The life of a faith worker can be a lonely one.
They often live and work alone, work long hours and provide grief counselling and support for others.
But rarely do they have similar confidants of their own.
Add to this the hierarchical structure of many church organisations and an ambiguous employment status, and many faith workers are left feeling isolated and unaware of their rights should trouble arise. And it often does.
Take Father Chris Bedding, for example, the former rector of an Anglican Church in Perth. He has a penchant for clashing with church leaders.
Not only does he speak publicly on issues like LGBTQI+ rights and the plight of refugees, but he once performed a popular comedy show called "Pirate Church", which led to him being suspended for blasphemy.
An independent and confidential process via the diocese's professional standards board eventually reinstated Fr Bedding on condition he apologise to church officials and attend a personal retreat under the supervision of a bishop.
"My own diocese didn't even try to abide by its own procedures," he says today.
"Even in the face of very real threats of legal action they would not budge and that reflects a culture where faith organisations have been a law unto themselves.
Fr Bedding is somewhat lucky. Because of his community work, he'd already garnered a very large support network both within and beyond his church. But that's not always the case.
He says that when faced with any sort of accusation, faith workers will typically plunge into shame and not discuss it with anyone.
"Even disclosing to your closest friend or colleague that you're being investigated, all the language around it is so fraught, people just retreat into themselves and almost die inside because they have no-one to support them," he says.
"I chose to stand up and fight what I regarded as bullying, but most people don't have the wherewithal."
Employee or spiritual servant?
One of the biggest obstacles for faith workers seeking restitution in the workplace is the ambiguous nature of their employment status.
Church organisations regard faith workers as spiritual servants, and under Australian law they're referred to as "officers" or "office holders", not employees.
"This has a number of consequences," says Renae Barker, a legal academic at the UWA Law School.
"It puts faith workers outside many of the structures and protections offered by employment law."
Instead of being paid a wage or salary, faith workers are paid a stipend. Things other workers may take for granted like annual leave, minimum wage and superannuation, are not a given.
"Historically, this is because clergy weren't seen as nine-to-five workers, this was a vocation. Church paid them a stipend and cared for them, often providing other things like a house or a car," Dr Barker says.
But the presumption under Australian law that faith workers are not employees is a "rebuttable presumption", Dr Barker says. She believes change is in the air.
"There have been a number of cases where the court has looked at the arrangement with the church organisation and said 'Well, if it looks like an employment contract and it smells like an employment contract, then it probably is an employment contract'," she says.
A faith worker's alliance is born
Even though he was reinstated, Fr Chris Bedding has now left his position as rector with the Anglican Church and is the newly appointed Executive Officer of the Faith Workers Alliance.
He now reports to Rev Brendan Byrne, chair of the FWA's management committee and also a Uniting Church minister.
For Rev Byrne, the main issues are transparency and education.
"There is a repeated pattern of churches, faith organisations and faith communities not having a structure or process that affords due process or justice. And there is an absence of people who have the sufficient experience to ensure that a due and fair process occurs," he says.
He says religious organisations have traditionally hidden their organisational structure, making it difficult to pinpoint in legal terms the person or entity you're dealing with.
The Alliance, he says, will help faith workers navigate their way through a fair process and provide them with a better understanding of their rights.
"It's about a process of education among faith workers so that when they are confronted, and quite frankly it will be an issue of 'when' and not 'if', they know how to ensure they are treated fairly," Rev Byrne says.
"To be fair, some organisations ensure that they locate the appropriate award or industrial instrument and peg their remuneration to that, but frequently that doesn't occur and so faith workers can often be the subject of considerable underpayment."
But will religious organisations' hierarchies afford the Faith Workers Alliance as much bargaining power as a traditional union?
"We are still very new and our membership is still growing. So, we quite happily acknowledge that at the moment we're not an established union with thousands of members and the associated industrial muscle that goes along with that," he says.
But that's only half the point, according to Rev Byrne. The Alliance's greatest strength is in its mere presence.
He says the Alliance has already been able to provide support for faith workers who've found themselves in extremely difficult situations, and that they're mostly relieved just to be able to talk with someone.
"Quite apart from whatever the outcome may be, they are profoundly relieved and grateful for the fact that there's actually someone walking that journey with them," Rev Byrne says.
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