ABSTRACT
The clergy have long been regarded, along with medicine and law, as one of the classic learned professions. The issues considered may indeed be widely found, but the case study has to be limited. Reference is, by and large, to the English context, except for the occasional cross-reference or inference. In many villages up and down the land the Old Rectory, or sometimes the Manse, is an imposing, desirable private residence. Meanwhile, the vicar or minister lives in a modest house across the green or even in the former garden. Religion is far from dead. A significant proportion of the population still turns up at the vicarage door requesting a religious rite of passage -'hatches, matches and despatches'; or, in an age of pluralism, they can go elsewhere or call on their own expressions of 'spirituality'. The employers of non-caring professionals, such as accountants or architects, also recognise the problem.
