What to do about vicar?

[TinselMesh]

Just need to vent really. He is a good man, but causing me and others so much stress. He is very disorganised and his thought processes are chaotic. He does not reply to texts or emails, as does not read them. If he does reply his facts are all wrong as he does not read them thoroughly enough. This has caused problems. He is a major time waster for anyone in the church. He wants events to happen, but does not arrange for anyone to do them. Food and drink is expected to miraculously appear from nowhere, provided by someone or other, he doesn't know who, who has not been told about it! His sermons are impossible to follow - no thread or focus, and long and rambling. Nobody knows what they are about. He is in favour of equality but has unconscious bias, favouring men over women and boys over girls. Any advice please? It is C of E.

How effective is your PCC? Obviously very difficult but you need to have a constructive discussion, there will be someone 'senior' to the vicar - Deanery or similar to ask for advice.

Are you on the PCC? Your church wardens / PCC need to escalate this to whoever is next up the chain. Where I live, that's the Team Rector, then the Archdeacon and eventually the Bishop. We had to escalate when our vicar became impossible to work with and we went to the Archdeacon.

I know how hard it is - you have my sympathies.

Each area should have a dean- someone responsible for supporting vicar on behalf of bishop? Worth getting in touch with them?

Write to the bishop?

Go to a different church?

StripedTomatoes
Our community and congregation is lovely, and I have no wish to leave. Its a matter of being able to work better with the vicar. Everything else is fine.

He is on the PCC. I think vicars normally are. So how can the PCC discuss him as an issue?

The vicar is usually the chair of the PCC, but the churchwardens should be able to discuss between themselves (or indeed with other PCC members) any concerns about the vicar, and then raise those with whoever is higher up - they should have the appropriate contacts, whether Area Dean as @Dontsparethehorses says, or team rector or whatever.

While being a vicar is much more than a job, there are still similar structures to other employers, in terms of management.

You can discuss with the Church Warden/s who will then be able to contact the Area Dean to ask for advice on what to do next.

This is one for the church wardens. I was at an ordination service yesterday and it struck me how little time priests do what we are trained for. There is nothing in our training about keeping old buildings compliant with current health and safety requirements. We aren't trained in events management or administration. The long rambling sermons may be because he has no time to prepare because he is struggling with the managing a small business. Burn out and stress is a very real problem for clergy. Maybe the training should change but for now, with your priest, the question I would ask is how is he coping and does he need help? If so what? That is a kinder way to go in than he is rubbish and needs to change. That may be where it ends up but start with health and well-being.

Thank you MostlydrinksTea. I think that approach has been tried, but he is affecting the health and wellbeing of others, through causing them unnecessary stress.

@mostlydrinkstea this is a lovely response. I can't help the OP but really appreciate what you have written. One of my best friends is a vicar (at my church actually) and she had burn-out during her curacy - the church went into vacancy right as she was coming to an end, she then had to take over and extend her curacy period, was offered to apply to the priest in charge role but it was hanging over her for months. She just wants to help others and forgot herself, and she went down like a stone with a chest infection, and then just pure burnout. I remember bringing her to my house after seeing her look so poorly after Sunday mass and her sobbing on my sofa, apologising and saying she had let God down - it broke my heart.
She was given a lot of extra support by the Parish and they became more transparent about the vacancy process to give her some reassurance, rearranged her interview for when she was fully recovered, and told her the result the same day. She is doing well now but we all keep an eye out and make sure she is ok - it's a very hard pastoral role that few understand.

@TinselMesh I am a churchwarden with a somewhat similar situation. I wonder what you ended up doing. I am torn between biting the bullet and escalating my concerns (with all the risks that entails) vs persuading others to step up to paper over the cracks. Any chance we could talk?