Church of England Ministry in the South-West Peninsular: Gaps and Priorities

Figures & data

Table 1. Participant profile.

		Exeter	Truro		All
	N =	164	98		266
		%	%		%
Sex	Female	50	41		47
	Male	50	59	NS	53
Age	30s	9	5		7
	40s	11	7		10
	50s	22	17		20
	60s	49	31		43
	70s	9	28		16
	80s+	0	12	<.001	4
Location	Rural	46	55		49
	Town	30	44		35
	City	24	1	<.001	16
Tradition	Anglo-Catholic	18	28		22
	Broad Church	49	44		47
	Evangelical	33	28	NS	31
Ministry status	Incumbent	40	27		35
	Assistant priest	11	20		15
	Curate	16	12		15
	Reader/LLM	32	41	<.05	35

Note: The overall sample was slightly higher than the two dioceses combined as four respondents indicated they served in some capacity in both dioceses. Significance of difference between dioceses tested with chi-squared based on frequencies. NS: not significant.

Figure 1. Correlation of average importance and equipping scores for 21 ministry tasks by ministry status.

Note: Line is the regression fitted to all points.

Table 2. Ministry importance by ministry status.

Task	Incumbents	Assistant	Readers	All
N =	92	80	94	266
Preaching and teaching	8.90	8.88	9.04	8.94
Leading worship	9.04	8.80	8.88	8.92
Pastoral	8.52	8.95	8.05**	8.49
Looking after my own wellbeing	8.89	8.76	7.82***	8.48
Encouraging and equipping other people’s ministries	8.98	8.46	7.93***	8.47
Bringing others to faith	8.53	8.35	8.35	8.41
Equipping and empowering disciples	8.61	8.51	7.77**	8.29
Leadership	8.60	7.90	7.63**	8.06
Proclaiming faith	7.96	7.95	7.96	7.96
Occasional offices	8.35	8.29	6.93***	7.94
Handling conflict	8.32	8.30	7.03***	7.89
Working with poor in the community	8.28	7.94	7.14**	7.81
Explaining faith	7.42	7.80	7.87	7.68
Multi-parish	7.67	7.31	7.71	7.58
Setting vision and implementing plans	7.78	7.91	6.50***	7.39
Working in the digital / virtual world	7.53	7.37	7.10	7.34
Creation care	6.85	7.37	7.32	7.16
Promoting diversity	6.78	7.65	6.50*	6.95
Management and admin	7.69	7.19	5.45***	6.84
Talking about giving and raising money	6.80	6.75	6.05	6.54
Speaking up on local issues	6.43	6.70	6.29	6.47

Note: Tasks are ordered by descending scores of overall importance. Differences in mean scores by ministry status were tested using one way ANOVA and post-hoc range tests (Least Significant Difference). Bold indicates those scores which were significantly different from others in the row. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 3. Tasks ranked by importance for different sorts of ministers.

Incumbents	Assistant clergy	Readers
Leading worship	Pastoral	Preaching and teaching
Encouraging ministries	Preaching and teaching	Leading worship
Preaching and teaching	Leading worship	Bringing others to faith
Wellbeing	Wellbeing	Pastoral
Equipping disciples	Equipping disciples	Proclaiming faith
Leadership	Encouraging ministries	Encouraging ministries
Bringing others to faith	Bringing others to faith	Explaining faith
Pastoral	Handling conflict	Wellbeing
Occasional offices	Occasional offices	Equipping disciples
Handling conflict	Proclaiming faith	Multi-parish
Working in the community	Working in the community	Leadership
Proclaiming faith	Setting vision	Creation care
Setting vision	Leadership	Working in the community
Management and admin	Explaining faith	Digital world
Multi-parish	Promoting diversity	Handling conflict
Digital world	Digital world	Occasional offices
Explaining faith	Creation care	Promoting diversity
Creation care	Multi-parish	Setting vision
Talking about giving	Management and admin	Speaking up on local issues
Promoting diversity	Talking about giving	Talking about giving
Speaking up on local issues	Speaking up on local issues	Management and admin

Note: Rank was determined by the average importance score for each task within each type of minister (see Table 2 for actual scores).

Table 4. Tasks ranked by gap between importance and equipping within ministry status groups.

Incumbents	Res.	Assistants	Res.	Readers	Res.
Wellbeing	−1.05	Equipping disciples	−0.72	Bringing others to faith	−1.26
Working in the community	−0.74	Bringing others to faith	−0.56	Working in the community	−0.93
Digital world	−0.68	Wellbeing	−0.54	Promoting diversity	−0.59
Bringing others to faith	−0.66	Multi-parish	−0.44	Handling conflict	−0.59
Handling conflict	−0.39	Working in the community	−0.42	Digital world	−0.58
Multi-parish	−0.38	Handling conflict	−0.28	Talking about giving	−0.46
Encouraging ministries	−0.28	Encouraging ministries	−0.26	Equipping disciples	−0.41
Equipping disciples	−0.15	Setting vision	−0.25	Explaining faith	−0.40
Leadership	−0.07	Promoting diversity	−0.25	Encouraging ministries	−0.21
Talking about giving	−0.05	Digital world	−0.20	Creation care	−0.17
Promoting diversity	0.03	Pastoral	−0.11	Multi-parish	−0.15
Proclaiming faith	0.03	Speaking up on local issues	0.04	Speaking up on local issues	−0.10
Speaking up on local issues	0.07	Explaining faith	0.18	Wellbeing	−0.01
Management and admin	0.07	Talking about giving	0.20	Proclaiming faith	0.19
Creation care	0.14	Management and admin	0.23	Pastoral	0.19
Pastoral	0.22	Leadership	0.32	Setting vision	0.21
Setting vision	0.23	Creation care	0.33	Leadership	0.58
Preaching and teaching	0.58	Preaching and teaching	0.49	Preaching and teaching	0.84
Explaining faith	0.59	Proclaiming faith	0.51	Occasional offices	0.90
Leading worship	1.07	Occasional offices	0.62	Leading worship	1.29
Occasional offices	1.42	Leading worship	1.11	Management and admin	1.67

Note: Tasks are ordered by residuals (Res.) calculated from the regression of mean equipped scores on mean importance scores within each group of ministers. Negative residuals indicate under-equipped and positive residuals indicated over-equipped.

Table 5. Ministry priorities.

Ministry sphere	Incumbents	Assistants	Readers	All
Equipping lay people for lay ministries	4.35	4.37	4.67*	4.46
Team working	3.98	4.12	4.19	4.09
Supporting those who know how to bring others to faith	4.07	4.11	4.00	4.06
Putting more resource in lay ministries	3.51	3.65	4.25***	3.80
Growing and retaining clergy from within the diocese	3.73	3.68	3.64	3.69
Supporting clergy moving to oversight roles	3.98	3.46	3.55*	3.68
Showing care about Creation	3.33	3.69	4.04***	3.67
Encouraging more diversity in our congregations	3.20	3.80	3.73**	3.56
Ensuring churches remain sacred spaces for all	3.13	3.72	3.85**	3.55
Teaching people new ways of being Christians	3.23	3.57	3.71*	3.49
Developing chaplaincy in new ways	2.75	3.58	3.61***	3.28
Creating new sorts of lay ministries	3.04	3.35	3.17	3.17
Remaining faithful to the traditions we have received	3.05	3.08	3.17	3.10
Maintaining the parish system	3.04	3.02	3.08	3.04
Developing digital ministries	3.06	2.97	3.01	3.02

Note: Spheres are ordered by descending overall priority scores. Differences in mean scores by ministry status tested using one way ANOVA and post-hoc range tests (Least Significant Difference). Bold indicates those scores which were significantly different from others in the row. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Table 6. Training priorities.

Training sphere	Incumbents	Assistants	Readers	All
Ensuring we select the right people for training	4.43	4.52	4.51	4.48
Supporting the mental health and wellbeing of ministers	4.41	4.42	4.36	4.40
Teaching new ministry skills	3.52	3.75	4.00**	3.75
Specialist training for particular ministries	3.60	3.65	3.91	3.72
Putting more resources into theological colleges and courses	3.73	3.66	3.37	3.59
Bringing clergy and lay ministers together more often	2.86	3.72	4.00***	3.49
Employing external resources that are easily accessed	3.64	3.37	3.35	3.46
Employing more local training with less travel	3.16	3.42	3.67*	3.40
Developing more online training	3.18	3.11	3.03	3.11
Reducing the demands of training for lay people	2.90	2.77	2.69	2.79
Reducing the demands of training for clergy	2.28	2.42	2.23	2.30

Note: For explanation, see Table 5.