Seminarians Face Pulpit Shortage

Many Must Now Seek A Different Calling In Faith-Related Work

CLEVELAND -- After four years studying theology and earning his master of divinity degree, the Rev. Charles R. Kaliszewski's United Methodist Church hasn't yet embraced him as a permanent member of its clergy.

Still, he defied the odds and found a preaching job.

Kaliszewski, 53, launched what he calls his third career this year when he became pastor of South Euclid-Hillcrest United Methodist Church.

"I'm fortunate," he said, despite not currently being on track for ordination.

Fortunate, indeed. Many recent seminary graduates across the country, including some of Kaliszewski's classmates at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, have a slim chance of fulfilling the calling that pulled them into ministerial training. They want to be preachers, but in many denominations, they say, the jobs aren't there.

In the mainline Protestant churches -- including Methodist, Lutheran and Presbyterian -- membership and attendance have been slipping; parishes are closing or consolidating; and older ministers don't retire as early as in the past.

The net effect is that many big, long-established religious organizations don't have enough pulpit space for new clergy. Some say it might be years before the employment market picks up.

One of Kaliszewski's professors, Lisa Withrow, said one area that is growing is among independent and, especially, evangelical churches. These generally smaller churches without denominational affiliation "often don't look to seminary graduates as their pastors, as the more established churches do," she said.

Among Catholic churches, while attendance is down in some parishes, the job market for priests is stronger than ever.

"Everybody has a job," said the Rev. Thomas W. Tifft, president-rector of St. Mary Catholic Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Wickliffe, Ohio.

Adair Lummis, a professor at the Hartford Seminary's Institute for Religion Research in Connecticut, said studies "suggest that in mainline Protestantism, a growing proportion of seminary graduates can't find jobs."

"Many of them," Lummis said, "are women."