Ayatollah

Ayatollah (pronounced ah-yuh-toh-luh)

In Shiʿite Islam, a high title in the religious hierarchy achieved by scholars who have demonstrated advanced knowledge of Islamic law and religion.

1300s: A Persian word from the Arabic āyat (sign, testimony, miracle, verses of the Qurʿān) and allāh (God).  The Arabic ayatu-llah is literally "miraculous sign of God", the word Ayatollah (āyatullāh) best translated as “sign of God” although there are variations.  Word originates from passage 51:20–21 in the Qurʿān which the Shi'a, unlike the Sunni, interpret to mean human beings can be regarded as “signs” or “evidence” of God.  It’s most familiar now from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Persian آیت‌الل romanized as āyatollāh where it’s an honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran (and now also Iraq) that came into widespread use in the mid-late twentieth century.  There are variants: āyatallāh fī al-anām (آية الله في الأنعام), literally “Sign of God among mankind”, āyatallāh fī al-ʿālamayn (آية الله في العالمَین‎), literally “Sign of God in the two worlds”, fī al-ʿālamīn (في العالمین‎), literally “in the worlds” and āyatallāh fī al-warā (آية الل في الوراء), literally “Sign of God among mortals”.

Ayatollah (āyatullāh) is an honorific title in the clerical hierarchy in Twelver Imamite Shiism, bestowed by popular usage on those who have demonstrated outstanding scholarship both in Islamic jurisprudence and the holy Qur’ān.  Although the title had existed since medieval times, until well into the twentieth century, use was restricted to senior clerics (mujtahids) of Persian origin.  An imitation of the title ẓill Allāh (shadow of God) was traditionally applied to Persian Islamic rulers, which was confirmed by the use of āyat Allāh zādah (son of ayatollah), a counterpart of shāh zādah (son of the shah).  The first reputed bearer, Ibn al-Muṭahhar al-Ḥillī (d 1374), was styled Ayatollah in the twelfth century but it remained rare and didn’t come into general use until the late Qājār period (1796-1925) when, in 1922, Abd al-Karīm Ḥāʿirī-Yazdī founded the new theological centre of Qom.

Besides being a fully qualified mujtahid, the scholarship and theological authority of an aspiring ayatollah must be acknowledged by both his peers and followers.  In the period between the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 and the 1979 Iranian revolution, the title ayatollah became (although in infrequent use until the 1940s) clerically more ubiquitous, extended even (against their own traditions) to Sunnī religious dignitaries although, in Iran, the Sunni community does not use the title.  It remains rare outside of Iran although in Iraq, it remains available to clerics of Iranian origin and after the 1979 Iranian revolution, there were significant changes.  The title became more exclusive and a seven tier hierarchy was codified, including the role of nāyib-i imām (lieutenant of the imam), reflecting the assumption of both temporal and spiritual power by Ayatollah Khomeini who anyway removed any suggestion of collective theocratic rule with his adoption of the title imām, something historically unusual in Twelver Shīʿī.  Until then, the concept of niyābat (general vicegerency of the Hidden Imam) was purely theoretical.

Thoughts of Ayatollahs

Great minds think alike

The title grand ayatollah (Ayatollah al-Uzma) (Great Sign of God) is sometimes misunderstood and in none of the strains of Islam does a defined hierarchical clerical structure exist in the manner of the classical theocratic model employed in the Roman Catholic Church and being a grand ayatollah is not necessarily an indication of a place of high authority in any administrative structure.  Grand ayatollah was a (historically rarely granted) honor and one afforded to an ayatollah whose contribution to learning and knowledge of the holy Koran was such they are considered Marja'-e-Taqlid, (Grand Ayatollah now the usual form).  Although, practices have varied, for the title to be conferred, an ayatollah would have been expected to have produced a substantial body of Islamic scholarship but analysts have concluded the favored works have tended to be those reflecting Koranic orthodoxy and of practical application rather than abstract explorations of the esoteric.  Again, because it’s not a centralized system, the number of active grand ayatollahs in Iran isn’t clear but they’re said to number in the dozens.

As a formal prelude to achieving the status, a treatise (risalah-yi'amaliyyah) (practical law treatise) is usually published, almost always a work which draws on and reinforces earlier traditions rather than anything new or controversial.  In this it’s more like the modern Western PhD dissertation, many of which appear not a genuinely new contribution to anything much.  The convention however works in conjunction with the political structures of the state which in 1979 were absorbed by the revolution.  Upon assuming office as Supreme Leader in 1989, Ali Ali Khamenei (1939-2026; Supreme Leader, Islamic Republic of Iran 1989-2026) was granted the title ayatollah although there appears to be no great history of Koranic scholarship and certainly not the customary risalah-yi'amaliyyah.  In recent years, there seems also to have been a bit of a nudge by the state-controlled media which sometimes refer to him as Grand Ayatollah or even Imam.  Foreign monitoring agencies however have reported the Iranian people seem unresponsive to the prodding and use of “Imam” seems still a historic reference only to the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

There has been a bit clerical inflation since the death of the Imam.  Although there exists in Shia Islam no codified hierarchical structure of ecclesiastical offices, observers have identified shifting conventions which move with the political climate of the day.  Possession of the more exalted titles used to depend on popular assent, granted only to the most prominent religious figures and those who were of necessity a Mujtahid, an important pre-condition being a demonstrable superiority in learning (aʿlamīyat) and authority (riyāsat) the latter definitely demanding popular support.  Not unrelated too, as structuralists like to point out, it helped if one was good at raising religious taxes (Khums).  Plus ça change...

Some presumably un-intended mission-creep resulted from the Imam’s educational reforms intended to secure the primacy to Koranic teaching.  The restructuring of the Shia seminaries created four layers of structured scholarship, those clerics attaining the highest qualification styled as Dars-e-Kharej (beyond the text) and thus assuming the title of ayatollah.  Being an Islamic state, bureaucratic progression in the state bureaucracy was assisted by the qualification and the numbers graduating increased, the dynamic driven also by (1) a worsening economy which made state-sector employment increasingly attractive and (2) the unlimited ability of the seminaries to offer courses to fee-paying students.  By 2017, it was estimated over three thousand clerics in Iran were calling themselves Ayatollah.

To mark “Mean Girls Day” on 3 October 2019, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) took to X (the app then known as Twitter) and trolled Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (1960-2024) and then Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani (1957-2020), photoshopping the trio into a well-known scene from the film (2004), labeling the image “There’s no one meaner than the mean girls of the Middle East” and advising the twitterati: “Don’t sit with them”.  It wasn’t the first time the Jewish state had deployed the movie against the ayatollah and his acolytes: In 2018, in response to Ayatollah Khamenei calling the Jewish state a “cancerous tumor” which “must be eradicated,” the Israeli embassy in Washington posted a Mean Girls GIF asking “Why are you so obsessed with me?”  On both occasions, the ayatollah ignored the IDF's provocations but by late 2024, the IDF high command, pondering the meme, was probably thinking "two out of three ain't bad".

Surplus

Surplus (pronounced sur-pluhs)

(1) Something that remains above what is used or needed.

(2) In agricultural economics, produce or a quantity of food grown by a nation or area in excess of its needs, especially such a quantity of food purchased and stored by a governmental program of guaranteeing farmers a specific price for certain crops.

(3) In accounting, the excess of assets over liabilities accumulated throughout the existence of a business, excepting assets against which stock certificates have been issued; excess of net worth over capital-stock value.

(4) In public finance, an excess of government revenues over expenditures during a certain financial year.

(5) In international trade, an excess of receipts over payments on the balance of payments.

(6) In economic theory, an unsold quantity of a good resulting from a lack of equilibrium in a market.  For example, if a price is artificially high, sellers will bring more goods to the market than buyers will be willing to buy.  In classical economics, the opposite of shortage.

(7) In Chancery law (and its successor courts), the remainder of a fund appropriated for a particular purpose.

1325–1375: From the Middle English surplus, from the Old French sorplus (remainder, extra), from the Medieval Latin superplūs (excess, surplus), the construct being super (over) + plūs (more).  The Italian surplus was a borrowing from modern French where surplus had existed since the twelfth century while in English, surplus has been used as an adjective since the fourteenth century.  Enjoying the same pronunciation, surplice and surplus are often confused.  A surplice is a liturgical vestment of the Christian Church, usually styled as a tunic of white linen or cotton material, with wide sleeves and often some lace embellishment or embroidered edges.  Lengths vary; in medieval times it reached almost to the ground but tends now to be shorter; some still retain the longer garments for the ceremonial.  As surplis, it was a thirteenth century Middle-English borrowing from the Anglo-French surpliz, a syncopated variant of Old French surpeliz, derived from the Medieval Latin superpellīcium (vestīmentum) over-pelt (garment), neuter of superpellīcius, the construct being super (over) + pellīt(us) (clothed with skins or fur) + -ius (the adjectival suffix).  A clerical surplice is thus a kind of frock; a clerical surplus means "too many priests".  Surplus is a noun, adjective & verb, surplusage is a noun and surplused & surplussing are verbs; the noun plural is surpluses or surplusses.

Surplus Repression

German-American Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979), a sociologist and philosopher, highly influential in the mid-late twentieth century.  Even today, Marcuse enjoys a cult following and remains a hate-figure for those on the right who trace the ills of Western civilization to the corrosive influence Marxist & neo-Marxists exerted on youth in the newly expanded universities in the 1960s & 1970s.

A critique of capitalism’s culture and economic arrangements, Marcuse's book Eros and Civilization (1955) drew, inter alia, from Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and described an alternative structure for society.  He didn’t reject Freud’s idea that repression of man's instinctive desires was necessary for civilization to endure but Marcuse distinguished between basic (or necessary) repression and surplus repression, detailing the differences between the biological vicissitudes of the instincts and the socially imposed.  His construct was that basic repression was that which man suppresses to permit peaceful societies to form; repression or modification of the instincts being necessary “…for the perpetuation of the human race in civilization.”  Surplus repression meant those “…restrictions necessitated by [the] social domination” of the particular ruling-class or hegemony.  The purpose of surplus repression was to shape the instincts of individuals to conform to the requirements of modern capitalism, a surrender to what Marcuse called the “performance principle”, a construct building on Marx’s theories of alienation and surplus value.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, 2011.

Marcuse's writing did have the attraction of being more accessible than that of Marx or Freud (and certainly that of many neo-Marxists or Freudians) but that also meant it was easier for critics to cherry pick the points they found most objectionable.  For an explanation of why society need to be organized the way it was, conservatives seemed to prefer the rationalization of the "harsh but deliciously clever" English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) best known for his book Leviathan (1651) in which appeared the memorable passage describing the life of man in a world where there existed no restraining authorities forcing people to repress their worst instincts:

In such condition, there is no place for industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving, and removing, such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Such a culture Hobbes called the "state of nature" by which he meant not an environmentally sustainable hippie commune but a place in which there was "bellum omnium contra omnes" (war of all against all) and murder went unpunished except by another murder.  Although the distinction is now an unfashionable one to draw, conservatives liked the way Hobbes seemed to know not all cultures were civilizations and that a little surplus repression was a small price to pay for for its benefits.  Hobbes lived through troubled times and his views on the importance of stable, strong governance should be understood as the writings of one who had seen what the alternative looks like but as a list of exculpatory bullet-points, his world view was one which could be ticked off by by the ayatollahs in Tehran or the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).  Marcuse is not so transportable.

Peace man: PotM (Playmate of the Month) Debbie Ellison (b 1949) on the cover of Playboy magazine, September 1970.  That year's PotY (Playmate of the Year) was Sharon Clark (b 1943).  With due respect to Ms Ellison, sometimes, it really may have been bought for the articles: Michael G Horowitz's profile of Marcuse was published in this edition.  The old curmudgeon of the left wouldn’t have had much sympathy for hippies and their piece sign because neither appeared to be doing much to bring on the revolution and was anyway once heard to remark: “Ach, women!  Useless in a revolutionary situation!”

Playboy titled the profile Portrait of the Marxist as an Old Trooper although the author (one of the philosopher's old students) preferred to call the piece a "personality snapshot" and it certainly had a different flavor than what would have been found in the activist press or journals of political science.  Years later, the author would concede some of his critique of Marcuse's work was misplaced and many of the old pessimist's predictions had (unfortunately) transpired.  That said, Marcuse seems never to have complained about the piece, unlike Albert Speer (1905–1981; Nazi court architect 1934-1942; Nazi minister of armaments and war production 1942-1945) whose interview by Eric Norden, conducted over an apparently convivial ten days in the “richly furnished living room of his spacious home” in Heidelberg, was published in Playboy’s June 1971 edition.  Speer would later complain the piece had been “…restructured, with words and formulations entirely foreign to me.”  He did however conclude “…on the whole the interview as printed corresponds with my opinions…” by which he meant Nordon was yet another to accept an recycle his core position: “If I didn't see it [the Holocaust], then it was because I didn't want to see it.”  That was the so-called “Billigung defense” which Speer since 1945 had, in a masterful manner, used simultaneously to accept a collective guilt yet absolve himself of individuality responsibility.  Others no more guilty but less cunning had been hanged at Nuremberg and the Playboy interview was printed years before material was discovered in the German federal archives documenting his part in the persecution of Jews and the unearthing of private correspondence in which he admitted knowledge of the holocaust and its awful, chilling rationale.  As one of his biographers, Gitta Sereny (1921–2012), rightly pointed out in Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (1995): “If Speer had said as much in Nuremberg, he would have been hanged.”

Marcuse’s work was acknowledged as a landmark in the synthetization of Marxist and psychoanalytic theories but was criticized for being just another of the "pointless utopian myths" written of since antiquity, work cut adrift from the moorings of the political reality which seemed in the 1960s more urgently to demand attention.  Marcuse acknowledged the distance of his work from reality and conceded his theories could reach actualization only by revolution or gradual infiltration of the structures of the power-elite and, after the disappointments of the moments in 1968 when revolution fleetingly was in the air, he preferred the latter.  German student activist Rudi Dutschke (1940–1979) had advocated a "…march through the institutions of power", radically to change society from within government and cultural institutions by becoming part of the machinery and structures under which capitalism operated.  This too owed a debt to the theories of hegemony and Marcuse wrote to Dutschke in 1971 saying he “regarded your notion of the "march through the institutions" as the only effective way.”  It all failed.  It was the highly unusual coincidence of political, economic & demographic circumstances in the post war (1948-1973) Western world which briefly in 1968 made the system seem internally vulnerable and the hegemony learned the lesson: they would control who manned the institutions that matter and the trouble-makers could march through things like theatre trusts, literary festivals and art gallery committees.

Defrock

Defrock (pronounced dee-frok)

(1) To remove a frock.

(2) To deprive a person in holy orders of ecclesiastical status.

(3) As informal slang (by extension), formally to remove the rights and authority of someone, eg a medical practitioner or lawyer.

1575-1585: From the fifteenth century French défroquer (unfrock), the construct being dé (partially inherited from the Old and Middle French des, inherited from the Classical Latin dis (apart), the ultimate root being the primitive Indo-European dwís, and partially borrowed from the Latin dē (from), in some cases + froc (from the Middle French frocq (cloth made of coarse wool), from the Old French froc (compare Late Latin hroccus (frock)) from the Frankish hrokk (robe, tunic), from the Proto-Germanic hrukkaz (robe, garment, cowl), a variant of rukkaz (upper garment, smock, shirt), from the primitive Indo-European rug (upper clothes, shirt) which was cognate with the Old High German hroch & roc (tunic, smock, jersey) (German rock), the Old Saxon rok (mantle, jacket), and the Old English rocc (over-garment, jacket).  Defrock has become so associated with the mechanism used to deal with sinful priests that (unless with irony) it shouldn't be used to mean "removing one's dress", the companion terms disfrock & unfrock both available although neither are exactly elegant.  Defrock & defrocked are verbs and defrocking is a noun & verb; the noun plural is defrockings (a word the Vatican had had to read much in recent years).

For literalists: Lindsay Lohan frocked-up (left) at the Venice Film Festival, September 2006 (left) and defrocked (right) for photo-shoot by photographer & director Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri (b 1983), October 2010. 

Laicization

Defrocking, sometimes called unfrocking (there’s nothing in the etymological record to suggest de-frock or un-frock has ever had currency) is the act of denying an ordained member of the clergy the right to practice ministry.  The procedure differs between Christian denominations (although, for technical reasons, is rare and often impossible in Anglicanism) and is most often applied to the Roman Catholic Church although, as a point of law, it does not overturn ordination.  Although the term defrock is widely used to describe the process whereby members of the Catholic Church clergy are dismissed from the clerical state, the term doesn’t exist in canon law and is never used by the Vatican, clerical expulsion instead known as laicization.  Unlike the more common suspension, which can be reversed upon repentance, laicization is a permanent and final measure although it’s not always imposed as a punishment (Latin: ad poenam) and may granted at the request of a priest (Latin: pro gratia).  Although criticized for not having done enough during his pontificate to ensure sinful priests were defrocked, regulations authorized by Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022) in 2009 did simplify the process which, unchanged for centuries, could take more than a decade.

Guilty as sin:  Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick (b 1930).  Ordained in 1958, he was first appointed bishop in 1977 and created cardinal in 2001.  Accused of long-term sexual misconduct towards boys and seminarians, after being retired from the ministry in 2018 he was defrocked (laicized) in 2019.

The defrocking by the Holy See followed McCarrick’s trial before the Inquisition (then called The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF)) in which he was found guilty of "solicitation in the Sacrament of Confession, and sins against the Sixth Commandment with minors and with adults, with the aggravating factor of the abuse of power".  The Inquisition rejected an appeal against the judgement and sent the papers to the pope, who, as the Holy See’s chief magistrate, certified the verdict as res iudicata (no further appeal possible).   One curiosity of canon law is that ordination cannot be excised so McCarrick remains a priest but is barred from performing any priestly duties except in one exceptional case: he may administer the last rites to the dying if no other priest is available.  Criminal charges were laid but the defrocked priest began to suffer the "significant" and "rapidly worsening" cognitive decline which seems to afflict so many priests charged with sexual offences and after a state-appointed forensic psychologist reported "deficits of his memory and ability to retain information", in late 2023 a court ruled that McCarrick was mentally incompetent to stand trial.

Sinecure

Sinecure (pronounced sahy-ni-kyoor or sin-i-kyoor)

(1) An office or paid position requiring little or no work, often one with no formal duties (historically sometimes as sinecure post).

(2) An ecclesiastical benefice without cure of souls (a clerical appointment to which no spiritual or pastoral charge was attached (obsolete)).

(3) Figuratively, something having the appearance of functionality without being of any actual use or purpose.

1655–1665: From the Medieval Latin phrase beneficium sine cūrā (a benefice granted without cure of souls (care of parishioners), the construct being benefices + sine (without) + cūra (care).  The construct of the Latin benefium (beneficent) was bene- (well, good) +‎ -ficus (the suffix denoting making) + -ium.  The –ium suffix (used most often to form adjectives) was applied as (1) a nominal suffix (2) a substantivisation of its neuter forms and (3) as an adjectival suffix.  It was associated with the formation of abstract nouns, sometimes denoting offices and groups, a linguistic practice which has long fallen from fashion.  In the New Latin, it was the standard suffix appended when forming names for chemical elements.  The derived forms include sinecureship, sinecurism, sinecural & sinecurist; the noun plural is sinecures.

The sinecure was a creation of medieval ecclesiastical law and referred to a situation in which the rector (with an emolument) of a parish neither resided in nor undertook the liturgical and pastoral functions of a cleric in the benefice but had a vicar serving under him, endowed and charged with the cure (pastoral care) of the parishioners.  From this the secular world borrowed the word to refer to an office or appointment which yields a revenue to the incumbent, but makes little or no demand upon their time or attention.  In ecclesiastical usage a sinecure was (1) a benefice of pecuniary value, a rectory, or vicarage, in which there is neither church nor population, (2) a benefice in which the rector receives the tithes, though the cure of souls, legally and ecclesiastically, belongs to some clerk or (3) a benefice in which there are both rector and vicar, in which case the duty commonly rests with the vicar, and the rectory is called a sinecure; but no church in which there is but one incumbent is properly a sinecure.  Presumably to avoid any clerical rorting of the system, as a technical point, ecclesiastical law noted that were a church to cease to exist or a parish become destitute of parishioners, a sinecure would not be created because the incumbent remained under obligation to perform divine service if the church should be rebuilt or the parish become inhabited.

Sinecures were for centuries a feature of the operation of Church and State in England and, as a useful form of patronage (and sometimes blatant corruption), they lasted until abolished by parliament in 1840.  They’d any way by then substantially fallen into disuse, few existing after the reform acts of the 1830s although they remained a favorite of novelists who enjoyed the possibilities their absurdity offered as a literary device, Anthony Trollope (1815–1882) in Barchester Towers (1857) memorably recounting the tale of the prebendary Dr Vesey Stanhope who spent a dozen years in Italy recovering from a sore throat, his time absorbed in catching butterflies.  Although sinecures vanished from ecclesiastical law, they remained an aspect of ecclesiastical life, under-employed clerics sometimes the subject of the same acerbic comments indolent tenured professors attract in campus fiction. 

In politics, sinecures evolved along three forks.  The first was as a formal device to allow political formations to coalesce, sinecures (the most obvious of which is the seemingly mysterious “minister without portfolio”) handy appointments when the need existed to pad out a ministry to fulfil the agreements entered into to form the coalitions necessary to secure a majority.  The second use of sinecures some claim are actually a form of corruption.  There are appointments made for base political reasons such as a means of disposing of someone suddenly inconvenient or as payment for political favors; such “jobs for the boys” (a few of which are “given” to women and the gender-neutral form “jobs for mates” is now preferred) are an integral part of modern politics.  In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), one premier was actually compelled to resign after an enquiry found one such appointment constituted corruption (a finding later overturned but many found the somewhat expanded definition of what actually constituted corruption to be compellingly convincing).  The sinecure also has a technical use in the operation of the UK parliament.  For historical reasons, members are not allowed to resign from the House of Commons but nor are members allowed simultaneously to hold what is termed “an office of profit under the Crown” and the conflictual interaction of these two provisions provide the mechanism by which a member may depart, the hollow shell of an ancient sinecure maintained for the purpose; once a member is appointed to the sinecure, their seat in parliament is declared vacant.

John Barilaro (b 1971) member of the NSW Legislative Assembly (Monaro) 2011-2021; cabinet minister 2014-2021 and Leader of the National Party (ex-Country Party) and thus deputy premier of NSW 2016-2021).  Mr Barilaro is pictured here with his family, May 2020.

In June 2022, Dominic Perrottet (b 1982, premier of NSW (Liberal) since 2021) announced the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro as NSW trade commissioner to the Americas, based in the US.  Responding to criticism this was another case of "jobs for mates", Mr Perrottet said Mr Bartilaro’s background and experience made him ideal for the role and he’d been selected not by the government but by recruitment firm NGS Global which conducted a "rigorous global talent search".  He was “…by far the most outstanding candidate" Mr Perrottet added.  Mr Barilaro seemed to agree, saying he would “…continue to build on what had already been achieved”.  One achievement of note was that the position of trade commissioner (believed to include an annual salary of Aus$400,000 and an expense account of a further Aus$100,000) was created while Mr Barilaro while a member of the NSW government although he insists this was entirely an inititive of the NSW Treasury.

Whether Mr Barilaro's appointment should be thought an example of horizontal or vertical integration attracted some interest but it certainly provides inspiration for politicians pondering their retirement planning (a task some suspect constitutes the bulk of most parliamentary careers): (1) create a number of highly paid statutory appointments (ie in the gift of a minister with no need to advertise the vacancy), (2) ensure the jobs don't require any skills or qualifications, (3) make sure at least some are based in a pleasant city in a first-world country, (4) design a job description that is vague and has no measure of success or failure & (5) arrange one's own appointment to the most desirable (methods will vary according to factional arrangements, favors owed etc).  Some probably consider this a plan B retirement scheme but it can be a lower-profile alternative to plan A which is (1) do some deal by which public assets are (sold, leased or in some advantageous way) made available to a corporation, individual, national entity etc & (2) do so in secret exchange for a lucrative (and especially undemanding) sinecure after retirement from politics.           

The reaction to the premier’s statement does illustrate the way the perception of a job can be changed according to circumstances of the appointment.  A job such as a trade commissioner would nominally be regarded as a conventional public service role, had it been filled by someone with an appropriate academic background or experience in trade or foreign relations but if given to an ex-politician, it can look like a sinecure, a nice retirement package with no expectation that KPIs or any of the other fashionable metrics of performance measurement will be much analyzed, either in New York or Sydney.

Still, Mr Barilaro has shown a flair for media management which would be handy in any foray into international relations.  In October 2021 he announced his separation from his wife of 26 years and it later transpired he was in a relationship with his former media adviser, such couplings apparently a bit of a National Party thing.  A few weeks later he concluded his valedictory speech in the NSW Parliament with the words "…one piece of advice: Be kind to each other. If we have learned anything over the past two years it is to be kind to each other."

On 30 June, following interesting revelations at a parliamentary enquiry convened to examine the processes which secured his appointment, Mr Barilaro announced he would not be taking the job.  "It is clear that my taking up this role is now not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained." he said in a written statement, adding "I believe my appointment will continue to be a distraction and not allow this important role to achieve what it was designed to do, and thus my decision."  In conclusion, he stated "I stress, that I have always maintained that I followed the process and look forward to the results of the review."

To the extent possible, he followed the politician's three-step playbook of how to try to extricate one's self from a tricky situation of one's own making: (1) blame the unfair media coverage, (2) assert there's been no wrong-doing but to avoid becoming a distraction for the party (usually expressed as "the government", "the state" etc) I am (withdrawing, resigning, standing aside etc) & (3) I am looking forward to spending more time with my family.  In the circumstances, he chose not to invoke step (3), that perhaps a bit much, even for Mr Barilaro.  The parliamentary enquiry however remains afoot (as does an internal review which may have a different agenda) and its findings should make interesting reading, students of the manufacture of sausages expected to be amused, if not surprised.

Clergy

Clergy (pronounced klur-jee)

The group or body of ordained persons in a religion, as distinguished from the laity (the non-ordained); applied especially within Christendom.

1175–1225: From the Middle English clerge & clergie from the Old French clergé (learned men) from the Late Latin clericātus (office of a priest) from clericalis & clēricus (one ordained for religious services), from the Ancient Greek κληρικός (klērikós) (of the clergy).  It’s from the Old French clergie (from clerc) in the sense of “learned men, skilled in the arts of erudition, writing and transcription” that the modern English clerk evolved, the meaning "pertaining to clerks and copyists" dating from 1798.  Clericalism sacerdotalism (power or influence of the clergy) is from 1849, very much in the spirit of the European revolutions of 1848; clericality (quality of being clerical) is from the 1650s.  Clergy, clergyman, clergywoman and (the very modern) clergy person are nouns and the adjectives adjectives clergylike, anticlergy and proclergy (all sometimes hyphenated) were in well-known during the centuries when church and secular forces contested control of British and European; the noun plural is clergies.

The legal doctrine benefit of clergy was formalised first in the 1510s and was the exemption of ecclesiastics from certain criminal processes before secular judges although in England it had been first recognized in 1274; over time it was gradually restricted being abolished finally in 1827.  Special deals for English clergy were nothing new.  The Rosetta Stone, the granodiorite stele created in Egypt in 196 BC and re-discovered in 1799 (which became the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs) included a degree granting tax-breaks to clergy, rights which in various jurisdictions persist to this day.

Clergyman was a familiar term from the thirteenth century but the more rare clergywoman was unknown until the 1670s and then just as a general descriptor of nuns.  It wasn’t until 1871 it could refer to a "woman pastor, woman of the clerical profession" but in between, it was used humorously (and disparagingly) about the domineering wife of a clergyman, an idea Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) used to great comic effect when writing of the bishop’s wife in the Chronicles of Barsetshire (1855-1867).  Clergess (member of a female religious order) was attested from the late fourteenth century; clergy-feme (clergyman's wife or woman) was first noted in the 1580s.

Church of England (and worldwide Anglican) clergy

A clergyman.  Cosmo Gordon Lang (1864–1945), Archbishop of Canterbury (1928–1942).

In the Anglican Church, there are in excess of two-dozen titles before one even reaches then levels of the right reverend and very reverend gentlemen but despite the extraordinary proliferation of styles and titles within the Anglican clergy, under canon law, there are but three types of ordained person: a bishop, a priest, and a deacon.  With very few exceptions, the people who hold other offices and titles will always be (1) a bishop, (2) a priest or (3) a deacon, with their other title(s) overlaid atop their primary appointment.  There doesn't seem to be any theological justification for all this ecclesiastical bureaucratization but as those who study organizational behavior have often noted, structures once established can quickly become established tradition and assume their own inertia.

Bishop

A member of the clergy who has been commissioned to oversee the work of a group of congregations and the priests & Deacons who serve them; that group of congregations is called a diocese.  Only a bishop may ordain persons to the order of deacon and priest; only a bishop may also ordain (also called a consecration) another bishop, but must do so in the company of other bishops and a bishop must have been previously have been ordained a priest.  In the Church of England, twenty-six bishops (The Lords Spiritual) sit by historic right in the House of Lords, the UK parliament’s upper house.

Priest

A member of the clergy who has been commissioned to preside at gatherings around the Lord’s Table (the Holy Communion) and to extend assurance of God’s forgiveness to those who truly repent of their sins.  A person who is a priest must previously have been ordained as a deacon, and continues to be a deacon throughout his or her life as a priest.  A few churches now use presbyter for this order.

Feminist Lindsay Lohan in habit with Smith & Wesson .500 Magnum in Machete (2010), makes a persuasive case for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church.  In the Anglican communion, there are now even women bishops although some reactionary dioceses such as Sydney restrict women to the diaconate (ie deacons) where they may assist "real" priests although their exact role can vary between parishes.  The Sydney diocese, where there's still a hankering for popery, refuses to ordain women as priests and bishops.

Deacon

A member of the clergy who has been commissioned to proclaim the Gospel, assist at the Holy Communion, and to call the church, by word and example, to its ministry of service and healing.

Archbishop

A bishop who presides over several dioceses in a large region, a position which includes some supervisory responsibilities over both dioceses and bishops in that region.  In the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury is the (nominal and spiritual) head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Archdeacon

A member of the clergy appointed to assist the bishop in certain administrative and pastoral duties in a diocese.  An archdeacon may administer a district comprising a group of parishes which is usually known as an Archdeaconry.  Despite the name, there is now no direct connection with the order of deacon, and an archdeacon is generally one of the priests of a diocese.  The position and title normally expires upon resignation or retirement, although certain retired archdeacons in good standing with their bishop often retain the title.

Aspirant

A person who has indicated to the bishop that he or she hopes to be ordained and is in the preliminary interview process.  Once the bishop has formally accepted their candidacy, the person is called a postulant.

Bishop-elect

A person chosen to become a bishop, but not yet consecrated; the word elect simply means chosen.  Anglican bishops are selected by a variety of means: some are elected by the clergy and laity of the diocese where they will serve, but some are selected by a specially-constituted committee (often called an Electoral College).  In England, historically, bishops were personal appointments by the monarch; now the sovereign appoints on the recommendation of the prime minister.  This process has not been without the odd hiccup.  Once, Lord Salisbury (1903; UK prime minister for thirteen years variously 1885-1902), as was the usual practice, received from the Archbishop of Canterbury the name of the two clergymen he had considered for appointment to a vacant bishopric.  Unfortunately, the spellings of the two names were similar and the prime-minister inadvertently sent to the palace the wrong name.  After the gentleman was enthroned he was informed of the error and remarked: "Oh, I daresay he will do just as well".     

Canon

Canon is an honorary title conferred upon a member of the clergy (and some lay persons) for faithful and valuable service to the church.  The standard joke in church circles is it's hard to find men of sufficient calibre to fulfil the role and once appointed, they should never be fired.

Chaplain

A member of the clergy whose employment is not in a parish or congregation, but who undertakes pastoral care and organizes worship services within a non-religious organization such as a school, hospital or the military.  There are a few special appointments where a chaplain may be a spiritual advisor and personal assistant to a bishop or a monarch.

Coadjutor

A bishop who has been appointed to assist a diocesan bishop.  Generally, a Coadjutor automatically becomes Diocesan in his or her own right, upon the retirement or resignation of the person currently in that office.

Commissary

A person appointed to exercise the administrative functions of a bishop, when the actual bishop is away from the diocese or otherwise indisposed.  A commissary may not perform any of the spiritual functions of a bishop, such as ordinations and the appointment is inherently temporary, the role expiring immediately upon the bishop’s return.

Curate

A deacon or a priest who functions as an assistant or subordinate to the Incumbent of a parish.  The word curate refers to the cure or care of souls, and while the word does suggest a primary and senior responsibility (indeed, in a French-speaking Roman Catholic Church the senior priest of a parish is called a curé), in the Anglican Church, a curate is always an assistant.

Dean

The most common meaning of this word in Anglicanism is “a priest who is the Incumbent of a cathedral, and the most senior priest of a diocese (under the bishop)”.  This title is not to be confused with academic deans and there are other Anglican officials with dean in their titles (such as Regional or District Dean) and their most familiar role is as the administrative heads of cathedrals.

Diocesan

A bishop in charge of a Diocese and it’s correct to say either the Diocesan or the diocesan bishop when referring to this office.  The Diocesan may also be referred to as the Ordinary.

Honorary (somethings)

An Honorary Assistant or Honorary Curate (and a few other variants) indicates an ordained person who functions as one of the clergy in a parish, but does so on a voluntary basis.  He or she may have other employment, or be retired from full-time paid ministry, but will preach, preside, or do pastoral care in the parish without receiving a living wage for it. The position is almost always official, formally designated as such by licence or certificate from the Bishop.  In this, honorary appointments in the church essentially mirror academic practice.

Father

Father is not actually a title, simply a form of address, a kind of courtesy title.

Incumbent

A technical term for a member of the clergy who has primary administrative, pastoral, and liturgical responsibilities in a parish or congregation.  Despite its official nature, this term is seldom used in conversation, and is often unknown among ordinary church members, who will usually refer to their Incumbent as the Rector.

Lay Canon

A non-ordained person who is given the honorary title of Canon, usually as a form of recognition for their leadership in some aspect of the church’s life.

Metropolitan

An archbishop who presides over a region of the church which may include several dioceses, bishops, and even archbishops; second only to a Primate in authority and responsibility.  Some Metropolitans are also Primates, and are officially described as Primate and Metropolitan.

Ministry Developer

In congregations and districts where the traditional clergy tasks (preaching, pastoral care, presiding etc) are divided up and done on a voluntary basis by different individuals (some ordained, some laity), the team leader is often given the title Ministry Developer.  This person is most often ordained and seminary trained, but need not be, provided only that he or she is good at enabling teamwork and communicating a rich sense of the church’s mission.

Ordinand

A person in the process of being ordained; preparation having been accomplished, the title exists only on the day of ordination.  Before, during, and after the liturgy, the brand new deacon or priest is correctly called an ordinand.

Ordinary

In a diocese or jurisdiction where there are a number of bishops, one of them always holds primary authority, and is called the Diocesan or, in some jurisdictions, the Ordinary (always with an uppercase O).  The etymology of ordinary in this context is murky but may relate to this person’s responsibility for deciding who gets ordained.

In the Anglican Church of Canada, a bishop who directs Anglican chaplains in the armed forces is also called the Bishop Ordinary.  This person is not assigned to any particular diocese and the duties of a Bishop Ordinary cross many diocesan and even national boundaries.

Parson

This is now an almost colloquial term applied to a member of the Anglican clergy.  Historically, in England it was an official designation for a salaried priest in charge of a parish.  The word derives from the Latin persona from which also is derived the very generic “person.”

Pastor

Although not a formal title in the Anglican Communion, some clergy find it acceptable, because it’s more widely understood than Rector or Incumbent.  Pastor means shepherd, and is quite suitable to use for any priest who has pastoral responsibilities.

Postulant

A person who has been accepted by the bishop as a candidate for ordination and is in the process of being trained.

Prebendary

An honorary canon, a title used almost exclusively in the UK.  Historically, in England, a prebendary was a member of the clerical staff of a cathedral or collegiate church; a paid position whose income derived from specially allocated rents of land administered by that church, the properties generating such rents was called a prebend.  Although prebend-based income is now rare (some claim it’s extinct) the honorary title of prebendary is still England.

Precentor

A person, usually a member of the clergy, who is responsible for organizing the liturgy and music of a large church (such as a great cathedral).

Presbyter

Another word for priest, both from the Ancient Greek πρεσβυτερος (presbuteros) (church elder).  There are dense theological arguments surrounding these words and while all official Anglican documents and ordination liturgies use priest, there are some places in the church which use presbyter to refer to this order, the second of the three basic Anglican orders.

Priest-in-Charge

A person who has the responsibilities and duties of an Incumbent, but on a temporary basis, the appointment always at the discretion of the bishop.

Primate

A bishop who presides over the Anglican Church in a large region, or even in an entire country.  There will be many dioceses, bishops, and occasionally some archbishops under a primate’s supervision.  The person who holds a comparable position in Scotland is called Primus and, in the US, the equivalent position is the Presiding Bishop.

Provost

Provost has many meanings in English, used also to refer to military police or the principal of a university college.  When applied to a member of the Anglican clergy, the word refers to a priest who is the Incumbent of a cathedral church.  The more common word for this position is Dean, but in Scotland, Kenya and some smaller countries, the correct title is Provost.

Rector

A priest who has primary administrative, pastoral, and liturgical responsibilities in a parish or congregation; similar to and sometimes identical with an Incumbent.  Some heads of academic schools are also called Rector but such officials need not be ordained, or connected with the church.

Regional bishop

A bishop in a large diocese who is one of several bishops, each having oversight over a specific geographic area of parishes and clergy within that diocese.  This person may be a coadjutor or a suffragan, or even the Diocesan.  Technically, regional bishops can function anywhere within the diocese, but they have a closer relationship with and more detailed knowledge of their particular district.

Regional Dean

A priest who has some pastoral and administrative oversight of a small group of parishes or congregations.  This position has less weight than that of an archdeacon, so there can be several regional deans in an archdeacon’s area of responsibility.  A regional dean is generally an Incumbent of one of the parishes in his or her Deanery.  The titles Rural Dean and District Dean refer to exactly the same function and of the three Rural Dean is probably the oldest but is falling from use as the worldwide trend of urbanisation continues.

Suffragan

A bishop who has been appointed to assist a diocesan bishop (the Ordinary).  In contrast to the position of Coadjutor, a Suffragan is not automatically the Diocesan’s successor.

Transitional Diaconate

A category of clergy who are ordained deacon in preparation for being ordained priest.  Clergy in the transitional diaconate tend to spend up to a year serving as deacons, after which ordination to the priesthood takes place following further review and inquiry.

Vicar

This has slightly different meanings in various parts of the Anglican world.  In England, a vicar is a salaried parish priest whereas in the US, they’re a priest responsible either for a mission or for an institutional chapel (a mission is a congregation that is either recently founded, or is not capable of being financially self-sustaining; a chapel is a place of worship in a hospital, or an airport, or a government building).  In many places the word vicar can be used for a priest who is acting in behalf of a senior official who is not present (similar to the English word, vicarious). 

Vocational Diaconate

A category of clergy ordained as deacons who intend to remain so for the rest of their lives, without being further ordained to the priesthood.  The role exists to provide for those who feel their vocation to be that of ministry and service, rather than presiding.