Twenty years ago when I started covering religion full time for our newspapers, I could frequently find clergy in their offices by telephone. Not any more. They seem to be anywhere but their offices these days.Maybe thats a good thing. Out ministering to the people in need, out attending important meetings in the community or networking with the faith and compassion community. On this rainy afternoon in the Valley of the Sun, I made at least 15 calls to churches and to several rabbis without finding a single one around. I left a lot of phone messages. Some will get back to me when they are ready. Others wont bother.Obviously technology has sharply changed since 1987, and clergy dont feel tied down to their desks anymore. They arent on the phone talking to their members or fellow pastors or their other contacts. They can take care of a lot of business by e-mail, text messaging, blackberries and their trusty cell-phones. And it seems an increasing number of pastors spend chunks of time in their studies at home far from the pace of the campus, its perfunctory activities, people popping into their offices and phone calls. I sense that we, the public, today cut clergy a lot more slack. We have lower expectations that they can and will have time for us. Priests, particularly, are sheltered and insulated from the calling public, it seems to me. Getting them to return calls seems to be one of the great challenges. With so many parishioners, they cannot be so expected to get to everyone.Sure, most houses of worships have their state-of-the-art telephone systems that tell people where to call in case of emergencies. Typically a call is automatically first picked up by a system that tells the caller about worship times and driving directions. Then it proceeds to instruct what numbers to push to reach particular staff. If you know the party you are calling, please enter the first three letters of their last name.. is part of the tedious work to get through church phone systems. Because messages can be picked out now from remote locations, clergy can always be in touch.Alas, all too often a call to a church only find the administrative assistant or a volunteer around. Each learns the habits of superiors and their preferences for screening and sorting calls. Try to reach a youth leader during the day. Not easy. It commonly drives callers to web sites where staff photos and e-mails can be found to send an e-mail message and pray for a response. It becomes an all-too-easy way for staffers to screen communications and choose to respond or ignore as they wish.Summertime in Arizona is the worst. When I want to do a story on a general topic to get a host of clergy to respond and help me explore an issue, I put out numerous calls and leave them in voice mails. In the end, I have to work on volume: 15 to 20 calls made may net a callback of five. Shorter office hours, vacations and a more laid-back attitude make it harder to get responses. Occasionally, clergy call me back two weeks later and say they just got back into town and wonder if I still need a comment. Understandably pastors, especially heads of staff, are under great pressure and demand for a piece of their time. They are masters at sifting, sorting and deciding what calls, e-mails and mail to answer. Time gets away from them, and they often decide to do nothing. After all, they are busy people. When it is too easy to send e-mails and leave phone messages, it is all too easy to not wade through it at all and respond.Its not like it used to be, and the clergy phenomenon surely has its parallels in other fields, including academia, law and business. With so many means of communications, there is real discrimination and gate-keeping, deciding who is worthy of responding to and what is worth a pastors time. Maybe clergy are dissin you, too

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