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n Stimpson, Helen Rosalinde (2016) Spiritual guides: supporting adults who nurture the spirituality of children. DPT thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/7395/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] SPIRITUAL GUIDES: Supporting adults who nurture the spirituality of children Helen Rosalinde Stimpson MSc CSci CMath Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Practical Theology Theology and Religious Studies School of Critical Studies College of Arts University of Glasgow © June 2016 2 Abstract This research considers the role of those who support voluntary youth leaders in their responsibility to nurture spiritual development in children and young people. It discusses particularly those who work in organisations with an ethos of supporting such spiritual development and at the same time of welcoming members of many faiths and encouraging their full participation in their various faith traditions. The specific context of the research is the work of the Guide Movement and, in particular, of Girlguiding in the United Kingdom. The research addresses the current challenges but also the enormous value of providing for young people a multi-faith space in which it is genuinely ‘OK to do God’. It discusses the issues which leaders are raising and some suggestions which trainers have made for addressing these. 3 Contents Chapter Page Introduction 6 Includes introductory literature review Part 1 History Chapter 1 Origins 14 Robert Baden-Powell: societal, family and biographical influences on his faith and philosophy and on the foundation of Scouting and Guiding Chapter 2 Development 29 The foundation of Scouting and Guiding in historical context; the historical development within Guiding of the arrangements for leader training and of the wording of the promise Chapter 3 Inheritance 44 Guiding 1918 – 2010 and its interaction with the society in which it developed Part 2 Guiding Today Chapter 4 Current Practice 66 Guiding’s current practice and procedures in the United Kingdom; six major societal issues and their theological and Guiding contexts Chapter 5 Field Study Design and Results 88 Discusses the choice of research methodology and describes the results of field work Chapter 6 Reflection, Review and Recommendations 125 Discussion in historical, societal and theological contexts Conclusion 143 Appendix 1 Statistical Proforma 148 Appendix 2 Reflexivity: A Personal Statement 167 Bibliography 171 4 Acknowledgements This research and this thesis owe their existence first to the willingness to innovate shown by Theology and Religious Studies in introducing the Professional Doctorate programme and accepting on to it students from a wide a variety of disciplines and eras who planned to pursue research in a very diverse range of applications of Practical Theology. As, perhaps, an extreme example of all three aspects of this diversity, I willingly acknowledge my debt to all staff of TRS for their supportive comments at various times. However my major thanks are due to my supervisors Heather Walton and, particularly, Doug Gay. Doug: many thanks for your continued patience, understanding and encouragement. I also acknowledge the enormous support and interest which I found in the consortium summer schools, meeting staff and students from other participating institutions. I particularly acknowledge the encouragement of Vernon Trafford. As a very mature student, I remain aware of my debt to much earlier research supervisors in other disciplines and other places. Their wise advice both remains with me and remains relevant: Leon Mestel, George Miley, Paul Stewart and the late Larry Lidsky. My thanks are due to my family: to my parents, husband and son for their confidence in me and for growing my confidence in myself; to my grandmothers who each taught me early that faith was a matter to which one should give one’s most intelligent thought and that faith was pointless if not entirely practical and that both of these aspects of faith mattered equally; and finally to my granddaughter who made the only contribution of which she is yet capable by arriving on time and without fuss and so did not cause undue distraction at a critical moment. My friend Pat always keeps me going when things get tough and nobly and most efficiently tackled an enormous amount of proof-reading. My friend Janet was a reliable and professional stand-by when, occasionally, my software, the university’s software and formatting regulations appeared to have reached a complete impasse of incompatibility. Thank you. Finally I acknowledge the inspiration, friendship and quite un-repayable debt which I owe to hundreds of the girls and women who are fellow members of Guiding and who have made me welcome in the many moves which my career has involved. For a lifetime of friends in the Guiding Movement 5 Author’s Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own work and that the work has not been submitted for the award of a higher degree elsewhere. 6 Introduction This research considers the training and nurture given to adult volunteers whose work includes support of spiritual development of young people in organisations which welcome members of many faiths and which explicitly include spiritual development of their members in their ethos. The specific context of the research is the work of the Guide Movement and, in particular, of Girlguiding in the United Kingdom. The inspiration for this research came from experience as long-serving leader and trainer of leaders within Guiding. It came during reflection on challenges inherent in sustaining the ethos of supporting individual spiritual development and simultaneously welcoming members of many faiths and encouraging their full participation in their various faith traditions. This ethos has been fundamental to the Movement since its foundation. In Western Europe, it must now be sustained in a society which is more multi- cultural at local level; where traditional practice of religion is less common and where statutory schooling is cautious in its approach to ‘teaching’ spirituality. How does Guiding sustain this ethos? How does it support its adult leaders in doing this? The thesis is presented in two parts. The first presents research into the foundation and history of the Guiding and Scouting movements. Chapter 1 discusses the life of the founder Robert Baden- Powell and the family, societal and religious influences which contributed to his own faith and to his decision to develop youth movements with this ethos of spiritual growth in a context deliberately embracing many faiths. Chapter 2 discusses the foundation and very early history of the movements. This is followed by a more detailed history of two themes: the development within Guiding of the arrangements for leader training and the evolution of the exact wording of the Guide promise with examples from a number of member nations. These are core Guiding themes for this research. Chapter 3 discusses the development of Guiding, particularly but not exclusively, in Britain in the context of the history and changing society of the first century of its existence. The second part of the thesis presents the field-work element of the research. Chapter 4 starts with a statement showing how British Guiding currently gives expression to the core values of the Guiding movement as it enters its second century. This is followed by consideration of six specific societal developments and their influence in British Guiding. The chapter discusses writing in the current literature of practical theology and its pertinence to these issues. Chapter 5 presents the field work; both reasons for the chosen methodology and the results obtained from it. Reflection, review and recommendations from the research are presented in Chapter 6. 7 The direct relevance of the material presented in Part 2 to the research question outlined above is self-evident. It is, however, appropriate to discuss briefly here the purpose and, particularly, the substantial extent of the material presented in Part 1. Both in the many discussions which gave rise to the idea of this research and throughout the responses received, it became increasingly clear that two issues played a major role in a large proportion of the situations where difficulties arose. One was public or even internal misconceptions about Guiding ethos and policy in the relevant areas and particularly the history of those policies over the lifetime of the Guiding movement. The other was a number of major misconceptions about the intentions and even about the stated aims of the founder and about the factual details of his personal life- circumstances which informed, or might be presumed to have informed, his intentions. The first article of the constitution of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts1 states: The Fundamental Principles of the World Association are those of the Girl Guide/Girl Scout Movement as expressed in the Original Promise

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