Supporting Clergy in 21st Century Wicca

I have been active Wiccan Clergy for more than 25 years now. I have watched as the role of Wicca in society has experienced its metamorphosis from the hidden, secretive Coven style practices of the post-Burning Times into the beautiful, government-recognized and supported mainstream Church-based faith it is today. I have also watched the role of Clergy develop and some fairly logical things that are missing from the equation absolutely amaze me. We never stop to think about what we can do for our Clergy rather than what they can do for us and we still can't seem to learn from other mainstream faiths what it is to support our Clergy appropriately to their role in our lives.

Let's look at what Clergy does for us. They are on call to their community, congregations, students and Initiates and their families 24/7. They are educators of the public – even when the public is hostile. They are advocates and network with other organizations in the community. They are counselors on mental, physical, emotional and spiritual fronts. They provide education in the Craft and often in day to day functions of living that many simply do not learn in their own lives. They go to bat for us legally when our rights are threatened or infringed upon at work, at school, in hospitals, court or general society. They are our leaders, protectors and even our healers when we are sick in mind, body or spirit or all three. They are there from birth through every facet and change of our lives clear to the grave and beyond to assist us in whatever way they may be of service. Generally speaking, they do this more than full time – especially if they have a congregation of 10 or more people to serve. They do this whether they themselves are stressed in any way, ill or dealing with their own personal lives and they do it without complaint. They even do all these things, many times, at the sacrifice of their personal time with their spouse or children, their own personal magickal practice, as well as their basic sleep and living patterns.

However, they are also have needs to be met of an everyday nature. They need food, gas for their vehicles to get from place to place to handle life and our needs as their congregants and community members, supplies to support their lives and their Craft – as well as those of the Church. They have rent or mortgages, electrical bills, phone bills (which we often run up for them in counseling sessions) and everything we ourselves struggle with every single day. They even occasionally have their own “emergencies” like car repairs, home repairs and hospital bills to pay! Opps, that's right – their human!

Magick is a wonderful thing, but the idea that they can twinkle their noses and ritual supplies appear or that there is some secret squirrely way they simply pull financial backing out of their backsides is ludicrous. The idea that they can serve multiple people on a multitude of levels and somehow find the resources to support or build an actual Church without assistance and support of all kinds is illogical. Further, its tremendously selfish of us, as congregants and Initiates, not to take into consideration that they should have time to get well themselves if they are ill or to grieve if they lose a loved one close to them, but should instead, be at our beck and call to answer our needs instead.

I have seen people coming to us perfectly willing to pay for books written by us, take classes for which there are charges involved, go to events we suggest they attend that can cost them sometimes hundreds of dollars to go to when all the financial requirements are said and done. But to spend the equivalent of their monthly junk food or coffee habit bill – say $20/month or a bit more, when they can – on the general support of the Church's needs itself is seen as “too Christian” to be supported or somehow insulting to The Craft itself. This kind of thinking is utterly uneducated to my mind.

If you are willing to spend $20/month on foods or habits that harm your body, why would you not be willing to spend that same money on the very body and people that give you balance, comfort and guidance in every facet of your life – not simply the spiritual or magickal ones? Where do you think the rent/mortgage on a Church building or Circle space, the bills for such like electricity and water and the supplies provided for rituals are supposed to come from? It isn't like we're demanding a 10% tithe of your total income here. We are simply asking that there be some form of reliable support coming in so that we can afford to remain on call doing the full time (and more) job of supporting our congregants, students and initiates without also having to hold down one or two other full time jobs (which often impinge on our ability to do full time Clergy support due to attendance regulations of that outside job) to pay those Church-related expenses. Would we truly prefer, as congregants, to have to try to put something like a birth or death in our family on hold until our Clergy gets off work to serve us? No, of course not.

So, the next time you think that your problems in paying the bills on your life and yours alone, think about your Clergy, please. Understand that they do all the things we struggle with in life for themselves AND every single person in their congregation and the overall community which they serve. Please truly see the gift that our Clergy and Elders are to your Community, not just as Wiccans or Pagans but as people and perhaps stretch yourself a bit to give a little something extra back for those gifts. Whether it be a dish you've cooked for their freezer, picking up an extra set of quarter or altar candles when you're getting some for yourself that you then donate to the Church or Circle, handing them an extra $10 or $20 on payday – or even just paying monthly church dues on time – remember your gifts are what make the entire Church and Circle stronger and help it to function reliably every single day. As Clergy, we are more than happy to serve. It would be a beautiful bit of personal growth in our community to see those that consider regular monetary support as “too Christian” would gain the understanding that it isn't “Christian” to support your Clergy and your Church – it is correct balance for the needs of the Pastoral staff and the group as a whole. It is human.