Does St. Paul's Have A Lot Of Clergy On Staff?

Dear St. Paul’s family,

From time to time someone makes a comment that makes me realize that they think we have a lot of clergy on staff. When you see all those priests in the procession on Sunday, it’s easy to assume that they are all on staff, and you probably wonder about all the other people in robes up there. How can we possibly afford all those people? The answer is that we can’t and we don’t. The clergy on staff are myself, Jeff Martinhauk, and Brooks Mason full time and Carlos Exposito for about 15 hours a week.

We are blessed to have a large contingent (more than 20) of clergy retired from tenured positions in the cathedral congregation. Some choose to sit in the pews; others are willing to assist with worship out of the goodness of their hearts, and I am deeply grateful for their ministry. Our retired colleagues carry the main burden of the weekday Eucharist services and much of our pastoral care. If you wonder why we don’t hear more sermons from them, consider that a typical sermon of 10-12 minutes can take up to 10 hours to prepare. Being retired ideally means doing only those things you enjoy doing, and after laboring for decades over weekly sermons, many retired clergy are happy to leave that task to those of us still earning a salary. When you have an opportunity, please thank our assisting clergy for the ministry they offer so generously.

There are a lot of other people around the altar on Sunday mornings: all our lay altar servers and vergers are volunteers, and many of the choir members are too. We have about 8 professional section leaders in the Sunday morning choir, and their gifts are a major contributor to the excellence and beauty of our liturgy. Cathedral singers could earn more elsewhere but they choose to sing at St. Paul’s because Martin Green is such an outstanding choir director and liturgical musician. We are blessed to have Martin as a full-time employee and Gabriel Arregui on a very part-time basis: the music ministry they lead is much more extensive than anyone should reasonably expect from such a small staff.

Your sister in Christ,

Penny

See our previous post for a field guide to who's who in the processional.