VANISHING RECTORS.
Where, then, are the changes ? First a great number of Rectories have clean vanished. One clergyman has the charge of several villages, coursing to and fro on a little car or a motor cycle. He is no longer the father of his village. In the Church of England, if in no other profession, there is no unemployment. Indeed, the parsons are too few by some four thousand or more. One of them in need of a holiday told me that he had been spending a small fortune in advertising for a locum tenens and had received no likely replies at all. In the old days neighbours did holiday work for one another. To-day there are no neighbours with the necessary leisure. One small parish in the neighbourhood is in the charge of a Rector—a very busy man—who lives eight miles away.
Previous page
