Amid concerns that the office of priesthood attracts narcissists, the Church of England wants all trainee priests to go through personality tests before their induction.
The denomination is “considering the use of psychological assessment as part of the process of discernment for those seeking ordination in the Church of England,” The Telegraph quotes Julian Hubbard, director of the Church’s Ministry Division, as saying.
The Church’s bishops will consider undertaking an exercise next year to find ways to analyze the personalities of new priests so that the denomination knows what kind of people it’s attracting.
According to Mark Vernon, a psychotherapist and former Church of England priest, narcissists are attracted by positions of power to “lord it over others.”
“The church offers a particular route which would appeal to some who like the entitlement — you’re called a reverend, you sit in high places, you wear special clothes, you’re seen as authoritative, you have captive audiences, you’re spiritually elite — whatever it might be, people get drawn to that way of trying to cope with that sense of self-dissatisfaction,” Vernon tells the newspaper.
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