Clergywomen’s experience of ministry in the Church of England

Abstract

The ordination of clergywomen within the Church of England in 1994, and more recently the consecration of women as bishops has generated significant public interest. This paper explores the clergywomen’s understanding of their ministry in light of these changes. This study explores the stories of twenty-one clergywomen in the Church of England who have served, or are currently serving, in stipendiary parochial ministry. Their ages range from twenty-nine years to sixty-three. Four were among the first to be ordained priest in 1994 and seventeen were ordained between 1996 and 2009. This study employs thematic analysis to enable insights into these women’s understanding of their experience of ministry. Three latent themes emerged from the data: perceptions of difference between explicit and implicit opposition; differences in how their ministry is perceived by others; and tensions in ministry between their internal and their external worlds.

Keywords:

• Clergywomen
• Church of England
• thematic analysis
• interviews
• opposition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mandy Robbins is a professor of the Psychology of Religion in the School of Social and Life Sciences at Wrexham Glyndŵr University in North Wales.

Anne-marie Greene is professor of Work, Employment and Diversity in the School of Business, University of Leicester, UK.

Notes

1. Suggestions are that the ability to request male priests and bishops to look after parishes will be guaranteed by principles set down in a declaration, with disputes ruled on by an independent reviewer. However, these are not formal clauses of the legislation, and opponents will have to trust that their views will be considered.