I’ve given the topic of Public Priests and making a living teaching or being of service a lot of thought. After several conversations, I decided to write a little about my experience. I did so over at Patheos, including getting into some nitty gritty financials. I hope this article gives you food for thought. Please comment over there. Click on the block quote:
Moving from local to public, or from occasional donations to paying the rent, is hard. It takes time. Most people fail. I’ve watched this from a distance many times.Some have written much about whether or not professional clergy is useful to Paganism. Others have written to deride or uphold “Big Name Pagans.” I’m not going to do any of that. What I want to do is talk about the reality of my life. And some hard numbers. I’m offering this to give people a better idea of what we might actually be talking about in the midst of these conversations. People have asked how I planned my career trajectory. What did I do to end up where I am? My first response is surprised laughter at the question. Being a professional priest was never my plan…