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BY GINNY LAPHAM

This is a response to the article 'Study confirms the 'stained glass' ceiling'' in the March 16 UMConnection. I want to commend you for highlighting important findings of the clergy study. I also want to clarify and comment on parts of the article that may be confusing to readers.

First is the graphic on clergy salaries accompanying the article that reversed the female-male figures. It should have shown 12 percent of clergywomen and 2 percent of clergymen earning less than $30,000.

The discussion in the article of salaries and length of service also needs clarification. It is correct that the number of years served in a local church was found not to be statistically associated with salary. However, when we considered only Elders, the number of years since becoming Elder did show a weak association with salary. The other associations with salary were gender, health and attendance at the local church served in 2002.

In further analyzing 'years of service' with salary and gender, we found that clergywomen had lower salaries in the three categories of less than 10 years of service, 10 to 20 years, and 30 years and over. In the 20 to 29 years of service category we found the salary ranges of female and male clergy were similar. This includes clergy in local churches as well as clergy in extension ministries.

The biggest confusion in the article, however, is between 1) the survey of clergy in full connection carried out by Westat in 2003 that had a 63 percent response; and 2) the information we collected on all clergy in full connection published in the 1970-2003 annual conference Journals. These are essentially two different studies with two different sets of data.

The attrition data cited in the article is from the annual conference Journals. In fact it was the realization that we were unable to get attrition figures from the Westat survey that led us to collect the data from the journals. As the Rev. T.R. Chattin noted in the article, we expected to find clergywomen leaving the conference at a higher rate than clergymen and instead found they have about the same rate. I consider it a tribute to clergywomen that in spite of the additional stresses they experienced over the years that so many remained. It is a tribute to all clergy that the attrition rate averaged only 2 percent a year.

I am impressed by the Westat survey findings that respondents entered the ministry because they felt a call from God to become ordained ministers in The United Methodist Church. Most reported an increase in this sense of calling since serving in the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

I am also encouraged that at least one-third of the respondents in the Westat study reported that laity were involved in and supportive of their calls to ministry and decisions to seek ordination. There are other findings that have implications for local churches, such as clergy strongly preferring a housing allowance to living in a parsonage.

I urge laity as well as clergy to read the entire clergy study report, to discuss the findings in congregational groups and to seriously consider what improvements can be made in our connectional system.

Virginia Lapham is a member of Dumbarton UMC and a member of COSROW.