In “Pastor, not friend” (Jan. 9), M. Craig Barnes argues that pastors cannot truly be friends with parishioners. In May 2019, friends and family celebrated his 50th anniversary as a priest. “Can you be sure to say _____ in your homily, I have (family, friends) coming with me.” Just let the priest say his homily. Your priest needs the chance to be “off-duty” on a regular basis, not only with a few fellow priests when they can squeeze in a lunch once every few weeks, but also with his parishioners, and to be friends … Act like a friend and let him go to service God as God wants him to serve Him.--- As an Episcopal priest who happens to be married to an Episcopal priest, I completely understand where he is coming from. But starve the diocese and make it known you are doing so. I know you might be hurt, but you should think about him if he is truly a friend. He was 78 when he died from COVID-19 on Dec. 24. My hope and my aim were to develop a friendship with a woman in which both of us would respect each other and accept our positions in life. The conversation progress to discussing what a minister should do when leaving a congregation. That was just four months after he celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary with his wife Kathy. Many parishioners noted he had been taking care with pandemic precautions and had urged his congregation to do similar. 11. Use it to inform/enlighten/build community. All my friends can easily name priests who were/are controlling and narcissistic, relishing power over. So, I prayed to God that I might find a woman and develop a friendship with her. Every priest needs to be psychologically profiled for the safety of every parishioner. There are several hundreds of other people who bring friends and family to Mass. But, one time, my friend woke me up because he was bothered by our neighbor’s loud noises. Parish Priests can get lonely, and fall into sin with women. 13. 12. After all, a priest's parishioners mostly have families to which they return, primary attachments in the context of which they can bitch and moan and … “Don’t think that you have to have the priest over every Sunday. ... A priest can … Fr Paddy Byrne, a priest … Don’t expect to be the priest’s friend – he is your pastor/assistant and he needs to keep things professional. But I can’t embrace the stance of not having parishioners as friends. Canon Dan Webster , a Episcopal priest in Baltimore, MD is a big advocate of ministers connecting with parishioners in social media and tweeted: Friend as many parishioners as possible. A priest in Co Laois has described how social media is helping him connect with parishioners amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Don’t let people push him around. “Father _____ did things differently.” Sometimes it’s best not to reply. Sometimes this mistreatment happens without parishioners even knowing. 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