Personality and Preference for Rural Ministry Among Male Anglican Clergy

The short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was completed by 81 male Anglican clergy in charge of rural benefices and by 72 in charge of urban benefices. The rural clergy recorded higher scores on the extraversion and lie scales. These findings are discussed in light of the changing nature of rural ministry.     

Aging Anglican Clergy and Effectiveness in Urban Ministry

ABSTRACT

This study employs path analysis to examine the relationship between clergy age and certain quantitative indices of church life in a sample of 983 urban churches. The data indicate that clergy aged sixty or over have contact with fewer children on a typical Sunday, generate fewer adult confirmation candidates and are less actively involved in promoting adult house groups. These findings are discussed in the light of a growing body of research concerned with clergy aging. It is suggested that older clergy may perform better in suburban parishes than in either rural or urban ministry.     

Ministry and Stress: Listening to Anglican Clergy in Wales

This study set out to examine the experiences of stress in ministry among a sample of Anglican clergy serving in Wales. Building on recent quantitative studies of work-related psychological health among Anglican clergy in England, the study employed mainly qualitative methods to illustrate eight issues: the clergy’s overall assessment of their present health, their understanding of the characteristics of stress, their assessment of the levels of symptoms of stress within their own lives, their identification of the causes of stress within their experience of ministry, the people on whom they call for support in times of stress, their strategy for and styles of recreation, their assessment of the pastoral care provision available to clergy, and their views on enhancing initial clergy training to equip clergy to cope with stress. Data provided by 73 clergy (10 female and 63 male) portray a group of professionally engaged men and women who are well aware of the stress-related dynamics of their vocation, who are displaying classic signs of work-overload, and who are critical of and resistant to strategies that may confuse the pastoral care of stressed clergy with the accepted management role of the Church’s hierarchy of bishops and archdeacons.     

The Relationship Between Personality and Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction with Ministry Among Female Stipendiary Anglican Clergy in the UK

A sample of 565 female stipendiary Anglican clergy in the UK completed the short form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with indices of satisfaction with ministry and of dissatisfaction with ministry. The data demonstrate that satisfaction with ministry is associated with stable extraversion, while dissatisfaction with ministry is associated with toughminded neuroticism. Satisfaction and dissatisfaction with ministry are not opposite ends of the same continuum. Pastoral Theology and Mansel Jones Fellow at Trinity College     

The Personality Profile of Male and Female Trainee Readers in the Church of England Compared to Anglican Clergy: The 16PF

Cattell's 16PF questionnaire was completed by 57 male and 75 female trainee Readers of the Church of England and the profiles revealed significant differences between the personality attributes of trainee Readers and the general population. These data were compared to the profiles of clergy of the Church of England and, again, significant differences of personality were found and discussed in relation to ministry.     

The Relationship Between Recalled Self-esteem as a Child and Current Levels of Professional Burnout among Anglican Clergy in England

This study links and tests three strands of theory concerned with explaining individual differences in levels of professional burnout in general and among religious professionals in particular. These three strands concern the significance of current self-esteem, recalled self-esteem as a child, and personality. Data were provided by a sample of 1,278 male stipendiary parochial clergy working in the Church of England who completed the modified Maslach Burnout Inventory (specially designed for use among clergy), and the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (designed to measure the personality dimensions of extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism), together with a semantic differential index of recalled self-esteem as a child. The bivariate correlation coefficients demonstrated significant associations between more positive self-esteem as a child and lower levels of professional burnout (higher personal accomplishment, lower emotional exhaustion and lower depersonalisation). The bivariate correlation coefficients also demonstrated significant associations between personality and professional burnout. Multiple regression analyses, however, demonstrated that the association between recalled self-esteem as a child and professional burnout largely disappeared after controlling for the personality variables. The conclusion is drawn that knowledge about the personality profile of clergy functions as a more secure predictor of susceptibility to professional burnout than knowledge about recalled self-esteem as a child.     

Exploring Affect Balance: Psychological Well-being of Church of England Clergy and Laity During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Journal of Religion and Health - Psychological well-being was assessed by affect balance (a function of negative and positive affect) during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 among 4449 clergy...     

Personality of male Anglican clergy in England: Revisited using the 16PF5

Cattell's latest version of the 16PF (16PF5) was completed by a random sample of 580 male Anglican clergy whose names and addresses were provided by the Church Commissioners' payroll. These data demonstrate a distinctive profile for clergy that differs significantly from that of the general male population on 12 personality factors. In addition, these data indicate agreement on seven scales, and disagreement on eight scales, between the profiles of male clergy as measured on the old study using the 16PF4 and this study using the new version.     

The Fate of the Anglican Clergy and the Class of '97: Some Implications of the Changing Sociological Profile of Ordinands

This paper identifies some of the most salient trends in the changing sociological profile of Church of England ordinands over the past 30 years. While the Church itself monitors age and gender, there have been few independent studies carried out since the 1960s which explore these and other variables in any depth. By measuring changes in age, gender, churchmanship, ethnicity, plans for future ministry and setting these alongside wider changes in Church life, occupational mobility in society, and Church policy on ordination training (especially towards families and women's vocations), it is possible to highlight some likely implications for the future. What appears to be predictable with some degree of certainty is the continued growth of the evangelical tradition, increasing involvement in chaplaincy (which itself signals an interesting dynamic in the 'location' of religion and religious professionals in social life), and much more willingness within the Church to experiment with different patterns of ministry and more flexible modes of theological training.     

Reflections on the Shop Windows of the Church of England: Anglican Cathedrals and Vicarious Religion

In order to shed light on the role of modern Anglican cathedrals in England, this article refines Grace Davie’s concept of vicarious religion. Building on Peter Rowe’s thesis that cathedrals are well placed to perform the ‘prior work’ of Ann Morisy’s foundational domain of mission, the article constructs a model which predicts that cathedrals, widely known as the ‘shop windows of the Church of England’, are one dimension of the mechanism by which the passive majority becomes acquainted with and approves of the vicarious religion performed by the active minority. The model may facilitate empirical research around vicarious religion, which has presented methodological challenges, and may have resonance not only for cathedrals but also for the cathedral-like ‘Greater Churches’.     

Shaping Teachers' Interpretation of Spirituality: The Contribution of Anglican and Free Church Colleges in England and Wales

A sample of 298 primary-school teachers working within the state-maintained sector in England completed a 150-item questionnaire to assess their understanding of the term “spirituality.” The data demonstrate that after controlling for sex, age, personality, and current religiosity, teachers trained in an Anglican or Free Church College were more likely than teachers trained in secular institutions to interpret the educational construct of spirituality in terms of traditional features of Christianity. There is some evidence for the distinctive religious contribution of Church Colleges to teacher education.     

Clergy Work-Related Psychological Health: Listening to the Ministers of Word and Sacrament Within the United Reformed Church in England

Drawing on the classic model of balanced affect proposed by Bradburn (The structure of psychological well-being, Aldine, Chicago, IL, 1969), this study conceptualised poor work-related psychological health in terms of high levels of negative affect in the absence of acceptable levels of positive affect. In order to illuminate self-perceptions of work-related psychological health among a well-defined group of clergy, a random sample of 58 ministers of word and sacrament serving within the west midlands synod of the United Reformed Church in England completed an open-ended questionnaire concerned with the following six guiding questions. Do you enjoy your work? How would you define stress? How would you define burnout? What stresses are there in your ministry? What do you do to keep healthy? What can the church do to enhance the work-related psychological health of ministers? Content analysis highlighted the main themes recurring through these open-ended responses. The conclusion is drawn that ministers of word and sacrament within the United Reformed Church in England are exposed to a number of recurrent recognisable sources of stress. Suggestions are advanced regarding the need for future more detailed research and for the development of more effective pastoral strategies.     

The Influence of the Charismatic Movement on Local Church Life: A Comparative Study among Anglican Rural,Urban and Suburban Churches

This study employs multiple regression analysis to examine the influence of the charismatic movement on three samples of Anglican churches: 1,553 churches in villages and rural communities, 983 churches in urban communities, and 584 churches in suburban communities. The data demonstrate that the charismatic movement has taken root among Anglicans most securely in urban environments and least securely in rural environments. In all three environments the charismatic movement is associated with positive signs of church growth.     

Beyond Babel: An Anglican perspective in Bradford the eighth lambeth interfaith lecture

Bradford represents a unique vantage point from which to chart the attempts by a British city to respond to the social fact of religious and cultural diversity. A town famous for its textile industry, it has attracted migrant labour for over one hundred and fifty years: the Irish Catholic migration in the mid-nineteenth century anticipates in many particulars the Muslim experience a hundred years later. After thirty years the sizeable South Asian Muslim presence has begun to participate in the political, economic, institutional and cultural life of the city. The Church's role in both creating and supporting institutions where Christian and Muslim can work together, and using its own institutional influence to accommodate Muslim needs has been considerable. The trust and respect in which the local Bishop was held in the city enabled him to facilitate and maintain a dialogue between Muslims and civic and political leaders at a time when communities were threatening to polarize into mutual incomprehension, in the wake of The Satanic Verses affair. The Church's role was also to affect the temper and challenge the terms in which issues were discussed, not least the dismissal of Muslims as 'fundamentalists', which obscured the diversity and debate within the Muslim communities in the city.     

How southern New England became magnetic north: the acceptance of animal magnetism

Charles Poyen's lecture tour introducing animal magnetism to America has been described as triumphant (Forrest, 2000), but according to Poyen's own account (1837/1982) the beginning of his tour, devoted to northern New England, was anything but successful. Poyen success did not begin until he partnered with Cynthia Gleason, a talented hypnotic subject, from Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The subsequent lectures and demonstrations by Poyen and Gleason generated the interest that Poyen had been seeking. Rhode Island appears to have developed a much more accepting attitude toward animal magnetism than the rest of New England as indicated by the wide use of magnetism in the Providence area even after Poyen had the left the United States. In this article, I examine the roles played by Cynthia Gleason as well as Thomas H. Webb, M.D., the editor of the Providence Daily Journal and Dr. Francis Wayland, the president of Brown University, and George Capron, M.D., in furthering the acceptance of magnetism in America.     

Conceptualizing and Estimating Process Speed in Studies Employing Ecological Momentary Assessment Designs: A Multilevel Variance Decomposition Approach

Researchers have been making use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and other study designs that sample feelings and behaviors in real time and in naturalistic settings to study temporal dynamics and contextual factors of a wide variety of psychological, physiological, and behavioral processes. As EMA designs become more widespread, questions are arising about the frequency of data sampling, with direct implications for participants' burden and researchers' ability to capture and study dynamic processes. Traditionally, spectral analytic techniques are used for time series data to identify process speed. However, the nature of EMA data, often collected with fewer than 100 measurements per person, sampled at randomly spaced intervals, and replete with planned and unplanned missingness, precludes application of traditional spectral analytic techniques. Building on principles of variance partitioning used in the generalizability theory of measurement and spectral analysis, we illustrate the utility of multilevel variance decompositions for isolating process speed in EMA-type data. Simulation and empirical data from a smoking-cessation study are used to demonstrate the method and to evaluate the process speed of smoking urges and quitting self-efficacy. Results of the multilevel variance decomposition approach can inform process-oriented theory and future EMA study designs.     

Conceptualizing and Estimating Process Speed in Studies Employing Ecological Momentary Assessment Designs: A Multilevel Variance Decomposition Approach

Researchers have been making use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and other study designs that sample feelings and behaviors in real time and in naturalistic settings to study temporal dynamics and contextual factors of a wide variety of psychological, physiological, and behavioral processes. As EMA designs become more widespread, questions are arising about the frequency of data sampling, with direct implications for participants' burden and researchers' ability to capture and study dynamic processes. Traditionally, spectral analytic techniques are used for time series data to identify process speed. However, the nature of EMA data, often collected with fewer than 100 measurements per person, sampled at randomly spaced intervals, and replete with planned and unplanned missingness, precludes application of traditional spectral analytic techniques. Building on principles of variance partitioning used in the generalizability theory of measurement and spectral analysis, we illustrate the utility of multilevel variance decompositions for isolating process speed in EMA-type data. Simulation and empirical data from a smoking-cessation study are used to demonstrate the method and to evaluate the process speed of smoking urges and quitting self-efficacy. Results of the multilevel variance decomposition approach can inform process-oriented theory and future EMA study designs.