A50 The patronage process as drama

A guide for Patrons and PCCs

First published on this website in June 2021 and last updated in May 2023

Synopsis

Note: interest in this specialist article may be limited to Church of England churches. It has been written for Patrons but also for PCCs, Administrators guiding their church through a vacancy, and clergy needing to brush up on the system.

It describes the patronage process from the Patron’s perspective and presents it as a drama in two acts with five scenes each. There is also a cast list and a number of scenery backdrops. The idea is to make the patronage process interesting!

Patronage comes in for a fair amount of criticism but when the system works well, and it often does, it can be an effective way of choosing a church’s new Minister. Roles are played by Patron, Bishop and PCC. This presentation describes how the drama unfolds, looking at each scene in the process, and then considers, as scenery backdrops, issues that arise and how to tackle them. Examples include:

• what happens with shared patronage;
• how to treat internal candidates;
• what if the PCC feel they ought to run the process?;
• how to pray through the whole drama.

This Article was updated in May 2023 with minor amendments to the text and formatting.