For many UUs, a typical working environment means a particular socio-economic place within a corporate pyramid. The high & mighty are whispered about, the lowly are given instructions.

The lower you are on the corporate pyramid, the less money and prestige granted you, but the more people you have to keep you company as a sort of populist consolation. And if you hit "bottom" -- say working as a janitor -- you're not really visible as a corporate team member at all.

Conversely, the higher up the pyramid you are the more you are rewarded with money & prestige. You can have your sense of elitism confirmed, because there are fewer of you, you're better rewarded for your labors, and you're considered more valuable to the company.

In everyday church life, we say the opposite. We repress class differences by talking about the inherent worth & dignity of every person. We imply we are all equal, that class isn't a factor in church life, that we operate by consensus when we can and democracy when we have to. We ask people not for a set fee but for a "personally meaningful pledge."

At coffee hour, we ask what people are interested in and we talk about religious journeys rather than job titles & perks. Lay people boast they can go for years without knowing how much money someone else makes, and that the church is a sanctuary from the politics of greed & dominance.

Now, having carefully laid out this pyramid of value, imagine it turned upside down for your typical parish minister.

There are fewer people for the minister to relate to as socio-economic equals since she is further down the pyramid than most of her parishioners. Moreover, instead of the relatively easy class markers between working & upper class: markers such as tastes in music, food, clothing, literacy, educational level, and other cultural tastes, expectations are confused. People expect their minister to be like them in important ways. A farming community's minister must know about agricultural. Those who minister must know something about the world their parishioners live in. The closer the minister is socio-economically (the defining cultural tag) to her parishioners, the more easily prophetic and pastoral ministry can occur.

The problem becomes chronic when a minister and her parishioners live in vastly different socio-economic worlds

In seminary, I learned the role of minister as primus inter pares, or "first among equals". I also learned that the minister is called out of a group of lay peers to be ordained into the ministry to serve the congregation. I learned that ministers don't earn much money, but that parishioners pledge what they can. And I learned that ministry is about service, about being a servant to the spiritual needs of a congregation and its people.

What I have learned outside of seminary is that the Unitarian Universalist minister is primus inter pares only in the pulpit and at certain other occasions, and that unlike anyone else in the congregation, the minister literally pays for this privilege. I learned that many congregations pay ministers what they think they can get away with, or something equivalent to what "other UU churches" are doing (i.e., being equally penurious).

In other words, I have learned that if they collectively wanted to, most UU congregations could pay their minister double what they give her now, but they don't -- because they already pay her what they think the job is worth, and that is the saddest part of all.

Paltry & inadequate compensation is a power UU laity hold over their ministers that exceeds the power they exercised to call their minister in the first place. Forcing ministers to either become indentured servants or depend on the financial largess of others makes the job & calling of ministry unnecessarily difficult. This intentional economic injury has many side effects.

• It blunts prophetic and pastoral ministry by economically de-legitimizing it. How can a poor person counsel a rich one? People pay closer attention to a $500 / hour consultant than a $5 / hour one, and after all, if the $5 / hour consultant really knew what they are talking about they'd be at $500 / hour. This is depressing for the minister. For one thing, their spouse or family has to "carry" them financially; for another, their congregation is constantly telling the average UU minister that their work is less valuable than what a package delivery person makes. Every paycheck carries this message.
• It depresses ministers who eventually become numb and participate in their own economic disenfranchisement and that of others, including interns. Ministers not dependent on church income tend to overlook the issue.
• It adversely affects a minister's children who did not choose their parent's profession but who feel economic injury more acutely. The minister's children don't grow up with the same housing, education, or health care as other church kids or if they do, it is acquired at much greater cost relative to income. All church kids know this, even if the adults try and ignore it.
• It discourages the non-wealthy from entering ministry and it encourages them to leave ministry -- especially younger ministers with children.

Keeping the minister in socio-economic distress is a way of being passive- aggressive toward the ministry which all are attempting to serve. It is as if UU laity were to say "I like the idea of ministry in principle, but I am unwilling to sacrifice to make it happen."

The proof this is not so, would be for parishioners to voluntarily disburse more of their wealth to support their minister. Without this redistribution or giving up of socio-economic power, the parishioner -- despite any verbal protestation to the contrary -- affirms that paltry compensation is justified (and again, usually on market principles, not religious ones)

If the least effective person to argue for increased compensation is the minister herself and current methods are inadequate, then what must happen to bring real change? Or are we doomed to perpetuate the unspoken insult of the upside down pyramid?

Daniel
(Rev.) Daniel Simer Ó Connell, D.Min.
Parish Minister, West Redding, CT