Monday, October 13, 2014

Recollection

I taste again my yesterdays
In the thin-lipped silence
Of the scream that dares not speak.

Is this why I so love thunder?

Yesterdays’ flavour
Was the flavour of stale crumbs,
Half-worm in the tomato,
My shriek all out of place.

True, there were dramas,
Improbable teacup storms,
And I the bridge laid down to harmony –
As if peace were my gift!

But mostly silence:
A grey, tight lid slammed down across our days,
To hide all things,
And hide them from ourselves.

When clarity came
It shattered teacups
Till the storms all drained away:
The monster in the depths laid bare

Shrinking before the light.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lynne; quick question about pastor's salaries ( you mentioned on Wartburg). Are you saying the pastor of a large church in your denomination makes the same amount of money as the pastor (with similar years I assume) of a small church?

senecagriggs at yahoo

Lynne said...

Yes indeed, unless the church is disobeying the diocesan guidelines! And years don't even come into it. Once one is the pastor of a church, salary remains the same (with diocesan increments for inflation) unless promoted to become a bishop or something. My observation is that larger churches employ more paid staff rather than paying the pastor more

Anonymous said...

Don't know if this would apply but I do have to wonder. In American college football the official salary of the head football coach at a state university is often around $150,000. BUT the coaches at the biggest, most successful programs are now making about 5 million a year though their official university salary may still be $150,000.
Coaches at unsuccessful programs are stuck making just the $150,000.

You have to wonder if the big churches in your denomination may be actually paying their pastor $80.000 PLUS all kind of benefits, extras, gifts etc. perhaps driving the overall package at the biggest churches into the $300,000 range while pastors of 75 member churches don't make a dime more than $80.000. Human nature being what it is, I doubt materialism is a lesser problem in Australia than the U.S. but I could be wrong.

Your thoughts? Sen

Lynne said...

I seriously doubt if they end up with heaps more. The way Anglican packages generally work is that the pastor gets a salary (currently a bit over 60K, I think)plus the parish supplies a house and he is paid a car allowance, phone allowance etc. Now the house is probably a bit fancier in a large church, but diocesan guidelines set a minimum standard, which is usually enforced when a church changes ministers -- things like minimum 4 bedrooms, a separate study etc. I'm sure that in really wealthy churches minister receive some private gifts, but church budgets have to be submitted to diocesan HQ as well as to the congregation. It's a totally different way of thinking to the American model

Anonymous said...

Well I've never been a pastor BUT a pastor of 75 members has 75 headaches while a pastor 600 members has 600 headaches. For me, if the pay was the same I think I'd opt for the smaller church with only 75 headaches. Sen