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UK News

General Synod approves clergy well-being report

by Eno Adeogun

Canon Rev Dr Jonathan Alderton-Ford, member of the General Synod, told Premier about some of the pressures of the job.

During News Hour he said: "You're working in an environment of often decline, often marginalisation and also in terms of limited resources so you're trying to turn round a local organisation with all these other problems going on so it's an incredibly demanding and stressful job."

During the General Synod debate the Archbishop of Canterbury said his own wellbeing had been affected during his time as a parish priest.

Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Justin Welby revealed the job had been the "hardest" he had ever done and explained: "Mainly because it was isolated, insatiably demanding, and I was on the whole working without close colleagues, particularly in the first few years.

"And that wears people down."

Canon Alderton-Ford told Premier church members can help their clergy as they deal with the pressures of the job in a number of ways: "One is be an encourager.

"Wherever possible try and tell your clergy person something good that they have done because that really helps - I mean that's one of the things we don't get enough of.

"Secondly I would say be a keen volunteer.

"And number three - don't be a gossip...it's also a very good idea if you give generously so the Church has got enough money and just generally be a positive person - both in the Church and outside the Church."

The report also says children of clergy need more support because they face "stresses and strains in a post-Christian culture".

Listen to Canon Alderton-Ford speaking with Premier's Eno Adeogun:

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