Justifying Gender Inequality in the Church of England

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex D. J. Fry
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
System Justification Theory ◽  
Female Clergy ◽  
The Family ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
Theologically Conservative ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Church

Despite being a national institution, the Church of England is legally permitted to discriminate against its ordained female clergy in a number of ways, a phenomenon that is at odds with wider societal values in England. It is argued that this makes the gender values of this institution’s representatives worthy of examination. This article explores the gender attitudes of theologically conservative male clergy and the psychological processes that shape these attitudes. In order to do so, semi-structured interviews were conducted with fourteen evangelical priests in one diocese within the Church of England. A thematic narrative analysis was employed to interpret the data using descriptive, focused, and pattern coding. Three themes in particular emerged from the data, namely: “Theological parallel between the Church and the family”, “Created order of male headship and female submission”, and “Separation between Church and society”. The content of these themes reveals significant overlap with the contents of system justification theory, and so this was used to interpret the themes further. In light of this it is concluded that a perceived loss of social privilege and control shape participants’ traditionalist gender values.

scholarly journals Postfeminist, engaged and resistant: Evangelical male clergy attitudes towards gender and women’s ordination in the Church of England

2020 ◽  
pp. 205030322095286
Author(s):  
Alex Fry
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Gender Differentiation ◽  
Women's Ordination ◽  
Perceived Change ◽  
Conservative Evangelical ◽  
The Church

Despite the introduction of female bishops, women do not hold offices on equal terms with men in the Church of England, where conservative evangelical male clergy often reject the validity of women’s ordination. This article explores the gender values of such clergy, investigating how they are expressed and the factors that shape them. Data is drawn from semi-structured interviews and is interpreted with thematic narrative analysis. The themes were analyzed with theories on postfeminism, engaged orthodoxy and group schism. It is argued that participants’ gender values are best understood as postfeminist and that the wider evangelical tradition, as well as a perceived change in Anglican identity with the onset of women’s ordination, shape their postfeminism. Moreover, whilst evangelical gender values possess the potential to foster greater gender equality within the Church of England, gender differentiation limits this possibility, a limitation that could be addressed by increasing participants’ engagement beyond the Church.

Experience and impact of the 1-2-3 magic parent programme for children with ADHD on the family unit from the mothers’ perspectives: A narrative analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 136749352110399
Author(s):  
Stephanie Allen ◽  
Stephen K Bradley ◽  
Eileen Savage
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Children With Adhd ◽  
Family Unit ◽  
The Family ◽  
Narrative Constructions ◽  
The Impact

Parent programmes are often used in the clinical management of children with ADHD. Research into parent programmes has predominantly been concerned with their effectiveness and much less attention has been paid to the impact that they may be having on the family and the inter-relationships between family members. This study explores the perspectives and experiences of parents of children with ADHD, who participated in a parent programme, including its impact on the family unit. A purposive sample of six mothers of children with ADHD who completed a 1-2-3 Magic parent programme in Ireland was invited to take part in this qualitative study. Data were collected by means of individual in-depth, semi-structured interviews and a narrative inquiry approach further informed analysis of the interview data. Two major narrative constructions of experience: ‘parent programme as positive’ and ‘parent programme as negative’ were identified. Outcomes from this study illustrated some unintended consequences caused by the parent programme (i.e. sibling rivalry and conflict arising between family members). Mothers believed that the parent programme was a beneficial intervention, but it was not without its flaws and they felt it was helpful for their family when used in conjunction with other supports and mediations.

Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett, of Chelsea, 18 November 1897 - 13 July 1974

1975 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 1-115 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Large Family ◽  
The Other ◽  
Future Career ◽  
The Family ◽  
The Future ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
Indian Mutiny ◽  
The Church ◽  
Deep Interest

Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett was born in Kensington, London, on 18 November 1897. His father, Arthur Stuart Blackett, was a stockbroker, although apparently not by inclination since his great interests were in literature and nature. Patrick was the only boy but had an elder and younger sister; one trained and practised as an architect in the 1920s, until she married, and the other became an industrial psychologist and then a psychoanalyst. For the previous two generations the family had been associated with the Church of England. Patrick’s grandfather had been Vicar of the church in Woburn Square (now demolished), and was the Vicar of St Andrew’s, Croydon, at the time of his death. He had twice married and Arthur Stuart was one of a large family, two of whom went into the Church, whilst another became a missionary in India. Patrick’s great-grandfather came from Hamsterley in Co. Durham of a farming family. He moved to London and his children were baptised in St Saviour’s Church, Southwark (now Southwark Cathedral). The future career and interests of Patrick seem to have more association with his maternal descent. His mother, Caroline Frances Maynard, was the daughter of Major Charles Maynard, R.A., who served in India at the time of the Indian Mutiny. William Maynard, a brother of Charles, was also associated with India as a tea planter. The source of Patrick’s deep interest in Indian affairs has this association; so does his early naval career and his continued absorption in military affairs—in addition to the army career of his grandfather there was an earlier tradition of naval service in the Maynard family.

scholarly journals ‘Then You Will Know the Truth, and the Truth Will Set You Free’: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Career Experiences of Gay Clergy in the Church of England

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Connell ◽  
Julia Yates
Keyword(s):  
Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Phenomenological Analysis ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Career Experiences ◽  
And Bisexual ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Church ◽  
Practical Recommendations

Abstract The career choices of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) employees are increasingly under the spotlight in academic research, but the experiences of LGB employees called to devote their careers to faith organisations remain largely unexplored in the literature. The Church of England does not fully condone same-sex relationships and this may pose a challenge for LGB people working for the Church, as they look for a way to reconcile their sexuality with their faith and their employer’s beliefs. This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of six gay clergymen in the Church of England, using data gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Three master themes were identified: tensions between sexuality, calling, and career; coping strategies; and the institutionalisation of homophobia in the Church. The findings are discussed with reference to Work as Calling Theory and we offer practical recommendations.

English Puritans, Dissenters, Quakers, and Recusants

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Covington
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
State Institution ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Atlantic History ◽  
Modern Capitalism ◽  
Church And Society ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Church

The Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 formally reestablished the Church of England as a state institution defined by standardized forms of worship and obedience to the Queen as its supreme governor. A vocal opposition almost immediately emerged, however, with responses to the settlement ranging from wary conformity or assertive nonconformity on the part of Puritans to Catholic refusal to attend church (a decision known as recusancy) to the emergence of more extreme separatist groups which would give rise to dissenters in the next century. The conflicting intentions and social identities of these groups, in addition to their connection to larger political developments, have made this one of the more tangled areas of English historiography, with the Puritanism bearing most of the burden. In the 19th century, for example, historians such as S. R. Gardiner equated puritanism with liberty and freedom; in the early 20th century, the sociologist Max Weber famously argued that modern capitalism was directly related to a Calvinist (and particularly English Calvinist) form of Christianity, with the Puritan divine Richard Baxter one of its foremost exponents. Such a view was criticized by, among others, Marxist historians such as Christopher Hill and Katherine George, who, nevertheless, imposed their own somewhat reified concepts onto nonmainstream groups. Recent years have witnessed such scholars as Patrick Collinson and Peter Lake exploring puritanism’s relation to the Elizabethan and early Stuart church and society, while David Como represents a new generation of historians, in this case focused on radicalism within the movement’s underground. This article attempts to encapsulate these trends, though its emphasis on English nonconformity admittedly excludes the new transatlantic focus promoted by historians such as Francis Bremer, or in the case of recusants, transcontinental perspectives. For such a perspective, see the Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History article on Protestantism by Carla Gardina Pestana.

The Structure of Newman's Apologia

PMLA ◽  
1951 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin J. Svaglic
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Evangelical Christianity ◽  
Spiritual Autobiography ◽  
Student Activities ◽  
Personal Influence ◽  
The Family ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church ◽  
Limited Scope

The Apologia pro Vita Sua is not the autobiography of Newman from 1801 to 1845. It tells us nothing of the family life, the student activities, the intellectual and artistic interests of its complex subject. Nor is it even a spiritual autobiography of those years except in a limited sense. We must turn to the Letters and Correspondence, with their “Autobiographical Memoir”, to supplement the bare account given in the Apologia of Newman's conversion to Evangelical Christianity. The Apologia is primarily a work of rhetoric designed to persuade a body of readers or “judges”, English, Protestant, and suspicious of a convert to an unpopular religion, that Newman, whom Kingsley had made a symbol of the Catholic priesthood, was a man not of dishonesty but of integrity. Newman chose autobiography as his method because of his lifelong English preference of the concrete to the abstract, his vivid realization of the rôle in persuasion of personal influence: “I am touched by my five senses, by what my eyes behold and my ears hear. … I gain more from the life of our Lord in the Gospels than from a treatise de Deo.”1 “The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts and events, by history, by description. Persons influence us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us/'sj^was his conversion to Catholicism after a long puzzling delay, many predictions of the event, and even) charges of treachery to the Church of England that had created th^ atmosphere of suspicion in which his character had been impugned! Therefore he would confine the autobiography principally to a brief explanation of how he arrived, to begin with, at what so many regarded with suspicion and fear: Anglo-Cathoiic principles; and to a detailed one of how, having accepted them and devoted himself to propagating them, he became convinced that the principles which had led him thus far must lead him farther still, into the Catholic Church. ”I am but giving a history of my opinions, and that, with the view of showing that I have come by them through intelligible processes of thought and honest external means“ (p. 27). If that history of opinions, in spite of its limited scope, has so much of the richness and variety of great autobiography, it is because Newman held that the means by which we arrive at belief, all of which he would try to chronicle for his own life so far as that was possible, were multiform and complex.

Robert Browning's Evangelical Heritage

1975 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Maynard
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
John Ruskin ◽  
Parish Church ◽  
The Family ◽  
Congregational Church ◽  
The Church

When, in an episode in the long courtship by mail between Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, Elizabeth “confessed” that she was to be numbered, in religion, among “those schismatiques of Amsterdam” Donne talks of, Browning, always the opportunist in the affair, fired back: “Can it be you, my own you past putting away, you are a schismatic and frequenter of Independent Dissenting Chapels? And you confess this to me—whose father and mother went this morning to the very Independent Chapel where they took me, all these years back, to be baptized—and where they heard, this morning, a sermon preached by the very minister who officiated on that other occasion!” The Independent Chapel in question was, of course, the Locks Fields Chapel, or, as it came to be called, the York Street Congregational Church, at Walworth, about a mile from the Brownings' Camberwell home, south of London; and the minister was a George Clayton. Browning's credentials as a schismatic were, however, less obvious than he implies. On his father's side Browning's people, in fact, were members of the Church of England (his grandmother was the daughter of an Anglican clergyman), and in the 1830's he and his sister also attended evening services at Camden Chapel, a separate offshoot from the parish church of St. Giles, in order to hear the more “eloquent and earnest” sermons of Henry Melvill, “Melvill of the Golden Mouth,” whose sermons were also highly approved by John Ruskin. If Clayton's Independent Chapel was nonetheless the family church, there can be no doubt that this was because of the influence of Browning's mother, already a member there before marriage. About 1820, her husband, raised in the Church of England, followed her and officially joined the York Street Congregation.

scholarly journals Private Spirits, Public Lives: Sober Citizenship, Shame and Secret Drinking in Victorian Britain

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Beckingham
Keyword(s):  
Church Of England ◽  
Domestic Space ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Apparent Absence ◽  
Temperance Movement ◽  
Victorian Britain ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Family ◽  
Public Lives ◽  
The Church

Abstract This article considers Victorian concerns about the rise of secret drinking amongst respectable women. These new, apparently dangerous, practices were blamed on licensed grocers and even railway station refreshment rooms. Understandings of different male and female natures went hand in glove with anxieties about the potential effects of drinking. That alcohol might be consumed in secret, at home, triggered concerns about the shameful state of womanhood and the risks for the domestic space and state of the family. This secrecy, and an apparent absence of reliable evidence as to the scale of the problem, is central to the methodological challenge and argument in this article. Using their knowledge of and putative responsibilities for the private sphere, women in the temperance movement organized against the grocer. The article analyses published accounts of women’s work in the Church of England Temperance Society, the British Women’s Temperance Association, and Women’s Total Abstinence Union. It argues that their efforts, rooted in private and domestic imperatives, tested the social and spatial reach of women’s reform work. Acting against the grocer helped women to articulate a distinctively public model of sober citizenship.

scholarly journals Developing Identities: The Relational Identities of New Zealand NGOs

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrew Johnston
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
The South ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The North ◽  
Working Together ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Control

<p>Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are significant institutions within development. Ideally, they represent the voice and aspirations of grassroots communities and they are born of a movement of local communities in the North and South. NGOs, however, are experiencing a crisis of identity. Changing geopolitical paradigms, increasingly critical analysis from the development academy and, in New Zealand especially, significant changes in the funding environment have caused substantial challenges to NGO identity, purpose and legitimacy. This research qualitatively assesses the identity of Northern NGOs (NNGOs) in New Zealand. It explores the elusive identity of these organisations through the focal point of their partnerships. Using narrative analysis in semi-structured interviews with development practitioners from varied organisations, this thesis elucidates the challenges and aspirations of NNGO identity. This thesis analyses these identities through three themes: in the manner in which they communicate their identity to their partners and supporters; in their understanding and enactment of the inherent power imbalances of the North-South dichotomy; and in the forming of relationships in the South that inform their primary functional identity. In response to the changing environment within which they work, NNGO identities are increasingly fragmented, their roles as fundraisers, programme workers and advocates for justice often conflict and inform an identity that is multiple, fluid and complex. Contemporary NNGOs must find legitimacy in their connection to the grassroots in the North and the South, in advocacy, in programming, in fundraising and in fulfilling their in role of translators and mediators of development. The changes to the New Zealand government‘s support of NNGOs have brought a significant challenge to these roles, and the NNGO response to these challenges will be definitive in the years to come. Most importantly, NNGOs are reclaiming their role as the representatives of a transnational movement of people working together to bring equity and justice, and to facilitate development that local communities can understand and control.</p>

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