We are increasingly hearing that a number of presbyteries, synods, and positions at the General Assembly level are laying off members from their staffs. There is no easy way to respond to those who are laid off. While objectively, it is better than being fired for cause, subjectively it still feels like an assault on your dignity as a person. Because at each level above the congregation, you are one more step removed from the body that you serve, your support network is also more dissipated. It is important not to let those people walk out the door without acknowledging their value as a servant of the church.
With full recognition that this does not substitute for having paid employment, a presbytery, synod, or GA should develop a service of recognition in which there is thanksgiving for the individual’s service, and praise for them as an individual. That should be a service that draws upon the liturgical wealth of our tradition. It should include a call to worship and prayer of praise that reaffirms that we worship a God who is present to us in times of sorrow and distress. A prayer of confession should include a confession of our inability as a body to provide for a brother or sister’s continued service in this part of the body. A prayer of thanksgiving should provide for very specific affirmations of both the work and the person who is being laid off. It would be very appropriate for this to be a Service of Wholeness in which their is a laying on of hands for the healing and wholeness of the person that is leaving. In one sense, this is similar to a funeral service and we should definitely emphasize the theme of resurrection that opens up the mystery of the future that is in God’s hands.
The point of all of this is that we should not lay off someone because of our financial challenges without facing and sharing in the pain of that separation as members of the body of Christ.
