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Paper short abstract:

Drawing on semi-structured interviews, this paper analyses how class status shapes the wellbeing of working-class clergy in the culturally elite Church of England by employing Bourdieusian lenses of social and cultural capital. In doing so, it identifies how classism can be resisted in the Church.

Paper long abstract:

The intersection of power and work within institutional Christianity has received much academic discussion, particularly regarding the Church of England (CofE). Such research has focused on the historical and ongoing gender inequality in a religious organisation that does not permit women to hold ordained offices on the same terms as men, even though women may now enter the highest-ranking offices within the Church’s ordained hierarchy. Much research has been written concerning the impact that this has on women clergy in a context where professional, religious and other forms of identities intersect. Very recently, research has begun to explore how ethnic identities come to shape experiences of wellbeing for CofE clergy as well as experiences of disability amongst ordained ministers.

However, there has been a dearth of research on how working-class status comes to shape experiences of wellbeing for clergy. This is despite the fact that they are operating in an institution that is predominantly privileged, with many clergy coming from middle-class backgrounds, having a private and/or Oxbridge education, and being entwined with British political structures, such as the Houses of Parliament. Indeed, work on social and cultural capital within the Bourdieusian tradition indicate that working-class clergy are likely to be marginalised by being denied access to certain forms of capital.

Based on semistructured interviews, this paper draws out and amplifies the voices of working-class clergy, calling attention to the change required in Church structures and culture for classism to be resisted. It focuses on the resources for wellbeing available to working-class clergy via social and cultural capital, whilst challenging the neoliberal notion that resilience results primarily from selfcare. It asks how the emotional labour of managing mismatched cultural and social capital in such a public arena impacts on the sense of belonging and thriving of working-class clergy.