So the EEC Parliament has voted to end the opt out on maximum working hours. While I have no problem with this for the majority of the workforce I wonder how it will be possible with what were once considered vocational occupations?
Will the CofE require its clergy to work no more than four days a week? Given that most clergy work between 8 and 12 hours a day will it be a case of us all needing answerphone messages that say "Sorry if you are ill, need to make your confession or have a loved one who is dying or has died. I will not be available for three days. Please call back." ?
Mind you, some of the conversations I have with lay-folk lead me to think that this may as well apply now in some areas. With the drive to "time-management" and a secular model of operating it seems to me that true pastoral care of the Faithful will become (or is perhaps already becoming) a thing of the past. This will only be exacerbated by the waning influence of Anglo-Catholics.
I well remember a conversation with a fellow ordinand about the sacrificial cost of being a priest. He opined that he had never thought of priesthood in those terms. I believe he is now sunning himself in a chaplaincy in the mediterranean! But the consequences of such attitudes is something that the laity experience far more than is acceptable.
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