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[eccentric_femme]

For various reasons I've been mulling on this topic lately, trying to figure out where lines are or should be drawn between "every person is Priest/Priestess" and "I am on a Ministry path and sort of need people to minister in order do undertake my calling" and what it all means, both for myself, our community here at SG, and the greater Pagan community.

Obviously within Paganism in general there is not much love for religious leaders, usually because of bad experiences with Christianity.  The ability for religious leaders to go down unfortunate paths is quite common, and there is a natural distrust of someone who says or implies that they have the answers - or at least more than you do.  Instead, we honor one another as Divine, and each person follows their own path as it best suits them.  Where does this leave ministry/clergy-minded Pagans?  Personally, I often feel superfluous to the lives of those I consider my spiritual family.  I genuinely feel called to a spiritual life of service, but is there really even a place for that service within the context of the various Pagan paths?  Are Pagan clergy merely the ones able to legalize marriages and other matters of State that intersect with religion?  Are we merely the holders of knowledge and the teachers?  Do ministers/clergy even have an obvious function within our collective spiritual path?  

I've been wrestling with these questions for quite a while now, trying to figure out how it all fits together.  I am called to service yet shy away from it because the general Pagan populace seems to not want clergy (or at least clergy as I have understood it), and yet I still feel called.  How does one reconcile that?  Then there's the questions that get brought up for those that are deemed clergy.  How does one fulfill that role without becoming dogmatic and inflexible?  How do you minister and not be seen to be taking over the spiritual and intellectual freedoms that are the very bedrock of our spiritual paths?  

Do you think Pagans need clergy?  If so, what should their role be?  Where do you draw the lines between friend, fellow traveler, guide, mentor and leader?   I'm in a thinky mood today, my friends.  Give me more food for thought?  

~Crystal

[SpiritHawk]

This is a really good question, Crystal, and one that I have wrestled with myself.

I think the definitive answer (as always) is:  It depends.

Many people on the Pagan paths have a very individual, self-directed spiritual life.  In that regard, each Pagan is his or her own Priest/Priestess. 

The place for "official" clergy comes in for a couple of reasons:

• Legally-binding things like marriages
• Legally-protective things like confidentiality
• Situations where an individual person has ministerial skill that some (or many) lack
• Group situations where there needs to be someone driving the bus

The general dislike for religious leaders is one of the reasons that Liz* and I tried, from the very beginning, to simply be "First among equals" (and first, primarily, because we owned the Grove).  However, over time, it became evident that (whether or not it was due to an intrinsic ability we had) some people sought us out for counsel and advice.  I know people have done that with you as well.

I know the "calling" you talk about; I feel it, too.

I think the distinction is this:  Every Pagan can be his or her own Priest/ess.  Not every Pagan can be that for someone else.  It's the calling-to-serve that makes the difference; the person who believes it is his or her role to serve others either has intrinsic abilities that facilitate that, or is automagically inclined to seek training in order to gain those abilities.

Further, I think that the way we (of a path that implies individual freedom from dogma) can minister without imposing dogma is not to have an idea of "Truth" that we dispense to those who ask for it (or even those who don't).  Instead, we need to be those who are skilled at helping others to take the steps they need to take to find their own truths.  It's the spiritual equivalent of giving a man a fish (preaching dogma), and teaching a man to fish (helping a person to discover individual truths). 

It takes a good fisherman to catch a single fish and give it to another.  It takes an outstanding fisherman to truly know the way of fishing, so that he can teach others to be good fishermen for themselves.

-C

[Adare]

Ditto to what Cael just said, but I will add from a 'layperson' (or laypagan? is that too suggestive?) perspective effective Pagan clergy is necessary for Paganism to keep evolving as a religion, and be taken seriously by other religions (not counting Christianity or Islam due to the conversionism theological practices).

Not all Pagans need clergy, but a scattering of solitary practitioners arguably doesn't make up a religion.  Especially in the Neo-Pagan communtiy where practices and deities may be so varied that the solitars aren't practicing the same religion, some would really be Wicca, some Druidry, some Kemetic, etc.

Further, while every person being a Priest/ess is a wonderful, liberating concept, it's challenging to do effectively. Even just for yourself, and especially for a communtiy (my hat's off to you guys who do that on top of leading 'regular' lives). 

The combination of a lack of trained clergy in the Pagan community results in... frankly in people who shouldn't be in a spiritual leadership position accepted there. Which can often results in things like Coven "witch fights", immature, highschool-esk behavior, and in the worst situations abuse and/or exploitation. Though some of those situations happen in other religions too.

In my limited experience, this is the first group of organized Pagans that I have not seen any of those elements crop up. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Cael and Liz (and Crystal, who else am I missing?) do have that training, and approach their(your) positions as professional clergymembers.

So please don't doubt yourself, or underestimate the value of your role, because it really is a necessary one (even if it must feel like herding cats most of the time) 

[Vagabond]

I think I am more comfortable with the idea of official Clergy than some Pagans because I am coming at it from a Unitarian Universalist background.  U.U.s have a similar "every person for themselves" ethic, yet U.U. ministers certainly play an important role in the life of the church.  I've also given it a lot of thought because becoming a minister or Priestess has been a lifelong dream of mine, although I don't know how realistic it really is.

Group dynamics:  Many of us like practicing in groups, yet if anyone needs a group co-ordinator, it's a group of Pagans!  All that individual thinking can easily lead to out-of-control conflict and emotional drama.  "Witch Wars" are an extreme example of this.  I've seen many (indeed, almost all) of the groups I've met eventually disintegrate because of either a lack of leadership or a leadership that was too inflexible and dogmatic. 

Group dynamics include:
-Organizing events and rituals; not necessarily directly, perhaps by delegating to people who are interested and/or talented in these areas.  But ultimately, the clergy person is responsible for making sure that all the bases are covered, and everyone on the team is working together.

-Conflict resolution:  members can, and should, be encouraged to resolve things among themselves, but sometimes there needs to be a higher authority to appeal to and to provide an objective perspective.

-Controlling membership:  Being inclusive is great, but some people really are just disruptive and detrimental to a group.  These people need to be identified as early as possible, and while not necessarily excluded, steps should be taken to minimize their influence on the group.  This is one area where I feel we differ significantly from the U.U.s, because Pagan groups are more intimate and the members share more emotional and spiritual vulnerability than in most church environments.

Pastoral care:  One of the strong selling points of organized religion is the feeling that when you are in need, a cohesive group of people is there for you.  Pastoral care acts on two levels, group and personal. 

-Examples of group pastoral care are offering up prayers and energies, or spells, to help the person in need.  Group efforts like charity work, get-well cards/projects, making casseroles and providing emotional support for those who are bereaved.

-Personal pastoral care includes pastoral counseling- this is where official clergy training comes into play, because pastoral counseling is not something that should be undertaken lightly!  A working knowledge of psychology and the dynamics of counseling is essential for those times when one is faced with more complicated issues or possible clinical mental illnesses which may need to be treated with medication and professional counseling.  Still, there are plenty of areas where pastoral counseling is invaluable, especially to Pagans.  Pagans can find it difficult to find counselors who understand and accept their religious and lifestyle choices, and a Pagan clergy member can also incorporate spiritual healing ideas.

Spirtual guidance.  It's true that we are all responsible for our own spiritual development, and we wouldn't have it any other way.  But sometimes we run into spiritual blocks.  We feel that we've lost touch with our spirituality.  Or we have a spiritual problem that we are too close to to see clearly, and it is interfering with our path.  Or we simply need an outside perspective and some fresh ideas.  Granted, this can be provided by any Elder, or even a book or particularly spiritual friend, but have Clergy person available certain makes it easier!


So, obviously I have a lot to say on the subject!  LOL  This is actually just the tip of the iceberg, and I really think this would be a great group discussion topic.   Perhaps for a Monday night class?

[SpiritHawk]

Ditto to what Cael just said, but I will add from a 'layperson' (or laypagan? is that too suggestive?)

The (newly-coined, because I just made it up) term is "laygan".  So there you go.   Portmanteau for the win. 

In my limited experience, this is the first group of organized Pagans that I have not seen any of those elements crop up. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Cael and Liz (and Crystal, who else am I missing?) do have that training, and approach their(your) positions as professional clergymembers.

Thank you for this.  It makes Liz* and me very proud to know that the work we are doing is bearing fruit.

For what it's worth, neither of us had formal Clergy training when we began the Grove; all we wanted to do at first was provide a place for people to come together to celebrate; we didn't feel qualified to lead, and so we had no intention of leading.  Over the course of the first year, it became clear that people were turning to us for leadership, whether we intended to be leaders or not.  In order not to let them down, we have both been working hard since that time to learn the skills necessary to be leaders of a group as diverse as ShadowGrove.

There are others in the community who are studying to be clergy as well; Crystal (as you pointed out), Stephanie (Felinea), and David and Jeanet Ewing, are all on clergy-training paths through various institutions.

I'm glad that you haven't seen the drama in the Grove that you have seen in other places.  Over the years, we have had our ups and downs, and our raised fur, and our differences of opinion, but I have not seen the types of craziness that I've seen in other groups.  I think a good portion of that stability comes from the people of the Grove; what we have observed happening over the years is that occasionally a drama-oriented person will start attending Grove stuff, and will even occasionally try to instigate things, but because the Grove Kin are, by and large, relatively low-drama people, the troublemakers eventually lose interest and self-select out.

It was a much-easier herd of cats to manage, back when we were only 8 people or so.  Now that we have over 40 official members, there's an inescapable bit of infrastructure and draconian whip-cracking necessary from time to time.  But because of the dedicated people of the Grove (some, like Crystal and Stephanie, who have been here since Day 1), we're working toward an organizational structure that should both allow us to grow to accommodate the needs of a larger number of people, and to maintain the close feeling of kinship and low drama that we've enjoyed in the past.

-C

[sunrising]

I can see your quandary ... paganism isn't your typical structured religion and we definitely value the individual's experiences and Divinity.  However, echoing many things that have already been said, there's a time and place for leadership in the way of clergy.  I see clergy as a resource of sorts.  As someone who may have my own connection with the Divine, I need to look outside myself for wisdom just as much as I need to look within.  Clergy is a wonderful resource for looking without oneself for wisdom and guidance.  Also, as far as rituals go, rituals on an individual level are very different than group rituals and a clear leader is needed (clergy!).  I think what sets pagan clergy apart from the non-pagan clergy that we may be wary of is the acknowledgment of the Divine within non-clergy.  I'm not aware of of any recognition of the Divine within the worshipers of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc..  It's our ability to see each other in a similar worldview that makes any pagan (clergy included) someone we'll feel more comfortable with over someone who doesn't share our worldview or even be open to it.  It's our natural open-mindedness which makes the difference, I think.

I absolutely feel there is a place for pagan clergy.  We all relate to the Divine differently and clergy can guide us on paths that aren't native to us, offer healing and support when needed, and provide leadership to a granulated community.

[RedWolf]

I deliberately waited to see what others' responses were before I responded.  It has been interesting to see what other people had to say, and based on those responses, I was not surprised to see that a number of people have a limited view of how clergy/ministry fits in the Pagan culture.  Since many of the people in the area come from a solitary path, they may not be aware of all the many things people do with larger organizations throughout the country and world.

First, let's look at the word "Minister":  it literally means to minister, i.e., "tend to or care for" the needs of the community.  While everyone who has posted so far has included the more common definitions of counseling, spiritual guidance, etc., that's only the tip of the iceberg.  For those who know Dave and I, we have been part of the Minister's Training Program with Circle Sanctuary(www.circlesanctuary.org)  since 2007.  Circle Sanctuary is one of the oldest Pagan Churches in the country.  So, our frame of reference is different for us since we've had the opportunity to meet and learn from many of the Circle Sanctuary Ministers.  Here are many of the things that Clergy are responsible for in the larger Pagan community: 
 - Rituals (although many people lead rituals who are not Clergy)
 - Education, which can include workshops, intensives, mentoring and public speaking
 - Life Passages ceremonies (handfasting, baby blessings, funeral rite, etc.)
 - Healing, including spiritual healing and pastoral counseling
 - Interfaith work
 - Military Ministries work
 - Prison Ministry work
 - Charity and Community work

When thinking about where you fit as Clergy or Clergy-in-Training, there are some things to consider:
To legally marry someone does not make someone Clergy.  Many people assume that this is the case because those who marry claim the title of "Minister or Reverend".  The state grants people the right to legally marry others; it does not and cannot ordain someone to any spiritual faith.  That is one of the problems I've run into in Pagan-dom. 

On the flip side, I have also  encountered people who get their ordination from Universal Life Church to marry people and start calling themselves "Reverend".  There is no way of knowing what ecumenical or pastoral training that person has received, which I find very troubling.  I actually did it for kicks a while back...it took me about 30 seconds, and nowhere on the site did it ask what training I received qualified me for this. 

Personally, I think it's important to know where your Clergy or Minister has received their training,and if they can provide their credentials,  especially with regards to pastoral counseling  dealing with mental health issues.  One needs a background in psychology or counseling training in order to see the signs of mental health issues of those in crisis.  Without the proper training one can potentially harm someone they were trying to actually help.

It is because of the weight that the terms "Clergy", "Reverend" and "Minister" hold that Dave and I have not taken on the title of official Clergy for ourselves.

Crystal, I hope this information helps you with your contemplations...

Blessings,
Jeanet

[RisingHawk]

I  agree with Vagabound's response.  I'm fairly comfortable with the idea of clergy myself, since I also attend a UU church.  I think there is a definite need for clergy in the pagan community.  I also agree strongly with Red Wolf's points.  To be called "Reverend" or "Clergy" comes with much repsonsibility.  I feel one should receive training from a structured program that covers all the facets of being a minister.  Simply getting your certificate from the Universal Life Church over the Internet, and hanging out your shingle doesn't cut it (at least for me).   I participate in a earth-based group at my UU  church, including being on it's governing board, and have led rituals myself - but I would never consider or call myself a minister.  I do believe that does take a special calling - and training.

RisingHawk

[Felinea]

I concur with just about everything said above.  And I have been trying to figure out how to put into words my thoughts on this subject. 

First of all, considering that anyone can go to the courthouse and get the right to legally marry anyone, I rarely even think of this as a Clergy role anymore.  Especially since the states have a right to appoint someone to marry a couple and have decided they have the right to decide who should be able to marry as well.  But that is another topic.

RisingHawk stated it well in regard to Clergy when she said:

I do believe that does take a special calling - and training.

People who become Clergy are called for different reasons.  Some just want to worship in the fullest way possible.  Some have the urge to teach.  Some are chosen even before their training begins.
I do believe that training is important.  However, I also believe that just because you have the training doesn’t mean you should become Clergy/Reverend/Minister.  It takes a special sort of person to become a leader and that is what a Clergy member in a group really is.  This is how churches start and spiritual beliefs are spread– with leaders and people willing and eager to follow.  Ignorance comes not only from closing your mind to something, but also from not having it available to learn to understand it. 

Training can be through life-experience and not through book-learning and certificates.  The one degree I never finished was my Accounting BA; however, I have worked as an Accountant for 23 years.  One of my degrees says I can teach high school in Fairfax County; however, I figured out that is definitely not my calling.

Just as people look for teachers and mentors, I believe people look to Clergy for leadership and spiritual counseling.  In every group there needs to be leaders; otherwise, there is something akin to chaos.  In spiritual groups, those leaders are Clergy.  Crystal asked: 

How does one fulfill that role without becoming dogmatic and inflexible?  How do you minister and not be seen to be taking over the spiritual and intellectual freedoms that are the very bedrock of our spiritual paths? 

These are important questions.  My simplest answer is to listen.  A great deal, though of course not all, Pagans are wanderers.  They seek knowledge and spiritual growth and then move on to gather more.  The Pagan Clergy needs to be there to guide, but not to interfere.  There is nothing wrong with saying “this is how I do it.” The main thing is not to say “this is how it has to be.”  If the person doesn’t like the way you think/do things, they may move on and learn from someone else. 

This is one of the things that I love about Shadow Grove.  I’ve known Liz and Cael for a long time and we walk different paths.  They are my ministers, but never have they told me that I must do things a certain way or that I’m walking the wrong path.  It is MY path.  They are there to guide me when I need them, but not to dictate or walk my path for me. 

Cael mentioned above that I am on the path to become Clergy.  I revealed to them recently that I technically finished my training back in 2008. However, I have chosen to continue to take various classes in my never-ending need to learn.  I am so glad Crystal brought up this question as it is one that I have wrestled with myself.   I have enjoyed reading the various responses. 

[Venchue]

You don’t have to be clergy to be a strong leader in the pagan community.  You don’t even have to be clergy to run a ritual…if that were the case then every person that does a ritual and follows a solitary practice would be clergy and wouldn’t need anyone else.  They would be able to counsel themselves and everything would be right as rain.  Just even saying it out loud makes it sound more ridiculous to me because it’s not possible.  Clergy is much more then someone running a ritual or leading a group.  Clergy are the teachers, spiritual guides, and counselors in times of need.  They are the people that have the calling and have done the training and want to help the community in more ways (mentoring, educating, charity acts, mediating, etc.) then just starting a group or leading a ritual.

I believe that yes, learning can come from life experiences as well as from books & classes.  How can one grow spiritual without actually doing something that to them is spiritual?  Meditations, rituals, visions, prayers, etc don’t come from reading a book…you have to actual do them.  The education and training from proper studies gives the tools that must then be practiced in order to understand and use properly in real life.  So of course both go hand in hand and shouldn’t be dismissed as valid sources when dealing with people that are clergy.

That being said, being a good listener and friend doesn’t qualify a person to actually counsel someone who has real emotional problems.  I wouldn’t want someone to try and counsel a person that is going through grief and depression who could become suicidal if they didn’t have the actual training for it.  You can only go so far with life experiences and intuition in situations like that.  Having the actual training allows the clergy/counselor to pick up on signs that could possibly defuse a suicidal thought before it comes to flourishing or even get the person help before they can harm themselves or others. 

I only mention this because awhile back, Fae & I were taking classes from a local pagan clergy/reverend and without getting into the actual details of it all, this person had my Fae convinced that his empathic gifts were wrong and he was doing acts of spiritual rape onto others.  Of course he was appalled by this and lapsed into a deep depression.  He tried denying his gifts as he didn’t want to be “raping” anyone anymore.  It took months to get him out of this state and on the road to controlling his gifts and getting piece of mind again. All of that came from just one person who called them self clergy who my Fae thought was trustworthy.

This is a perfect example of why someone needs the training before they present them self in an official capacity as clergy/counselor.  People new on their paths (and some of us old timers) can be very fragile and will take what you say to heart if you are in a position that carries so much weight as the title clergy has.  One should not become clergy just for the title; it’s a responsibility to the people that listens and follows him/her/them.  You best be able to bring it (so to speak) and not BS it as the individuals coming to you believe in you; you can really screw someone up without even meaning to if you don’t have the training to back it up. 

- Andy

[SpiritHawk]

Andy,

You raise some really good points.  I remember the situation you describe, and how Will was affected by all of that.

One thing I thought I might point out is this:  Training is good. Intrinsic ability is good.  Intrinsic ability without training can lead to overconfidence and wrongheaded action.  But so can training without intrinsic ability.

Further, the counselor/minister/what-have-you's motives have to be considered as well; I know that the person who was involved in the situation with Will is very well-trained (or perhaps I should say: extensively- and not well-) in a number of areas, and yet still, out of personal motivations that are unclear to me, behaves in a way that is inimical to that training.

When a person is going to see a counselor/pastor/minister, he or she needs to evaluate that person using common sense and good judgment (or if he or she is not in a position to do that, a caretaking guardian must); when I was a kid (age 10ish), my parents took me to a counselor who had training credentials from here to there.  But he was an idiot, and he managed to screw me up worse in his attempts to apply his round-hole training to a square-peg kid.  If he'd had an ounce of intuitive ability, he'd have seen that what he was trying was actually making things worse.  Things might have gone very badly, if my father hadn't insisted on sitting in on one of the sessions, saw that the guy was a well-credentialed fool, and walked us both out.

At the risk of calling the Catholics out on the carpet (which is not my intent; it's just a convenient and well-known example): every pedophile priest out there has been through the same seminary training as every saintly priest out there; the difference is not in the training, it's in the priest himself.

Anyone can get training.  The calling is what turns it from simple knowledge into actual ability.

-C

[RisingHawk]

Agreed - I think it takes a variety of things - some sort of formalized training, intuitive ability and life experience - I think they all go together.  Just being formally trained doesn't make one a good spiritual leader/minister (Cael's example of pedophile priests is a good example - speaking as the ex-catholic that I am!).  I've had my share of bad ministers and counselors as well.  To me, a good minister should have combination of all the things I mentioned above - and the flexibility to adapt his/her techniques as needed.  It really is a "calling" to me. 

[Brannen]

Sorry to be so late to the party, life has been a multicolored haze the last weeks. Hopefully it’s not too late to chime in on this discussion though. This is just going to be a rolling ramble from the consciousness stream, so keep that in mind as I go.

I find this a troublesome question mostly because we come here under the blanket term of Pagan, and yet we all have such different ideas, structures, beliefs, gnosis, insight, and needs. So while I can put myself into the headspace of an eclectic, a ritualist, a traditional coven member, or even some of the more extreme paths, it really behooves me nothing to speak of anything but what I believe, what I need. So that’s all I can offer you, Crystal.

The first thing that really strikes me as I consider your question is the idea of “every person is Priest/Priestess.” To me this is an amazingly poisonous and unfair idea. Not on the side of the Priest/Priestess/Leader/Minister/etc, but to the person who really isn’t. In my worldview, there are spiritual leaders. There are secular leaders. There are skilled crafters. There are homesteaders. There are outsiders. There are outcasts. It is amazingly unfair to ask the homesteader to have the same talents, the same inclinations, and the same training as the religious leader. Not to mention downright dangerous. Speaking from my own experiences, to be someone who dips deep into the spiritual demands heavy prices, prices that not every can or should pay. A culture that has nothing but doctors will swiftly starve. Should everyone know some basic first aid? Sure, of course, that’s just wise. Should everyone be an MD? I contend that no, they should not be.

Now let’s hit the second part, since it’s something I’ve been wrestling with as well (parallel worries, huzzah!). To be one of those in your society dedicated to the spiritual offers up (in most cultures) two separate paths. One divorces you from the group almost entirely and often involves madness. The other leads the person to acting as support, as guide, as teacher, and so on. I’m tagging that as roughly equivalent to the ministerial path. If one is called to that supporting path, can that calling be fulfilled when there is no one who needs or wants help?

A couple of hours of work kind of jostles the thoughts, so heading in a different direction now, hopefully with 30% less ramble.

How can you reconcile that split? I don’t think it’s true that the general populace doesn’t want clergy. Different names just get used. Priest, elder, BNP, whatever, folks still look for people that can help them over rough patches, whether it’s difficulty in their own spiritual growth or the tragedies that life hits them with. I believe that shifting mindset of just what minister is and does can help a lot with this. It may even help to use a term other than minister (just be careful of what term, but that’s a separate rant and pet peeve of mine).
How does clergy professionally spiritually focused pagan not get dogmatic? Through empathy. Through being able to put themselves into the shoes of those around them. By really taking the time to learn the people they serve, their own circumstances and worldviews, and translating what support and wisdom they might have to offer from their own experiences into a language that those coming to them for help can make use of. Given the rather… focused path I take, I’ve found myself backing up and rethinking a lot since I started interacting with our group, not out of a sense of fear at being ridiculed or hurting feelings, but out of a sincere desire to be understood. I believe that’s where this particular pitfall can be avoided, when you seek to meet the person on their terms (or close to them at least) and not force them into yours.

How does one minister and not take over someone else’s development? Here we get a bit stickier. In some cases, you are. Well, not entirely, but if someone is coming to you for instruction, guidance, tutoring, what have you, in a sense, you are altering or at least pointing them down a different path than if they hadn’t come to you. That’s a heavy, heavy burden and something that’s hard on the soul when things turn out poorly. If you’re talking what I tend to think of as trauma ministry (grief counseling, helping with life crashes, advising, etc), accept that you WILL have an effect on that person, but what kind of effect, how they take your offerings to them is up to them and their own world view. Their path is still their own, you’ve just placed offerings on the trail for them.

Do I think Pagans need a professionally spiritual population sewn amongst the ranks? Yes, I do. As I said earlier, I think it’s dangerous to spread the idea that everyone has the same abilities, the same inherent potentials, and the same desires. To pick a silly example, imagine if it was widely held that dowsing skill is the mark of a priestess and minister. What does that do to those who feel the calling but have no skill for such work? Even worse, what does it do to the person who’s told over and over again that he is a Priest when he feels no calling for such work, nor is heavily talented for the work? Personally, I know quite a few people who are crafters who believe, who make their offerings and devotions, but have neither talent nor desire for the deep work a spiritual leader needs to have.

In my own world view I have a very specific name for a spiritual leader, one who’s abilities I aspire to, but will never take upon myself. But you ask what the role of such a person should be, and so I answer. They should be able to:

• Comfort the grief stricken
  Advise with wisdom
  Lead the community in their rituals and rites
  Guide those seeking to deepen their own lives
  Mediate conflicts
  Create practical working guidelines for groups
  Represent well the community to those outside it
  Undertake harder spiritual/magical workings on behalf of those who are in need and wish, but cannot
  Establish and maintain sacred spaces
  Organize a group for the good of the group and service of the gods
  Understand those outside their own world view
  Communicate effectively, in peace and in stress, with their own group and those beyond it

As always: this is my opinion, ymmv, etc, etc, etc. But as I see the world, there is a need.  It is a symbiotic relationship, one that is ancient in the human culture, twisted about over the millennia, but still there.