There was an old adage, perhaps especially in free church circles, that the minister should be never out of his study in the morning and never in it in teh afternoon.
Probably he was also expected to have several meetings in the evenings, but that's another story.
And the idea was that in the morning he would write his sermons, and in the afternoons he would visit his people.
He would preach twice on a Sunday and he would lead the mid week meeting.
And he should have a day off.
So he has five mornings for study and preparation. Say 9 am to 1pm. Four hours per session. Perhaps two sessions each for the Sunday sermons. And one for the midweek meeting. Or manybe three for Sunday morning and one for the midweek meeting and one for Sunday evening (when he may re-use material), or something. Or perhaps one session is given to more general background study. The exact division might depend from week to week and doesn't matter too much.
The pastor thus gives the bulk of his best time to study.
Maybe there are night owls, but I know I find it hard to study say, 7pm - 10pm on a Thursday after a full week, though I can find the energy to go out to PCC, weirdly!
Sometimes, of course, the pastor might mix it up. After all, not all his people are free at 3pm on a Wednesday.
Did this pattern basically hold in 1980 before the days of mobile phones and emails? Could the Vicar give an hour a week to his correspondence?
And today, the pastor would ask, I guess, is that how we think of his role today:
(1) Study to preach and teach
(2) Pastor and evangelise when you can
Today we would add admin and leadership.
When does the Vicar sort out the church building, and do his online safeguarding training, and the return to the diocese about net zero and...?
Is the life of the Vicar just one thing after another and think about your sermon on the way to church, or can we say what healthy patterns would be between morning and evening prayer?
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