Hey, gang,
I am wondering what your clergy associations charge by way of dues. In the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association we have a fairly complicated thing whereby we are expected to pay a percentage of our income, and if you don’t pay that, you can apply for a hardship discount or also a waiver — but there’s a huge amount of pressure to pay up, with lots of talk about COVENANT and so on.
You are also expected to provide your salary information on the form you fill out to renew your membership. This strikes me as totally inappropriate and invasive. Maybe they’ve changed that. I don’t know. I don’t ever intend to furnish that information.
We also pay dues to our local chapter (it’s not a large amount – like $40 a year or something), and to pay for retreats, and lunches, and then we get asked to financially contribute to the association, to the statewide social justice chapters (in my case, my interfaith county-wide chapter mostly works on the same initiatives), the local urban ministry (I live in a nearby city that has its own urban ministry and partner organizations that I support financially), to the multiple campaigns coming from the association or from our partner organization Service Committee. Then there are special funds that make annual asks. And the Church of the Larger Fellowship and the UU Christian Fellowship, two UU ministries that I cherish and support.
I frankly can’t keep any of it straight any more, and I stopped trying about a year ago when I got hit with a $20K tax surprise bill. My own fault, and I buckled down and got it paid off in a year. But while I put aside charitable giving and dues for some organizations, I realized with a shock how many of them I receive. I definitely need to step back and reorganize my giving, perhaps by identifying three organizations per year to which I’d like to give significant gifts instead of throwing $50-200 at all of them.
As far as the Ministerial Association goes, I think the fee structure is exorbitant and I wanted to know what other equivalent organizations ask of their clergy members.
Thanks for commenting! Love ya!
Are you talking about a denominational ministerial association? The PCUSA has no such animal. We do not have to pay (in dollars at least) to belong. And unless we resign our ordination or get defrocked, we are ordained for life.
I can’t believe such a thing. I can see a local ministerial association (composed of members from different denominations) having some sort of dues structure, but having never been a member of one, I can’t comment.
[Yep. Thanks for weighing in. I bet I’ll hear more of the same and even from denominations with congregational polity. – PB]
Yikes! Never heard of anything like that for those of us in the United Methodist Church, though different Annual Conferences do different things, I know. At least I’ve never seen anything like it here in North Carolina, anyway.
No fees here either as a Canadian Anglican though I have paid a nominal fee to a ministerial group made up of my community’s ministers to support our ecumenical ministry ($100 upon joining full stop). I’d be broke with our pay structure if I had to also pay for the privilege of belonging. The stipend grid is national-depends on years ordained combined in some mysterious way with the level of responsibility/size of the parish though many are paid over their grid level.Our structure is very similar but not identical to the Episcopalians. Ordination is for life unless we are “defrocked” or resign our orders. Depending on the Diocese we either pay a portion of or our congregations pay for our diocesan wide clergy retreats.
No fees charged by two denominations either — I started in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and am now serving in the United Church of Christ.
Nothing in the Episcopal Church. Never heard of such a thing.
The legacy is old, though the high dues are new.
It seems to be more of a Unitarian phenomenon than a Universalist phenomenon (though they did have one at mid-century), and I wonder if that’s because the Universalists had a theology of fellowship that was more integrated than the Unitarians. Why else would we have fellowship mechanism, *and* a guild? Guilds, really.
And then there’s the standing, limited-membership study groups, as we have them, which seem to have no parallel.
The RA (Conservative Rabbis) have a very similar system to the one you described. Those in pulpits and school positions pay a percentage of their salary. There are different rules for those who work in chaplaincy, retired folks and those who are unemployed. What we get in return is access to job listings, some coaching/counseling and educational programs. In theory they also advocate for better salaries and benefits for rabbis and for better treatment of clergy. That happens to a lesser extent which is frustrating. I find the dues to be high. At the same time I do make use of the services.
I’m shocked by that dues structure! I’ve looked at all the dues I’ve paid over the years for all sorts of professional clergy groups, and nothing comes remotely close to what you’ve described. I would be disinclined to acquiesce to their proposal, as the pirate captain might say.
BTW, I’m an Episcopal priest, and have served in two dioceses.
The cranky minister blogged a few years ago about why he dropped out of UUMA in the wake of its massive dues hike which was in the wake of its big up-staffing and radically expanding its offerings to members, whether they want them or not. It perhaps was worth a try, but they should have done a little market research first.