Managing Clergy Lives gives a unique insight into the everyday lives of Church of England parish priests. It examines how men and women priests manage their many and everyday commitments to God, the Church and their personal relationships. In a fast-changing world, Managing Clergy Lives shows how the vocational commitment of priests to their ordinal vows remains steadfast. For today's clergy, the ordained life means obedience, sacrifice and a loss of intimacy, embodied in spiritual self-discipline and the ultimate dedication of body and soul to God.
Written by an Anglican Bishop (Peyton) in Dundee and a Senior Lecturer from Lancaster University (Gatrell), Managing Clergy Lives opens a window onto clergy households in terms of personal relationships, spirituality and work-home balance. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 46 Area/Rural Deans, it reports their everyday experiences using their own words. The book reveals the stories behind the enduring commitment within the Church and gets behind the scenes in order to understand the staying power of men and women who are 'becoming priests' across a lifetime.
By:
Dr Nigel Peyton (Bishop of Brechin),
Dr Caroline Gatrell
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic USA
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 304g
ISBN: 9781441121257
ISBN 10: 1441121250
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 29 March 2012
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
1 In Search of Priesthood \ 1.1 Parish clergy and the Church of England \ 2 'Lights still burn in vicarage windows' \ 1.3 The ordination of women \ 2 Describing Clergy Lives \ 2.1 The research sample \ 2.2 Clergy optimism \ 2.3 Faithful community pastors \ 3 Obedient Clergy Bodies \ 3.1. The panopticon of ordination \ 3.2 Promise and praxis - Life in the vicarage; Collared: visible and vulnerable \ 3.3 Bodies out of place? Gender and race - Reverend mother: the baby in the priestly body; Daniel: embodying race \ 3.4 Getting to the finishing line \ 4 The Sacrificial Embrace \ 4.1 Sacrificial agency: governing the soul - Sacrificial Embrace: a meta-theme; Sacrificial selves \ 4.2 Vocational professionalism - Professional identity; Women and professional work; Gender and impression management; Clergy professionalism: cultivating virtue; Clergy accountability: ministerial review \ 4.3 Clergy careers: ambition, preferment and disappointment \ 4.4 Labour without reward - Pauline's account; Stipends and pension worries; Housing anxieties; A household contract? Accumulative opportunity cost \ 4.5 Emotional labour \ 5 Lost Intimacies \ 5.1 Personal relationships \ 5.2 Relationships in organisations - Church as a moral community; Organisational sexuality; Friendship \ 5.3 Clergy marriages - The transformation of intimacy; Married to the ministry?; Marriages at risk \ 5.4 Family practices - Happy families? Two clergy couples; Clergy households and work-home balance \ 5.5 Home alone? Secrets and sexuality - Issues and secrets: clergy sexuality; Single clergy; Gay clergy \ 5.6 The erosion of intimacy \ 6 Still priestly after all these years \ 6.1 The research participants: where are they now? \ 6.2 Holy representative: Minister of Word and Sacrament \ 6.3 Priest and person: belonging and believing \ 6.4 Finding priesthood and understanding authenticity \ 7 Prospects for priesthood \ 7.1 Feminization of the clergy \ 7.2 Designer ministries \ 7.3 Disestablishment and the end of the parish? \ 7.4 Valuing, acknowledging and reinforcing the role of clergy
Nigel Peyton is a widely experienced Anglican priest and was Archdeacon of Newark in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham. In 2011 he was elected Bishop of Brechin in the Scottish Episcopal Church. Caroline Gatrell is Senior Lecturer in the School of Management at Lancaster University, UK.
Reviews for Managing Clergy Lives: Obedience, Sacrifice, Intimacy
This careful and comprehensive study is based on rigorous research, designed and delivered by an experienced archdeacon and an academic. The authors well understand both interior and exterior aspects of clergy life ... [It] has much wisdom about how this might happen in twenty-first-century England. -- Alan Wilson, Buckingham Theology, Issue 118.3 As an overview of how things are in the Church today the book is both useful and insightful -- Richard Steel, Convenor of the Grove Books Leadership strand MODEM Matters, ed. 28 Managing Clergy Lives: Obedience, Sacrifice, and Intimacy is a fascinating read...Both of these authors are more than trained to produce such a thought provoking book for ministers like me who are struggling to find our way in the long walk of faith...I found each one of these sections intriguing an caught myself underlining key passages on nearly every page. While reading this book I didn't feel alone anymore, I felt connected with a large community of clergy, just like me who struggle every day with their parish, with their families, with their faith.I hope that Managing Clergy Lives is required reading in Anglican seminaries because it provides much food for thought for both the present Church and the future Church as well...Managing Clergy Lives will be a handy resource for the years to come. -- William C. Mills Walking with God
