GRRRRR .... TAKE 2

One of the things that Episcopal priests are encouraged to do is to update their personal profiles with the Church Deployment Office (CDO) "every two years or anytime you have a major life change." Even if you aren't looking for a position, it helps to keep the records up to date and does allow for the serendipity of the Holy Spirit.

As in: A parish is searching for a new rector. They go to the CDO and plug in what they value in a priest (good preacher, good liturgist, good musician, etc) and they get a list of names. They review the profiles and then send out letters: "Dear Rev. Ref, your name came up on the CDO profile as possibly a good match for our parish. Would you be interested in exploring a call to ministry with us?"

Or something like that. I got one of those letters recently from a very large and very attractive parish; except they didn't get my name from the CDO profile, they got it from one of their own parishioners who happened to visit one of my parishes and liked what he saw. I respectfully declined the offer to enter into their search process.

ANYWAY . . . This post is not about searching for a new position. This post is about updating my CDO profile. In short, it's a pain in the ass.

If you aren't an Episcopal priest you may not know just how much of a pain in the ass this thing is. First of all, it's huge. They want to know everything about you, and rightfully so. Then there's this list of Ministry Specialties: administration, Christian formation/education, church growth/development, communications ministry, consulting/transition miistry, counseling, ecumenical/interfaith, evangelism, leadership development, liturgy, multi/cross-cultural ministry, outreach/social justice advocacy, pastoral care, preaching, spiritual guidance, stewardship, teaching, theology, ministry with youth, other.

Then, each of those main categories are broken down into multiple sub-categories; which are, in turn, broken down into several sub-subcategories.

You need to pick six of those main specialties (ranked in order of preference), and are given the opportunity to add in four subcategories to each of those specialties.

So I'm first doing this on paper so I have an idea of what I need to do once I get to the online update form. I can do that. No problem.

I get to the online update form and it says, "Skills/Experience." So I click on that. Then I get to pick from those umpteen specialities (only six). I pick Preaching. A pop-up window appears showing all umpteen specialties. I pick Preaching. Close window. Preaching appears as my main choice. So now I need to pick a sub-category. I choose Liturgy Based Sermons. A pop up window appears, showing all umpteen main specialties again. I choose Preaching. Preaching appears as my sub-category.

I am sure this is a combination of my Luddite tendencies and a programmer who thinks everybody is a computer geek. Either way, this thing is a pain in the ass.

*sigh* I should've gotten a job with a computer company as the idiot tester to make sure normal people could use the stuff.