Roles and Identities of the Anglican Chaplain: a Prison Ethnography
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Peter Phillips Roles and identities of the Anglican chaplain: a prison ethnography A thesis submitted in accordance with the regulations for the award of the degree of PhD at Cardiff University November 2013 i DECLARATIONS This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of …………………………(insert MCh, MD, MPhil, PhD etc, as appropriate) Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed ………………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… ii SUMMARY In this ethnography, writing as both practitioner and researcher, I represent and analyse the opinions and reflections of Anglican chaplains in English and Welsh prisons in order to locate their self-perception of role and identity. The Anglican chaplain has been a statutory appointment in every prison since 1779 and was a central figure in penal practice throughout the first half of the 19th century. Several chaplains wrote at length about their ministry and its significance; this conscious utterance in the public domain dwindled sharply from the 1860s onwards. My research presents current chaplains’ perspectives on their role and identity, configured by a social context which is perceived to be secular and in which other world faiths have a strong presence. Four main areas of focus emerge from the data: working with prisoners, working with staff, the apparently contradictory, ritual nature of secular and religious engagement, and issues of gendered interaction. These data are contextualised by respondents’ perceptions of prisons as parishes, the construction of Anglican chaplains’ identity by events within and outwith prisons and churches, and perceived relations with the Church of England and the Church in Wales. Having recognised other models of prison ministry, the thesis ends by identifying modes of potential, structured cooperation between church and chaplaincy. The epistemological context derives from Goffman’s theory of total institutions but recognises subsequent reinterpretations of his work. The methodological reference points are Turner’s theory of liminality, Bell’s theory of ritual-like activities and Foucault’s heterotopia of deviance. The thesis offers a perspective on a traditional public form of ministry, that of the chaplains themselves, unexplored and not analysed for over a century. It is submitted as a further development in the growing discourse around practical theology and religious ministry in prisons. iii CONTENTS Declarations ii Executive summary iii Acknowledgements x Prologomena xii PART 1 CONTEXT PRELUDE 1 CHAPTER 1 Congruence and convergence 3 1.1 Why Anglican chaplains specifically and exclusively? 3 1.2 The intertwining of theological subject and sociological method 5 1.3 Practical theology and the living human document 7 1.4 Ethnography and the living human document 11 1.5 The convergence of practical theology and ethnography 18 1.6 Contents and structure of the thesis 22 CHAPTER 2 Literature survey and theoretical framework 24 2.1 Establishment: “A clergyman of the Church of England.” 26 2.2 Chaplaincy and pastoral care 33 2.3 How total is “total”? 39 CHAPTER 3 Methodology 43 3.1 Methodology: theory and practice 44 3.1.1 Why this qualitative approach? Researcher factors 44 3.1.2 Why this qualitative approach? Institutional factors 45 iv 3.1.3 The question of voice and narrator identity 47 3.1.4 Interview based data 47 3.1.5 Purposive sampling 51 3.1.6 Approaching potential respondents 52 3.1.7 Choice of interview location 53 3.1.8 Identity, anonymity and pseudonyms 58 3.1.9 Distancing and defamiliarisation 59 3.1.10 Ethical approval for access to the prisons estate 60 3.1.11 Gatekeeping: access to individual establishments 62 3.1.12 Transcription 63 3.1.13 Coding and data analysis 65 3.2 Prison parables: chaplains as story tellers 65 PART 2 FINDINGS (i) CHAPTER 4 Working with prisoners 74 4.1 Themes which emerge from narrative analysis 74 4.2 Praxis 79 4.2.1 Statutory activity – reception into prison 80 4.2.2 Demeanour, dress and appearance 83 4.3 Faith and Mission 84 4.4 Listening: “Confidant(e)s rather than confessors.” 87 4.5 Pastoralia 90 4.5.1 Purposivity and purpose 92 v 4.5.2 No news is good news. 94 4.5.3 Constraints 95 4.5.4 Chaplains and restorative justice 97 4.6 Issues arising from working with prisoners 104 4.6.1 Chaplains’, prisons’ and prisoners’ and time 107 4.6.2 The chaplain and institutional time 108 4.6.3 The chaplain and prisoners’ time 110 4.6.4 Public space and private place 111 CHAPTER 5 Working with other prison staff 114 5.1 Working relations 114 5.2 Working with prison officers 117 5.3 Pastoral ministry to officers 123 5.4 Governors 126 CHAPTER 6 “The slow ballet”: liturgy and ritual 129 6.1 Prison pararitual 130 6.2 Chaplains as participants in pararitual: the reception process. 133 6.3 “You are what you eat.” From body of Christ to hymn sandwich.136 6.4 “A divine pickling agent” 148 6.5 Eucharist as prison ritual 150 6.6 “The pastoral end of liturgy”: candle lighting 151 6.6.1 Candle lighting: interview responses 152 6.6.2 Reclamation of selfhood: candle lighting as a subversive pararitual154 vi 6.6.3 Candle lighting: email responses 156 CHAPTER 7 Gender 164 7.1 Priesthood and gender: redefining priesthood 164 7.2 Gendered models of prison chaplaincy 165 7.3 Gender, embodiment and perceived Prison Service culture. 170 7.4 Gendered cross-postings and ministry to prisoners. 179 7.5 Chaplains and a ministry of touch 182 7.6 Women’s ministry to women 183 7.7 Chaplains’ gendered emotional responses 184 7.8 Sexism and harassment 186 7.9 Familial surrogacy and disclosure of abuse 187 PART 3 FINDINGS (ii) CHAPTER 8 The ambivalence of the prison perceived as parish 188 8.1 Prison and/or parish 188 8.2 A pastoral imperative 192 8.3 “A serious house on serious earth” 194 8.4 Prisoners as parishioners 196 8.5 “A bit different to parish life” 198 8.6 “A resource when people need it” 201 CHAPTER 9 Anglican identity 204 9.1 Chaplains and change 207 9.2 The priesting of women 208 vii 9.3 The Anglican chaplain under pressure in a plural society 209 9.4 Pressure from academic sources 211 9.5 Responses to pressure: the PSC conference 1999 212 9.6 Responses to pressure: the “paradigm shift” of William Noblett 214 9.7 Respondents’ perceptions of their Anglican identity 216 9.8 The established Church: affiliation and disaffiliation 216 9.9 The affiliated chaplains 218 9.10 The disaffiliated chaplains 227 CHAPTER 10 “Somewhere out there”: working with and without the Church 232 10.1 The bishop’s licence. 232 10.2 Fractured communications. 233 10.3 Episcopal and diocesan support 236 10.4 Episcopal obligations 239 10.5 The constitutional connection 241 CHAPTER 11 Issues and conclusions 247 11.1 Introduction 247 11.2 The value of the research 248 11.3 The diverse audiences 248 11.3.1 The churches 249 11.3.2 HMPS directorate, Chaplaincy headquarters and chaplains 249 11.3.3 Researchers both academic and practitioner 253 11.4 Relationality 254 viii 11.5 Conclusions 256 11.6 Further research 257 11.6.1 General 257 11.6.2 Chaplains as reflective practitioners and researchers 258 11.6.3 What do faith communities think of chaplains? 258 11.6.4 Chaplains, change and managers 259 11.7 Coda 259 BIBLIOGRAPHY 261 APPENDICES 1. Ethical approval 287 2. Fieldwork documents 289 3. Prompts and questions 294 4. Sample interview transcripts 297 5. Codes and classifications 321 6. Candle lighting: email to respondents 329 7. Giving bad news: email to respondents 330 8. Respondent profiles 331 9. Glossary of prison & other terms used in the thesis 340 10. Further narratives and stories 340 11. The multiple heritage of Anglican prison chaplains 350 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My principal acknowledgements are to my supervisors, Dr Sara Delamont of the Cardiff School of Social Sciences and the Revd Canon Dr Andrew Todd, Director of the Cardiff Centre for Chaplaincy Studies at St Michael’s College, Llandaff and Cardiff University. Without them this thesis would not exist. I have been grateful for the insights of the Revd Canon Dr Peter Sedgwick and for his understanding of the situation of a self-funded, single-handed researcher. Emeritus Professor James Beckford has been especially generous both with his encouragement and in sharing his knowledge of the field and his insights into it. The project has only been possible because thirty two necessarily pseudonymous chaplains were willing to be interviewed and to reflect openly on their work. They have been generous with their time and attention, sometimes in difficult circumstances and almost always under pressure.