This thesis examines the different methodologies at work within the Irish Anglican-Methodist dialogue from 1965 to 2002 by using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral as a heuristic tool. Through the lens of Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, it illustrates the similarities and differences between Irish Anglicans and Irish Methodists on the nature and role of the sources by critically examining the key texts of the ecumenical dialogue. It reveals new insights into how the ecumenical process developed and how participants both used and understood the sources in particular ways in their methodologies. Through the lens of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral the research examines the primary source material of the three phases of the dialogue: 1. The Bipartite Conversations 1965-1968, 2. The Tripartite Consultation 1968-1988, and, 3. The Joint Theological Working Party 1989-2002. It finds that when individual Irish Anglicans and Irish Methodists write theology to present the doctrinal position of their respective church, they use the sources in denominational. ways. Their understanding and employment of the sources reflects that of the wider denominational tradition in which they reside. It shows that convergence took place during each phase of the dialogue as Irish Anglicans and Irish Methodists worked together to develop shared and agreed positions. It also charts the location of Irish Anglicans and Irish Methodists on the spectrum of theological opinion at various points in the dialogue. It highlights the potential that existed for the development of a common theological method incorporating the four sources, and the failure to formally realise this. And it suggests that the Wesleyan Quadrilateral could provide Irish Anglicans and Irish Methodists with what they need for the ecumenical future

This thesis contains the results of two empirical studies focusing on the ministry and leadership of women in the Church of England. Two key events, one in 1992 and the other in 2012, almost exactly twenty years apart, provide the framework and context in which these studies take place. The thesis helps to explain why so few women apply for senior positions in the Church of England. The first study, explores how women incumbents in a diocese make sense of their particular roles and ministries. The focus is initially on women incumbents, as the senior leaders for the church emerge from this group. This Ministry Focused Study (MFS) begins not only to address the issue itself but also acts as a pilot study. The second and substantive Research Based Thesis (RBT) uses these insights to investigate the primary question of the thesis: How do women in senior positions in the Church of England construe their leadership? Fourteen women (out of 15) who were in some of the most senior positions in the Church of England - Cathedral Deans, Archdeacons and Theological College Principals - took part in the research project. The central argument is that effective leadership for these women consists of three core dimensions: The Person of the leader - this includes the connections between person and role, especially being able to ‘be yourself’ as a leader, as well as managing the role in the public and private spheres. The Process of leadership - summarised as ‘agency enhanced by communion’. The emphasis here is having the ability to bring about change and make things happen; fundamental to this is being a relational leader who seeks to develop interactions based on integrity and trust. The Context in which leadership takes place - involves a deep understanding and engagement with the structures of the church, within which the leadership role is experienced and exercised. Both studies employ a method of interviewing called Repertory Grids, which derive from a theory of personality proposed by George Kelly known as Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). From the standpoint of those who are interviewed, it enables the discovery of some of the key issues and perspectives, as well as giving insight into both the relative importance of those issues and how those key perspectives interact with each other. PCP has proved useful in a variety of contexts, including education, social science (Cohen et al., 2000) and business research (Stewart and Stewart, 1980); being used with individuals, groups or organisations to explore a range of issues from beliefs, feelings and attitudes of individuals to understanding organisational transitions and corporate values (Fransella, 2003). Until now, however, it has not been employed in a major empirical study in theology and ministry. Although there has been much written about women in ministry, and to a lesser extent women in church leadership, over the last decade or so, relatively little of this has been based on primary data such as that which these two research studies have been able to generate. This thesis comes at a significant point in the history of the Church of England1 as it continues to discover a way forward following the rejection, by General Synod in November 2012, of proposed legislation, which would have allowed women to become bishops. Within this context, the thesis explores how these women in senior positions make sense of their leadership roles, what enables them in their roles and asks whether women leaders in the church are able, ‘to boldly go ...

The work of the educationalist Paulo Freire recognizes the importance of relationship and participation in the process of learning. This thesis is an inquiry into the nature of preaching a sermon and the potential impact different modes of the delivery can make. It uses the work of Rose and Bourdieu to form a framework into which the development of relationship and participation can be placed. This thesis aims to break new ground by demonstrating the value of using Discourse Analysis as a powerful tool to be used in the preparation and delivering of sermons. The performances of sermons by four senior Anglican clergy are examined using different forms of discourse analysis. The main tool used here is James Paul Gee’s approach to linguistic analysis of narrative. The thesis examines the different methods and language presented in the case-study sermons and the similar strategies that are used in different ways to maintain authority whilst encouraging listeners to participate. It also takes into account the social nature of language. Not only are the texts scrutinized but also the performance. The ensuing discussion attempts to understand how each preacher uses poetic and rhetorical performance strategies and linguistic techniques to draw listeners into participation. It also considers if they overcome the tension between equality and authority in order to enable listeners to experience the mystery of God. This deliberation considers how preachers demonstrate their underlying purpose of preaching by comparing their strategy with Rose’s four categories of preaching. The culmination of the thesis is the recognition that homiletics would benefit from an understanding of discourse analysis and performance.

This thesis is an account of how certain resources and the values they expressed came to be available and visible in society, and of how these values were taken up, transformed and used in particular ways. It will demonstrate how four individuals, in different social contexts, acquired and transformed these values, as they attempted to initiate varying forms of the same type of organisation. The values with which the thesis is concerned are those inferred from the life of St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226). Part One sketches how (a) Roman Catholics made the values they ascribed to St. Francis available as resources and (b) those outside the Roman Catholic Church, especially in the period 1882-1939, came to know of these resources and values, and modified them. Part Two consists of four life-history narratives constructed from oral history, manuscripts and printed materials. They recount how four people in this period came to be stimulated by these resources, and attempted to institutionalise the values they absorbed from them in different forms of an Anglican Franciscan Third Order. The first narrative traces part of the mercurial life of James Adderley, who encouraged individuals to express Franciscan values through attempting to bring about social justice. The second narrative explains how Emily Marshall came to connect Franciscan values with her desire to see women's ministry recognised by the Church of England. The third and fourth narratives are set mainly in India. John Winslow in the 'High Noon' of the British Empire linked Franciscan and Indian bhakti values to form an ashram, Christa Seva Sangha. Verrier Elwin merged Franciscan and Gandhian values while living among aboriginal tribes. The final chapter analyses the complex interplay between Franciscan values and social contexts which is demonstrated by these four examples, and draws some sociological conclusions from the research.

This thesis discusses relations between the stranger churches in England and their Protestant compatriots on the Continent with specific reference to the Netherlands between 1547 and 1585. It exposes the complex situation in which they found themselves as émigrés in England, first under Edward VI and, after a period of further exile, under Elizabeth I. They were a dispersed group of congregations of several different nationalities, all commonly referred to as 'stranger churches' in their English host communities. While the congregations of London were initially most important and certainly the wealthiest, this diaspora eventually came to spread to parts of Sussex, Kent, and East Anglia, not to mention outposts in the north and the west. The thesis employs sources relating to both London's foreign churches and these provincial congregations and also highlights documents other than the customary consistory records used in previous studies. Hence, there is discussion of the writings of Utenhove, Micronius, and van Haemstede which emphasised the importance of conversion while recognising the need for obedience to secular authorities. The thesis demonstrates the close degree of contact between the stranger churches and the Low Countries throughout this period and also points out how the relationship was placed under strain by the years leading up to the Dutch Revolt. Main findings challenge the assumption that the stranger churches automatically supported resistance in the Low Countries, reveal a number of practical and theological constraints in their thinking, and show how the dilemmas became more acute as open war approached. This thesis offers a refreshed narrative of relations between the stranger churches and the Low Countries, and emphasises the importance of religious thinking throughout rather than politics, and in so doing suggests different important turning points in the chronology.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a new way of thinking about Anglican identity as Communion. Since that mission is to live in the life of communion, this thesis in turn suggests: 1) Different Anglican perceptions of Missio Dei have been the principal cause of the loss of Anglican confidence in its identity as Communion and, 2) The different perceptions stem from a tribal mentality with regard to the Trinity among Anglicans. Taken together, this thesis argues that a key to the renewal of Anglican identity as Communion is one of developing an alternative way of thinking about the Trinity. By way of illustrating Miroslav Volf's idea of 'Trinitarian identities,' this thesis suggests that 'the triune God's dynamic relationships' which express His liminal nature is the source for transforming Anglican tribal mentality. This liminality speaks of 'communion-in-mission' as a means to the life of the triune God's dynamic relationships, which enables different Anglican perceptions of Missio Dei to converge dynamically. This thesis broadens this connection to the life of the Anglican Communion itself in order to discover how such a renewal within its life might inform Anglican self-understanding. F.D. Maurice's understanding of comprehensiveness as 'eschatological liminality' encourages Anglican comprehensiveness to be the Anglican practice of communion-in-mission, namely an Anglican way to the life of the triune God's dynamic relationships. In bringing together the above threefold aspects of the life of communion, this thesis redefines Anglican identity as a communion which is patterned on the triune God's dynamic relationships and made concrete in a renewed understanding of Anglican comprehensiveness as eschatological liminality informing the Anglican Communion's approach to Missio Dei and, by implication, to communion-in-mission.

This study focuses on the beliefs and practices of a group of churchgoers from three congregations in Mid Wales. The theoretical framework selected is that of Astley whose term 'ordinary theology' provides the initial impetus for the work. The research questions focus on the beliefs and expressions of these beliefs by ordinary churchgoers, the origin of their theology and the extent to which these beliefs and practices could be described as an ordinary theology. The review of the literature situates ordinary theology in the area of practical theology and compares and contrasts its features with other related fields such as pew theology, common religion and folk religion. There is also a discussion of theological and religious learning and of the relationship between language and theology. The empirical study adopts a social science methodology, a phenomenological hermeneutic approach and uses a semi-structured interview as the main research instrument. The findings reveal that the interviewees have firmly held beliefs which for many of them had remained since their childhood these beliefs find expression in their involvement in church and community life and, in particular in the liturgy and rituals of the Church. There is little evidence of the participants having received any systematic religious education and the findings present some tentative support for the ordinary people in churches having ownership of their own ordinary theology. The concluding chapter presents some recommendations, namely the need for churchgoers to be equipped with a vocabulary and grammar with which to articulate their faith, to be provided with a more coherent programme of religious or theological education and for there to be a forum in which churchgoers can express and develop in their theology. The final chapter also presents some areas for further investigation and argues for a more in-depth analysis of a more tightly defined theological issue.

Despite being, for centuries, ‘the basic territorial unit in the organisation of this country’ (Pounds, 2000), the Anglican parish remains a remarkably neglected theme, rarely described in theological terms. This Research-Based Thesis undertakes such a description, underpinned by two related convictions: firstly, that the Church’s vision for parish ministry would be enhanced by what De Soja (1989) called the ‘reassertion of space’ in contemporary social theory – a movement that has received only limited application to the parish. Secondly, that the theology of place would equally benefit from comprehending the rich inheritance of spatial praxis invested in the parish system. Having surveyed the interdisciplinary currents flowing into this theme, the first part of the thesis begins with a methodology that grounds place-formation in a dynamic cycle of ontology, revelation, tradition and vocation – a pattern, also, for the structure of this research. The second chapter explores the basis for viewing the parish in terms of ‘Christ in our place’, a significant theme in protestant Christology, but not often applied geographically. Building on this theological foundation, the thesis considers how recent developments in human geography enable the perception of parish as a spatial, ethical practice of ‘neighbourhood’. The second part of the research weighs the parish’s theoretical description against its enduring historical role in English society. This ‘vocation’, it is argued, comprises a threefold call to nation, neighbourhood and nature: each being a form of ‘common ground’. The conclusion, having summarised these findings, addresses certain challenges facing the Anglican parish, proposing its renewal as a radical form of local belonging. An ethnographic case study, ‘Parish and Belonging in Oxted and Tandridge’, is included as an appendix, providing an important empirical accompaniment. At a time when its viability is increasingly questioned, it is hoped that this thesis will contribute towards future strategy for parochial ministry and the broader national conversation about ‘localism’ and cultural identity.

The thesis has been assessing the challenges which faced donor funded development programmes which were started in the Anglican Church of Tanzania in the 1970s and 1980s. These programmes began at the time when world Christian Evangelicals had renewed their view on incorporating social concern as part of the task of evangelization. The period of study is between 1986 and 2010, a time when Tanzania was going through various changes. At the onset, these programmes did well with good outcomes, but later challenges developed which caused many of these programmes to close down and some to struggle. The Theory of Change has been used as a guiding theory to assess the inspiration and objectives of these programmes. These programmes have been seen as means of intervention towards development problems in the light of the churches development objectives. While the results have been the failure of the programmes due to lack of donor funding and withdrawal of funds, the study looks at the complex relationships and issues of project implementations and management, conflicting worldviews and priority between donors and local projects. These unforeseen issues relating to partnership, transparency, governance and theological discernment lead the programmes to unintended results. The visit to the various programmes and holding interviews with key people has helped collect information about the programme activities, resource mobilization and various responses from communities, the church and donors. Using the DPSIR framework of analysis, the information collected was observed, such as the stakeholder working philosophy, the resource base and mobilization for both, human and material, the programme activities and the structural and organizational capacity and governance. This has helped to analyze these programme activities against the guiding theory and leading to establish the gaps. These gaps are the main findings of the study which ultimately bring the presented conclusion. The study observes that most of these programmes which were started in the Anglican Church of Tanzania, in the Dodoma region in the 1970s and 1980s later closed down, and the few which carried on were struggling.

This thesis is an examination of five Anglican home-missionary organisations which operated in the Diocese of London in the latter half of the nineteenth century. These five organisations were all entirely dependant upon the financial support of the Anglican laity to provide their revenue. The main thrust of the thesis is an analysis of the finances of these home-missionary organisations. The initial four questions that this thesis examines are: how did the organisations raise money; who did they solicit support from; to what extent were the societies successful in soliciting financial support to carry out their aims; and did the funding revenue streams remain stable through the period? This is with the main purpose of evaluating the Anglican community's support of these organisations during the period of study, in terms of who gave financial support and how this changed. Drawing on the wealth of material contained in the annual reports of the organisations chosen for this study, this thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the subscriptions and donations and in doing so identifies an important shift in the gender-base of the laity's support at the end of the period. In seeking to explain the loss of the male funder in the late nineteenth century, the thesis engages with the key wider themes of philanthropy and secularisation. The assumption of this thesis is that modern religious bodies have to function as economic agents, that they need steady sources of income, and have to have mechanisms to raise sufficient funds on an annual basis. It argues that the decline in financial support from the Anglican laity within the period was not a result of failing fundraising techniques of the organisations themselves. Instead, it was a symptom of a wider malaise. The thesis explores the ethos of giving in the latter half of the nineteenth century and argues that an important factor in the decline of giving was the waning of the teaching of the doctrine of Christian stewardship after its mid-century renaissance. It argues that the new generation of Christians born in the latter half of the nineteenth century did not have the same ethos of giving that their parents had held. In doing so, it concludes that this shift was a significant change in the 'consequential dimension' of religion, which is how people behave as a consequence of their faith.