. My Spanish was good enough to understand his story. We took him home, got him a shower and lunch and took him to the Greyhound bus station and bought a one-way ticket to Douglas, Ariz. We trust that he made it back home. We never viewed it as our being out $37 and having our Sunday afternoon interrupted. Instead, it was an adventure in our lives and an experience to help. The young man came to me, like the MADD caller who tore me from sleep the other night.

Like it says in that first tune I every learned to play on my school tuba, “Abide in Me: “Abide in me, fast falls the eventide; the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide; when other helpers fail and comforts flee; help of the helpless, O abide in me.

I suspect many of us reflect on the best of our school days as those teachers and classes where we were pushed to the limits with demanding work and curricula and where even provocative, unorthodox and verboten teaching took place. My best high school teacher, who taught history, government and sociology, was canned by the small-minded school board at the end of my junior year partly for a refreshing, straight-forward, mature sex education unit we were afforded. His firing taught me much about the dangers of electing little local minds to school boards to oversee the boundless world of education and ideas.We never had a world religions course. In recent decades, there has been growing respect for such courses that take an objective look at various global faiths and how they impact their cultures and drive history and national life. First Forum, a publication of the First Amendment Center announced in May that a required world religions course in Modesto, Calif., offered since 2000, was producing students who gained new respect for religious liberty. And not surprisingly, all the exposure to what other faiths taught and believed did not cause impressionable ninth-graders to change their own religious convictions.

Researchers Emile Lester and Patrick Roberts believed they conducted the first in-depth study of the effects of teaching religion in public classrooms. They found that such a programs success thrives best with advance community support and adequately preparing and training teachers. Further, they found that Modestos faith community supported the course, and that wide acceptance showed that a serious treatment of religion in the classroom does not have to be controversial. In the end, students expressed strong respect for the First Amendment freedoms.

The two researchers said they are cautiously optimistic that required world religion courses, like Modestos, could be established in most districts through careful planning and cultivating the support of the community. There remains the critical problem of finding and training good teachers with wide knowledge but not biased or predisposed to push a particular religion or diminish another. Interesting, the ninth graders have the option in Modesto to opt out of the religion courses, but out of the more than 3,000 ninth graders, only two or three typically choose each year not to not take part. Part of that may be that even kids find learning about other religions — their rituals and beliefs — can be interesting and stimulating, in the same way dissecting frogs makes biology half-way interesting.

The extensive report (www.firstamendmentcenter.org/PDF/FirstForum_ModestoWorldReligions.pdf) concludes that full respect for the rights of believers requires at least a basic education in the complexity of a religious tradition” and that public schools are a logical place for it because attitudes about religion form early in life. Conservatives who have long complained about how “godless” schools have become — that religion is banned from schools — are pleased by the Modesto program and have not complained that their religion is might be short-changed, researchers found.

Bottom line is students get that same feeling many of us come away with when we have attended an ecumenical event and realized anew that people who authentically live out the values of their faith are good people, too. They can take comfort knowing the common ground that exist and recognizing they can have trust in people who believe in their historic faiths and strive to live up to those ideals. With so much of global strife today mired in religious hatred, the kids in Modesto may be on course to know better than others what people believe.

A Mesa member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently wrote me that I am a woman and proud to say that I will never hold a position of priesthood leadership in my church. In her detailed letter, she said, We believe in the eternal principle that males have the rights and responsibilities of the priesthood and females have the rights and responsibilities of motherhood.She said that motherhood, in an eternal sense, doesn’t require the actual bearing of children but of being a nurturer of the human race. The writer went on to to say that we also accept that females will never receive the priesthood, not in this life nor in the next, and, as women, we dont feel denigrated in any way. The priesthood exists to bless the lives of members, and, as women, we are very much blessed and honored by the priesthood members of our association.

Most of her letter relentlessly speaks of eternal principles. She wrote of the eternal, unchanging God who has given his children eternal truths and unchanging principles. The reader explained that her church may alter policies to adapt to changing needs, but the doctrines of the gospel are eternal. She summed that up: I am so grateful to belong to a church that adheres to eternal principles and wont be swayed by the winds of contemporary social pressure.

The woman mentioned my story about the HBO series Big Love show in which a man practiced polygamy with three women, and the world came down on their heads. I had written how the Mormons abandoned polygamy in the late 1800s as a provision for Utah to win statehood. But by her comments, as a Mormon, she said, the church otherwise would have continued the practice. While the thought of polygamy tends to be a repugnant one in todays society, it is found throughout the Bible, and we believe it to be an eternal principle, she explained. The church saw the need to cease practicing polygamy because of the conflict with federal law, and we do believe strongly in upholding the laws of the land. However, polygamy is an eternal principle and will be practiced again at some later date, perhaps not on this earth, but in the hereafter.

So is that what Mormons guardedly believe? It is that kind of statement by a practicing Mormon that causes the public to have doubts how firm the church is about its abandonment of polygamy. Was it just a painful and begrudging choice to drop it to satisfy the feds? Also interesting is that she said that her letter was intended to show where we are coming from. Then she added, Talk to any active member of our church, and they can reaffirm this stand.

She firmly noted that her church loves homosexuals but cannot condone their behavior because, she believes, their sexual orientation is something they have control over. Thus they cannot receive all the churchs blessings, the priesthood or leader roles or in their personal lives by not living a morally clean life.

Her letter leaves me cold and sad. How easy it is for all faiths to lay out their versions of Gods eternal truths. But saying her people believe strongly in upholding the laws of the land suggests eternal truths have to be put aside sometimes. And thats a good thing. But how absolutely regrettable is her position about a womans primary role — experiencing the rights and responsibilities of motherhood. Is that all? How regressive, rigid, thoughtless. What women take to leadership in all dimensions of our planets life, including religions, is immense, incalculable and self-evident. A great tragedy is that many women can’t see that.

I vote in the economy with my wallet as effectively as I can. I am mindful in targeting my boycotts and making sure they know I’m putting no dollars in their coffers because …. I am selective as to where I shop when I am aware of injustice or crummy business policies. But the Multicultural Yellow Pages action to make Israel and Jews non-existent is pure pettiness.You probably have various versions of yellow pages on you shelves — a book of information and advertising to guide in finding specialties across the whole breadth of local commerce. A low-flame brouhaha has been going on in recent years because Marwan Ahmad, who publishes the Multicultural Yellow Pages in Phoenix, has chosen to selectively keep things related to Israel out of the book. While, for example, he offers a listing of consulates and embassies in the U.S., conspicuously absent are those for Israel. Among airlines listed, there is none for El Al, the Israeli airline. Currencies of the world are listed, but not the shekel. An on-line version contains a Middle East map that identifies where Israel is as “Palestine. Israels international area code is “972″ but the phone listing give that number only to Palestine.

This is a publication once called the Muslim Yellow Pages, but its name was changed to the Multicultural Yellow Pages when Ahmad took control of it in 2000. It promotes itself as serving the ethnic communities in Arizona since 1994.” Obviously not the Jewish community. Ahmads boycott of all things Israeli got especially political when such folks as Gov. Janet Napolitano and State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, wrote their own endorsement letters commending the Yellow Pages for more than a dozen years of service to the community. The letters were subsequently published in the Multicultural Yellow Pages. Now both Napolitano and Sinema have withdrawn their endorsement since learning about the Israeli snubs. The July 7 issue of the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix traces the controversy.

Back in 2002, the Arizona Republic correctly editorialized that the tactics to exclude Israel was a multicultural insult that taints the Valley. It went on to say, With their military muscle and modern economy, Israelis sometimes appear paranoid in fearing the efforts to wipe their country off the face of the earth. We can thank Ahmads directory for this much: It shows us that the fear is well-grounded.

On June 24, Jeremy Marwil wrote the governor dismayed to see her letter in the yellow pages and gave her the scoop on the previous criticism of the publication. I am confident that someone with your record, had she known the true facts, would never had associated with such a slanted and biased publication, he noted. Marwil urged her to retract support of a publication that pays lip service to the notion of multiculturalism but in reality, spits in the face of different ideologies and cultures.

The governors office was able to get the endorsement letter off the web site, but it cant do anything about the one in the printed book. As for Ahmad, he said, Some people want to shove Israel down our throats whether we like it or not. And we’re not going to let people. This is a free country. He further said that the directory does not have to make sense. A lot of people are happy with it, and it makes sense to them.

The Jewish News also points out how Ahmad, who also publishes The Muslim Voice newspaper, serves on the Human Relations Commission of the City of Phoenix. He is in a second and final term, which expires June 30, 2007. That commission is squirming about it now that members are aware of the irony and awkwardness of his membership. One leader said the commissions purpose is to build bridges and bring people together, not keep them apart.

In the final analysis, Ahmad is being a hypocrite. His yellow pages lose their credibility by his spiteful and small-minded steps to exclude mentions of Israel. He should swallow his personal contempt for Israel and produce a book that is accurate. It is a disservice to others who have advertised in the book. He has further sullied his reputation on the Human Rights Commission. Lets see what the next edition of his yellow pages looks like.

Summer is fleeting by, and across this planet, some terrific, centered, earnest young people have planted themselves for at least a few months to share their gifts and to gulp down intercultural learning and experiences before they have to return to school or jobs.Three of my college summers were much like that, one as a counselor for YMCA camp in northern Minnesota, another working in a city in Uruguay with a YMCA and the last in a Sister City project in southern Ecuador writing a daily newspaper column in Spanish for six weeks. All were transforming adventures that nurtured my belief in the human spirit and a profound distrust of political power and wealth. My American companion in San Jose de Mayo, Uruguay, in 1967, was Margaret Christiansen, who also attended Iowa State University. Our lives have gone in different directions but we have kept in touch these nearly 40 years. We each have sons named Eric, have a passion for social justice issues and progressive politics and a deep belief in reaching out for good across the earth. Today she is Margaret Kelly and she lives near the Quad Cities in Illinois. She can’t be topped for letter-writing. Hers buzz with energy, ideas and idealism.

This summer, her son Eric Fistler, a seminary student, is doing an international venture in fostering understanding and peace. The 25-year-old is the youngest volunteer in the World Council of Churches Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel. He’s what is called an ecumenical accompanier.” The U.S. arm of it is called “Peaceful Ends through Peaceful Means: A Christian Witness for Peace in Israel and Palestine.” A priest is the only other American volunteer. The program is described as a WCC mission to accompany Palestinians and Israelis in non-violent actions and concerted advocacy efforts to end” what has been regarded as the illegal occupation of Palestine. He and other have been monitoring and reporting violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and supporting acts of non-violent resistance alongside local Christian and Muslim Palestinians and Israeli peace activists.

Besides being a non-violent presence, the volunteers engage in the advocacy of public policy and stand in solidarity with churches and those opposed to the occupation (www.eappi.org). In his June 30 report at that website, he noted, The same people who still clung to the hope for peace and reconciliation two years ago are now becoming filled with growing hopelessness.

His mom told me in an e-mail, Palestinians are amazed and grateful for his presence, but it is a sign of how far we have dropped in world opinion, that they are amazed that an American would give up three months to do what he does — negotiate at checkpoints, be a presence to reduce the abuse and violence, mitigate tempers and meet with peacemaking people in other groups and groups traveling to the area and seeking understanding.” Eric tells her nearly every family he meets with has lost at least one child or family member not associated with the military. How do they go on? What choice is there. Most disheartening is the apathy of the world, Margaret noted.

The cynic may say a few international witnesses talking up peace, dialogue and understanding dont have a chance in the Israeli-Palestine maelstrom. Yet what else is there? I am heartened by what Eric is doing. And I remember how his mom could dialogue with strangers in Uruguay almost four decades ago to build friendship and be an America witness. Peace and understanding must be pursued by every succeeding generation. Its in traveling to far patches of the planet that learning can especially spark the process.

Fresh from the recent renewed debate about desecration of the American flag and whether we need to protect it with a constitutional amendment, we face the issue of the Statue of Liberty. Does it need to be protected with an amendment from such things as the monstrosity that went up July 4th outside a church in Memphis, Tenn.?A church has put up a 72-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty, but the torch in Lady Liberty’s right hand has been replaced by a golden Christian cross, and the July 4, 1776″ inscribed on the tablet in her left hand has been swapped for the Roman numerals representing the Ten Commandments. Yes, the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights protects such expression, as it currently does with flag burning, but hasn’t the 12,000-member World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church crossed the line? Whats being called The Statue of Liberation Through Christ will undoubtedly become a sightseers stop. This thing is kitsch, gauche, tacky. A Christianized Statue of Liberty is excessive and badly mixes faith and freedom. The church has spent $260,000 to make a powerful statement and has created an immediate eye-catcher.

I have been up in the real Statue of Liberty three times, twice into the her head. There is only one Statue of Liberty, and for a group to so radically misappropriate such as landmark of freedom and hope to make a religious statement is wrong.

It’s all very problematic — especially how the Statue of Liberty is co-opted. This timeworn symbol of America being the receiving grounds for the planets beleaguered immigrants seeking a new life has been morphed into a shameless new religious fixture topped with a cross like found on any church. Of course, Pastor Alton Williams has mounted a full-blown rationale to disarm critics. The Statue of Liberation shows “America belonging to God through Christ, he says. People dont talk about Christ anymore and our morals are gone. People cannot drive by our statue without thinking about their relationship with God.

The website (www.thestatueofliberationthroughchrist.org) states the statue now “leads us to the pathway of freedom in all areas of life: spiritual, mental, physical, financial and relational. Her message is clear: But to us, there is ONE GOD, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and ONE LORD, JESUS CHRIST, by whom are all things and we are by him. 1 Corinthians 8:6. It further says that Lady Liberation extends the cross of Christ high above her head proclaiming to the world mans source of full and complete liberation; and that American belongs to God through Jesus Christ. The spikes of Lady Libertys crown now symbolically represent the seven redemptive names of Christ.

Tell that to American Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Bahais, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, atheists and others. I suspect they hold the 156-foot high Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor in high regard, and its uncompromising message has inspired many generations since 1886. Listen to these other co-opting words from the Statue of Liberation folks who take things far, far beyond, much like a quack doctor’s magic cure-all potion: It announces to our city, community and nation that Jesus Christ has come to free us from sin, habits, addictions, sickness, disease, hell, Satan, bondage, lack, poverty, fear, worry, broken-heartedness, emotional, pain, discouragement, depression, oppression, curses, or anything designed by the Kingdom of Darkness.”

The website also offers nothing fewer than 20 purposes of Lady Liberation.” All are tied to biblical quotes. Things like promoting godly values and restoring Americas biblical Judeo-Christian foundation; reflecting Gods love of art that glorifies him; and promoting “salvation through Christ to America.

Look next for a church to recreate the Lincoln Memorial with Christ in the big chair; or the U.S. Capitol designed as a church with a cross on the top of the rotunda. Imagine the howl if a mosque took the Statue of Liberty, put the star and crescent in place of the torch and references to the Quran on the tablet.

Surely $260,000 could have helped the refugees in Sudan or furthered the healing down the Mississippi Rivr in New Orleans where Katrina recovery continues. An Associated Press article tells how an 11-year-old girl now walks the long way home to avoid seeing the “big green thing. Imagine raising a child in Memphis and the confusion about which is the truly important great green statue. It’s bizarre.

Where is the outrage, you who were so ardently in favor of a flag-burning amendment to the U.S. Constitution? Hasnt our grand and lasting American symbol, the Statue of Liberty, been twisted and profaned? Does religion in America have no restraint?

Fourth of July has always lit up the sky, but, this time around, it lit up the lives of me, my wife and family Tuesday with the birth of our granddaughter. We got what composer George M. Cohan called, “a Yankee Doodle Dandy born on the Fourth of July.”Our daughter Ashley and her husband Nate — I officiated for their wedding in June 2005 — invited us into the hospital room at Banner Estrella Medical Center in far west Phoenix to witness the birth of Ella Elise. Patty and I got the call at 5 a.m., drove from Tempe and arrived by 6 a.m. Just a little more than an hour later, they had the baby girl they had been planning for, weighing in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces — exactly a week earlier than scheduled. She was one of six babies born before noon in the most efficient, smooth medical operations I have ever seen.

Ella, cooped up for nine months in a womb, declared her independence on Independence Day and chose to live free. Well, not exactly, but as a separate being, such as a newborn is. Everywhere fireworks marked the celebration of her birth, not to mention the mighty launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery four hours after her arrival.

From seeing the first patch of the baby’s head to observing how class-learned breathing and pressure techniques are effectively put into action by a mother, I was awed by the awesome miracle of birth. Cable TV’s The Learning Channel can essentially show hundreds of births, but they are prosaic compared to being witness to a birth within one’s family. I was there in the delivery room for the birth of son Eric in 1975 and then Ashley in 1977. The setting and technology contrasted sharply to what we found for Ella — a much more relaxed setting in a room that looks more like a regular patient’s room, with a sidebed for the father. Neither we grandparents nor the father had to wear disposable gowns, and all could move around freely to help. By all measures, our granddaughter’s birth will go down as routine and uneventful — but what an event for us!

Oddly, my daughter was born on Halloween, and her husband’s Nov. 27 birthday sometimes falls on Thanksgiving. The almanac shows that in 2008, the three will mark holiday birthdays — the Fourth of July, Halloween and Thanksgiving. Our second grandchild follows on the birth last Oct. 15 of Marissa to son Eric and wife Heather in Tulsa, Okla. Both grandchildren are already keeping us busy with cameras, travel, buying, spoiling and enjoying — and, of course, praying and dreaming for their full realization as human beings in a daunting age. I wrote newspaper columns after the birth of our two children, packing them with words of hope. Now most of three decades later, we look on those words and see how providence has been at work.

Ellas birth was so perfectly timed because it allowed me to get back to Tempe by mid-afternoon to take my role as co-captain at the main entrance for my Kiwanis Club of Tempe-sponsored Fourth of July celebration Tuesday night. Happy 230th birthday, Uncle Sam!

As both their daughters develop and grow, our prayer is they are spared nothing in their quests to fully reach what can be theirs. As females, especially, may nothing be posed to them that would limit their opportunities. Especially if and when they eventually find faith communities for themselves, may they be ones that in no way render different roles for men and women, nor limit women from being everything in leadership roles up and down hierarchies. And may their formative years be filled with Gods grace and mankinds collective actions to end tyranny driven by greed, power and ignorance. They will face fierce changes more confounding than what we have seen.

For my family, its wonderful to have one more reason to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Pastors are on the move this time of year. Time for the ol’ pastor rotations. July 1 is traditionally the start date of newly reassigned Catholic priests and United Methodist ministers, especially. The bishops made the announcements in the spring and then made congregations aware of the changes. More often than not, folks in the pews are not surprised, although its never fun to lose a great pastor, then to be disappointed by the replacement.On the other hand, as fate will have it, the bishop sometimes answers prayer and dispatches outstanding, gifted, personable, alive, energetic pastors to be great teachers and preachers for as long as that lasts.

There have been farewell events in parishes and some nice send-off gifts, and now in the dead of summer, priests and pastors start all over again in new jobs. There are new people to get to know, to pray for and to work with. Its a lot like major league baseball where players change teams and the lineup is sharply changed with the new season. Styles of ministry sometime take getting used to. Parishioners sometime analyze why their priest was chosen to straightens things out over at St. Marthas, but wasn’t ready for prime time at that giant parish with the wealth and marble rectory.

In the United Methodist Church, the musical chairs is not as pronounced as it once was when most pastors got new jobs with the start of July . Some Methodist ministers just about stay for as long as they wish and truly become “permanent pastors until they retired. Often the bishop recognizes a good fit in a healthy congregation and deems to leave things alone for the foreseeable future. Often the new assignment even allows a pastor to keep the same home.

For Protestants, the furnished parsonage has largely become a thing of the past. The “free home” furnished and maintained by the local church was sometimes on campus but usually in the neighborhood. For decades, it was the duty of church volunteers to make sure the house was painted, roofed, carpeted and maintained for the pastor and family. With the change of pastors, there was usually some kind of makeover, plumbing thoroughly upgraded, tile replaced and fences fixed. The parsonage provision has been replaced by a housing allowance to permit pastors to rent a home of their choice or to cover mortgages if they wanted to buy homes where they chose with the amenities that appealed to them.

Faiths that continually rotate clergy seem to believe the message and service are more important than the messenger, that there is merit for both the pastor and the congregation in recirculating leadership. There’s much to be said for the system where the congregation and pastor largely have a mutual agreement of terms of service, and they can set them themselves. That arrangement carries certain accountability, and if things go sour, they can split immediately.

So look for many folks to get back from vacation and summer breaks to a new face in the pulpit.