Angeline’s father Jared talks about being a pastor: Here is a group of pastors at a special service. You can see the special clothes (vestments) we wear – is this the same as your vicar wears, or different? One difference between the churches is that in England clergy wear black cassocks whilst Indian ones are white as seen here much cooler in the heat of India!). Indian clergy do not wear “dog collars. All worshippers, including pastors, remove their shoes upon entering a church, but as this service is in a hall on this occasion the pastors have kept their sandals on. You will recognise the stole which English clergy also wear – on this special occasion red ones are in use. © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

Many pastors have one town church to look after and several small village churches. It is often impossible for them to get to every church on every Sunday. In fact some pastors may have as many as fourteen smaller churches in their pastorate. Often these will be in far flung villages which are difficult to access. Most pastors will try to visit each village at least once a month to take a communion service, but the rest of the time the village services will be led by local lay people such as catechists. The congregation in the town church will probably expect at least two services on a Sunday as well. Many senior pastors have a ministry team and will be supported by retired priests or assistant pastors in order to look after all the churches. Pastors may have to rely on motorbikes or even buses to get to their far flung churches. Can you find out how many parishes your vicar serves and how the vicar and parishes cope (e.g. who does all the jobs)? © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

Pastors have many different roles in the church, including leading worship, teaching, baptising and marrying people, and burying the dead. In many ways a pastor is like the head of a family – people will come to him with all kinds of problems seeking help. In many of the villages the chief problems are financial ones, and the pastor will need to spend a lot of time trying to raise money for scholarships for bright but impoverished children to attend secondary school or college, for sarees to be distributed to poor widows or such things as help with hospital fees. He will also be expected to settle disputes between families. On the other side of things, the pastor is a welcome visitor on all special family occasions, when he will be invited to celebrations to pray for the family involved and probably make the speech too. Who helps you when have a problem? Often people come to pastors when they are in need, or they want help making decisions. A pastor spends a lot of his time helping the Christians in his pastorate. © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

Because a pastor has so many churches and villages to look after he or she cannot do the work on their own. Every village will have a team of lay people who take on roles such as catechists, Bible women or church treasurer. They follow the pastor’s instructions and look after the village people while he is elsewhere. Lay involvement in the running of pastorates is extremely important. Many roles are taken on voluntarily by newly retired professionals who are giving something back to the church and their home village – you might therefore find retired headteachers taking on roles such as Bible Women or catechists. The catechist will take responsibility for leading simple services of worship on those Sundays the pastor cannot get to the village to take a holy communion service. He is the teacher of the community and can lead Bible study groups. He will be the person people go to when they need to get a message to the pastor. Bible Women work with women and families, giving both spiritual and practical support. Other officers such as church secretary, church treasurer are also very important, as well as Sunday School leaders etc. There is also a Pastorate Council and sometimes there may be evangelists. In addition the Women’s Fellowship (akin to the Mothers’ Union in this country) does a great deal of voluntary work such as : visiting women’s prisons; running health initiatives such as eye camps; marriage counselling; caring for widows; working with dropouts and much more…. You may like to look at http://www.stjohnschurchvellore.org/officebear.htm which will give you an idea of the number of office bearers which may be found in a busy town church. Pastors will meet regularly with their groups of officers and have regular teaching events for them to help them with their work. Does your church have a website or magazine? Can you find out what different jobs there are to do in your parish? © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

Katpadi is a small town with a fairly large Christian congregation Katpadi is a small town with a fairly large Christian congregation. Small village churches are also expanding in numbers and need new buildings. The responsibility for building the new church lies with the local Christian community, there is no financial support from the diocese or the government. In some cases the foundation stone might be laid for the church and it will take three or four years of giving before the church is completed. In some villages the congregation may actually be involved in the building work themselves, so that the church does not have to pay for labour. Here at Katpadi the old church building is now in use as a parish hall, but the congregation are already saying that the new church building needs extending! Can you find out about the history of your own church building? The number of Christians in South India is growing all the time. Often pastors have to organise big fundraising projects to build new churches to hold the growing congregations. Here at Katpadi you can see the new church and the old church side by side. © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

This couple is a retired engineer and church school headteacher – they have no children living, and at this service were giving a generous amount of their retirement savings to begin the building of a church for their village. They had even been deliberately cutting back on meals in order to save sufficient money. Congregations throughout the Diocese of Vellore are known for their generous Christian giving – in most church services two collections will be taken – one for the local church, and a second to support charitable projects such as hospitals, schools, child sponsorship, AIDS awareness campaigns etc. This does not mean the churches are rich because many people are giving although they themselves are poor, or just coping. \how does your school choose which charities to support, and how do you raise money to help others? Pastors could not do their work without the generous support of the local Christians. This couple gave a large amount of money towards the building of a new church in their village. They would probably be very embarrassed if they knew I was telling you about them! © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011

Chittoor Women’s College Beattie Memorial Teacher Training Institute, Ranipet Many pastors have special church organisations in their pastorates – this might be a church hospital, a church school, a Training Institute, even a Children’s Home. Chittoor Women’s College The pastor will always have special responsibility for these local organisations. Sometimes he will have to spend a great deal of time dealing with the government or the diocese on different matters in order to help them, or even working out how to raise money to support them. Being a pastor is a busy life! What does the priest or minister in your area do other than lead church services? Can you find out? © Dr Shirley Hall & Cambridgeshire Ecumenical Council, 2011