Abstract What empirical research with Church of England Archdeacons identifies as undefendedness – the calibrated, non-anxious relational openness through which the ordained minister engages people, criticism and conflict without self-protective retreat – is what the Anglican theological tradition has long understood as the fruit of kenotic formation. This article develops the theological significance of that empirical finding, arguing that the construct’s distinctive character in the ordained context is illuminated by three bodies of theological reflection: von Balthasar’s account of kenotic priestly selfhood; Green’s constructive Anglican account of sacramental relations, held together with the ontological ground of baptismal identity; and Walker’s undefended leadership framework, from which three points of critical distance are proposed. The psychology of religious coping (Pargament) and attachment to God (Hall et al.) provide convergent evidence from the psychology of religion. Three formational implications follow: the integration of sustained, honest prayer as constitutive of theological education and formation; pastoral supervision reconceived as ministerial formation; and peer communities of honest mutual engagement across the lifecycle of ordained ministry. The article argues for mutual illumination between empirical evidence and theological tradition as the appropriate epistemological relationship between the two disciplines.
Abstract From the Season of Intentional Discipleship through the 2023 Lambeth Call and Vision36, the Anglican Communion has developed a coherent program of discipleship, evangelism and church planting. Its documents identify Baptism, whole-life transformation, Scripture, prayer, worship, service, witness and the Spirit as constitutive of discipleship. These commitments reflect a substantive theology of baptismal vocation, participation in Christ’s life and mission, formation within the worshipping community and the Spirit’s transformation of persons and communities for the world. What they do not yet provide is an integrated developmental anthropology relating these elements to the formation, disorder, restoration and integration of the person. This essay argues that the imago Dei – distorted in the Fall, restored in Christ and realized through the indwelling Spirit – supplies that architecture. Extending Augustine’s analogical project in De Trinitate , it derives three dispositions (intellect, spirituality, communion), two dynamics (maturity, unity) and their culmination in the disciple as Anthropos .
Abstract The article uses the recent installation of Sarah Mullaly as Archbishop of Canterbury as the impetus to reflect on the continuing opposition by some within the Anglican Communion to the ordination of women on the basis of a perceived prohibition in the Christian Scriptures. The article explores the permissibility of women teaching and preaching in the mixed Christian assembly, the idea of functional subordination of both the second person of the Trinity and of women, the issue of cultural conditioning, the submission of women and headship of men as a ‘creational principle’ and concluding that these arguments are not well founded and are indeed problematic. It also concludes that there is no barrier to the ordination of women in the Anglican Communion. Any such continued opposition does not represent the mind of God and cannot be justified by use of the Scriptures.
Abstract This study uses data from 717 Church of England lay leaders collected by the online Church 2024 survey. Lay leaders were defined as churchwardens, officers of a Parochial Church Council (PCC) or leaders of church groups such as children’s, music, choir or home groups. The study assesses leader’s perceptions of stress, support, training and likelihood of finding replacements for their role. Although most lay leaders indicated low levels of stress, 34% agreed they were often stressed, 21% that they felt overwhelmed by administration and 23% that they would give up if there was someone else to do their role. The four-item Lay Leader Stress Scale assesses role-related stress levels in relation to personal, psychological, contextual and ecclesial factors. Stress was higher among those with a disposition to emotional volatility (neuroticism), Anglo-Catholics, PCC officers and those with more than one lay leadership role. It was lower among Evangelicals and those in larger congregations. Most respondents felt well supported by their clergy and congregations, but most PCC officers (especially churchwardens and secretaries) felt ill-prepared for their roles and that their church would struggle to replace them. Implications for churches in the light of the fragile church hypothesis are discussed.
