Very little is known in the UK about how parental church-based ministry impacts the lives of their children. Clergy children themselves have rarely, if ever, been afforded the opportunity to formally express their views and opinions on this crucial aspect of their lives, to the extent that they have been described as a ‘lost voice’ in the Church. This thesis seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge with a combination of extensive literature reviews, data obtained from a Pilot Study using the social network system Facebook, and semi-structured interviews with six adult clergy children from different denominational backgrounds who are now ministers in their own right, and by so doing help raise their profile in the Christian community. Taken together, the data confirms that the church-based ministry of clergy parents does impact their children’s lives and that if responses are any indication, other clergy children too, are able to make their views and insights known if asked. In other words, their voices need no longer be “lost,” but can be heard. In so doing they offer a fresh perspective on the practice of church-based ministry. Based on these findings the thesis proceeds to outline the theological and practical implications for the practice of ministry with a call to affirm the importance of a person’s story in the task of theological reflection; to recognise the contribution of children’s insights to faith and practice, and the values on which pastoral care should be based as outlined by the participants themselves. It concludes by proposing that further research is required in order to ascertain the full extent on how church-based ministry impacts the lives of clergy children, a topic which in the UK still remains a largely unexplored aspect of Church life and practice.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:694308 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Jones, Brian Llewelyn |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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