55 per cent of clergy and their spouses consider the pastoral care afforded to them by the Church of Ireland to be fair or poor according to a major survey conducted by the Church of Ireland Marriage Council.

An outline of the survey results was included in the report of the Marriage Council, which was received by the General Synod of the Church of Ireland today.

Proposing the report to the General Synod, Revd John McDowell (Down) explained that “The responses to the questionnaire did not suggest that there was any sort of general crisis of morale amongst clergy and their spouses.

“However we would not be keeping faith with our respondents if we did not also point to some tensions” he said.

“It would be most helpful to the Marriage Council in its future work to hear from Synod on these matters.

“No doubt there is within this hall a wealth of experience from which we could learn and within the wider Church individuals and agencies that can assist.”

The possible conflict of the twin pastoral and disciplinary roles of a bishop were highlighted in the report, a point returned to by Revd Canon Dr Jonathan Barry (Down) in his speech, read by the Revd Canon Horace McKinley in Canon Barry’s absence.

“Perhaps of greater significance than discipline is the Bishop’s role in the promotion of the clergy, and also in their disappointment […] our modest questionnaire reveals an entire area of our Church’s life that requires loving, sensitive and prayerful attention” Canon McKinley said, reading Canon Barry’s speech.

Responding to concerns expressed by respondents to the questionnaire, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr John Neill, said that he “would hate the message to go out from Synod that the clergy are asking for more and more.”

Outlining the particular difficulties faced by clergy and their families, the Archbishop highlighted the limitations of tied housing pointing to the fact that the clergyperson and their family are unable to invest in their own homes, relying on vestries for renovation work to a rectory. The Archbishop also pointed to the lack of security that a clergyperson’s family has in the case of the clergyperson’s death.

The Bishop of Cashel, the Right Revd Michael Burrows, agreed with the Archbishop of Dublin and told members of the General Synod that he “would not like the message to go out that the clergy are living uniquely stressed lives. But there are unique stresses for clergy and their families.”

“There are ways of addressing these issues” he said, citing the Church of Sweden’s practice of giving clergy the choice of whether or not to live in church-owned property, and charging them rent on their stipend if they choose to do so.

800 of the 1,200 questionnaires sent to clergy and their spouses for the survey were returned.