This article (if it's true) looks like good news to me.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1189825/Young-clergy-end-dole-Church-England-lose-1-3billion.html

Perhaps market forces will keep some of the worst new ordinands out of parishes. I'm particularly taken with the idea that it is these three colleges which are finding it hard to place people. By and large, congregations don't want to suffer new clergy who tell them they (or their unchurched neighbours and family members) are going to hell. They don't want their clergy to turn parish churches into conventicles of the elect (which I have seen happening in Reform parishes, where the clergy find no space in their diaries for funerals of non-members). They don't want to be subject to the oversight of flying bishops. They want to be part of a real diocese. If this article is true, and if these three colleges are failing to turn out ordinands that parishes want, then the Inspectors should use this as an opportunity to revisit them and look again.

And if the ordinands feel they are called to ministry, then they could always take up tent-making to support themselves in this.

I think it most unhelpful for ordinands from any of the theological colleges of the CofE to be described as fundamentalist, especially when it is based purely on the college where they trained. None of the colleges are fundamentalist and it is likely that few emerging from them are fundamentalist. Nor is there any evidence that parishes do not want those coming from the colleges.

I don't know details of the situation at Wycliffe or Oak Hill, but the Trinity College magazine which has recently come out and was presumably sent to press at least a couple of weeks ago shows only 3 out of 34 not yet finalised. Maybe the other two colleges do merit the drama article in the Daily Mail, but the Trinity situation doesn't, although obviously if any of those three are not some considerable way towards being placed they will be feeling concerned.

So it’s good news that 11 people who the Church of England has confirmed have been called by God to serve in his church can’t get jobs. What an extraordinary idea - Liddon, that's a phenomenally ungracious post.

The inference you make that these three colleges produce the worst new ordinands, is at best conjecture and at worst unpleasant mischief making. Whilst there has been some reported reticence among some DDOs to send people to Oak Hill, and more recently Wycliffe, Trinity could hardly be described as a bastion of conservativism, and I have not heard of a diocese that does not consider it an excellent place to train.

There are more evangelical ordinands than jobs - that’s not the fault of those who are in training. 

This has the potential for being an unhelpful thread and it would be easy to draw the wrong conclusions form the data supplied. I don't usually go to the Mail for accurate information on any issue.

I too think the situation is not acceptable but I do not think the main reason this crisis of jobs for ordinands has happened is to do with anti-evangelical bias at all (though it is for each and every church tradition in the church to demonstrate good will and a commitment to work faithfully within the whole church).

Firstly, it is not surprising if evangelical ordinands are left looking in proportionately larger numbers since they make up the greater proportion anyway.

Secondly, each diocese has a quota, set nationally. Some take more - none are supposed to take less. Clearly this year a number have quietly taken less (without saying so). But no one at the centre has been monitoring ongoing vacancies against numbers (as they should have done) and the mis-match only became clear late Spring. Someone dropped the ball.

Liddon, this is not worthy of you.  Sure we don't want horrible clergy but being horrible is not the preserve of any particular churchmanship.

sometimes people seem to espouse a very hard line theology with their mouths but the way they actually live their lives belies that. and vice versa.

on a more seri reformous note - isn't the north east crying out for priests?  surely those called and trained would be eager to travel in order to realise thier vocation? even if it meant serving a church community with a different tradition than ones own (within limits -I don't expect Reform types to work in a parish that has a strong Marian tradition!)

Bp Pete Broadbent has posted a helpful comment on the Ship of Fools discussion.

When I was looking for a title post, the suggestion given to me was a market town and my desire was to stay South. I ended up getting ordained at Petertide by the skin of my teeth, finding a title post sometime in May - I can't remember when it was confirmed - the Parish had to move someone out of the curate's house - they'd just moved in on the basis that no-one would be coming. It felt horrible - I went to one interview just days before our second daughter was born (in March) - even then they weren't expecting a curate that year, and I arrived the same day that foot-and-mouth struck the parish for the first time - there wasn't even really a job.

I ended up in suburban North Leeds and I reckon I had just about the best curacy to be had in the Church of England - not what I would have chosen, but definitely, by the mercy of God, what I needed.

I don't think I could be called 'conservative evangelical' - I certainly didn't train in one of the 'badge' colleges - so it isn't just one kind of ordinand who has a tight experience, and there isn't a single reason for not finding a curacy either.

Another thing to bear in mind is that every ordinand has been through a selection process and approved by the church for training - there may be some question about how well some kinds of training prepare ordinands to serve with integrity in the real-life parishes which make up a great deal of the CofE and therefore represent the majority of training opportunities, but there should be no question that those who have been selected and trained (and have recommendations for ordination) have been recognised by the church as called by God to minister within it.

The church is looking for younger ordinands at the moment - it asks them to make a huge commitment to the Church - does the Church make a promise in return? Sometimes it can seem rather a one-way bargain.

My testimony is that God has been faithful to me - not always comfortably faithful, but consistently faithful - through the challenges I have faced. And I pray for those ordinands still looking for posts that they may know God's faithfulness in their own lives.

And I meant to say also - North is a good option - family has drawn me South again, but forget the prejudice - God is at work in the North of England too.

I fully agree with the negative reaction to Liddon's initial post, which seems rather malicious (especially in the title of this thread which is entirely groundless) however he does make one valid point about tentmaking. Three little letters - NSM ...

Sometimes the stipend is an idol; we can kid ourselves that we're living by faith, but a free house and the stipend certainly make life easier (but lets not get distracted by a conversation about the sufficiency of the stipend -  that belongs on another thread).

It is a very valid point that certain regions of the country struggle to attract curates from certain social backgrounds. People of all church traditions can be very fussy about things like housing, schools, etc while dressing the whole thing up as "I'm not called here".

There was a time when places like Wycliffe made sure their graduates were prepared for working in "non-evangelical" parishes, because of the imbalance between evangelical parishes and candidates that has been referred to already. These days things like Fulcrum, New Wine Networks, Awesome and perhaps even Reform can play an important role in supporting clergy who are ministering in traditions and contexts that they are unfamiliar and/or uncomfortable with.

But as someone once said, the comfort zone is not the learning zone