The tough economic times are taking a toll — and churches and synagogues are facing challenges of their own, just trying to offer support.

From the New Jersey Star-Ledger:

Rabbi Benjamin Adler hasn’t felt particularly helpful lately.

Older couples have been talking to him about their vanishing retirement accounts because of the recent havoc in the stock market, and the spiritual leader of White Meadow Temple in Rockaway Township hasn’t known what to say.

Sometimes, all a man or woman of the cloth can do is lend an ear.

“It’s mostly really listening to them and being a reassuring presence,” the 33-year-old Adler said. “I don’t necessarily have words of wisdom, especially for people at that stage of life. There’s been a lot of fear out there. It came out around the High Holy Days (seven weeks ago), when we think about our future and where we’re going.”

Since September, the financial crisis has been an especially palpable concern at houses of worship, say pastors, rabbis and imams. It has been the subject of clergy counseling sessions, sermons, and in-house career seminars.

This fall has been a time, too, for religious leaders to warn against using the material over the spiritual. Last month, Pope Benedict XVI said from Vatican City, “He who builds only on visible and tangible things like success, career and money builds the house of his life on sand. … Only God’s words are a solid reality.”

Locally, many clergy say they find themselves doubling as networking career counselors and therapists more than ever.

“Some people, you know, they’ve been at Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns,” said the Rev. Edward Halldorson of Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, many of whose parishioners work in Manhattan. “(We) look for ways we can gather to have groups of men and women who are going through this, and share with men and women who have been through it before. If I lost a job in the past, I can give a great deal of hope to someone going through it now.”

The Rev. Jethro James of Paradise Baptist Church in Newark, some of whose parishioners have recently lost jobs as security guards and engineers, said he urges the unemployed toward education.

“We’re encouraging folks to go back to school and take courses. We’re telling our young people to prepare,” said James, president of the Newark-North Jersey Committee of Churchmen. “More people are coming in for counseling than ever. More people are taking food from the food bank than ever.”

He said his church keeps up with social service agencies to note any changes in food stamp requirements, and also networks with fast-food restaurant managers about jobs to help needy members.

“You almost become an employment agency,” he said. “A young lady who lost her job, was a professional, she had a knack for cleaning. If we can get her $100 a day to clean someone’s house, we’ll do that.”

He has noticed an unexpected source of angst in some who talk with him: the anticipated effect of their parents’ dwindling fortunes on their own financial futures.

“Your mother now needs to get a reverse mortgage and in reality it may deplete what you believe is your inheritance,” James said. “You’d be surprised at how many folks get bitter about that. They feel something is owed to them. But don’t you want your mom to have a great next 20 years?”

In Ridgewood, leaders of the Career and Resources Ministry at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church have seen larger-than-ever attendance at monthly workshops, which were begun seven years ago to help parishioners who lost jobs after 9/11. Usually, five or 10 people attend. But the September crowd was 15, and last month’s was 30.

Visit the link for more. And let’s remember all these people in our prayers. Especially now.