Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: cattanac@casca.cs.uiuc.edu (Scott Cattanach) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: poll of Presbyterians Message-ID: Date: 7 Jun 90 03:08:44 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: U of Illinois, CS Dept., Systems Research Group Lines: 35 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu [cattanac@casca.cs.uiuc.edu (Scott Cattanach) posted a poll that listed "specialized clergy" as group of respondents. He asked what that meant. I said that Specialized clergy would be clergy in positions other than pastor of a church, I suspect. --clh] My guesses would be : 1) ministers of music, etc. 2) 'higher ups' you may be right about 1) being closest to being correct. -- -catt (cattanac@cs.uiuc.edu) [I'm an elder in the church involved, so I'm not just guessing. There are no ministers of music in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Not even ministers of education. The Presbyterian tradition defines a very specific role for a Minister of the Word and Sacraments, which makes it impossible to have the "ministers of XXX" that some other denominations do. I'm not sure what a "higher up" would be. There are certainly ministers serving in administrative roles in Presbyteries, Synods, and the General Assembly. However they are not thought of as being in any sense "higher". These are staff positions. We are fairly careful to avoid any structure that would give somebody the idea they are a "higher up". There are moderators of the prebytery, synod, and G.A., but these are temporary positions that last for only a year, and alternate between ministers and elders. Specialized clergy would be chaplains, seminary faculty, and others in roles other than traditional parish ministry. But for the word "clergy" to be used, they would have to be Ministers of the Word and Sacrament, because that's all we've got. Even a "specialized ministry" has to involve the basic tasks that a minister does, or the Presbytery involved wouldn't allow a minister to serve in it. --clh]