Churchmanship: the relationship of patterns of Christian ideology and self-understanding to the personality and ministerial practice of stipendiary curates in the Church of England and the Church in Wales

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine churchmanship empirically by means of a specially designed postal questionnaire sent to all those ordained to stipendiary ministry in the Church of England and the Church in Wales in 1994, with follow-up questionnaires in 1995 and 1996. The first half of the study comprises a historical account of the development of the wide variety of churchmanship positions in the Anglican church from the Reformation onwards, followed by a review of empirical measurement of churchmanship. The need for a new churchmanship measure is shown in order to quantify the full range of churchmanship positions. The new churchmanship measure is based on the concept of the semantic differential grid, and used throughout the study's empirical research. In order to examine whether churchmanship is related to personality, the development and testing of four measures used in personality research is covered, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Oxford Happiness Inventory, and the Bern Sex Role Inventory. In addition the development of five other inventories to be used in this study is outlined. The second half of the study comprises the results of the empirical research. The three-dimensional churchmanship measure is seen to be effective, and the correlations between the three dimensions are revealed. There is seen to be an absence of any substantial correlation between churchmanship and the EPQ, the OHI, the MBI and the BSRI. Nevertheless there is ample correlation between churchmanship and role prioritisation, between churchmanship and the curates' perceptions of the training and support they have received in their training parishes, and between churchmanship and matters of doctrine, matters of ceremonial, liturgical practice and patterns of life. Each of the delineated churchmanship groups is seen to have its distinctive pattern of beliefs and behaviours.

Date of Award	2001
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Wales, Bangor
Supervisor	Leslie Francis (Supervisor)