workers rights

The crisis at General Theological Seminary in New York has not only produced important acts of solidarity towards eight fine professors unjustly sacked for their protests about what they have experienced as bullying within the GTS administrative system, it has also begun to spark some wider questions about the future of seminary-style education and mainstream US Protestantism.

The tragic and deplorable situation at General Theological Seminary in New York, USA, where eight loyal faculty members at present stand dismissed for their action in seeking to address "a workplace with a retaliatory and hostile environment", is one which has regrettably sad echoes in other situations in religious bodies I have known over the years.

The number of unpaid interns utilised as entry-level staff—minus the pay—has been on the rise in recent years, and media coverage of these unethical and legally questionable arrangements has been growing exponentially, says the Intern Justice (IJ) (http://internjustice.com/) organisation in the USA.