What is the impact on the ministry of clergy of engaging in creative repair activities in a group?

• Main Author: Holmes, Anne C.
• Published: Anglia Ruskin University 2018
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.760083

This thesis investigates the impact on the ministry of clergy of engaging in creative repair in a group. It is a continuation of earlier research in which I adopted the expression creative repair to explain the role of the creative arts in preventing clergy burnout. My earlier research focused on the role of the creative arts in recharging clergy as their resources are depleted in offering pastoral care. In this project I have sought to enhance an understanding of creative repair by identifying the role of groups and regular practice in supporting clergy routinely. This involved expanding the conceptual framework to include group and rule of life as well as creative repair. A small-scale study method was adopted using purposive sampling. I invited four Anglican incumbents to be interviewed, each of whom was engaged in a creative group. The four participants were taken from different parts of my own diocese. They represented different parish settings, comprised two men and two women and were engaged in different types of creative groups. The interview transcripts were coded, the codes grouped into categories and themes identified. The evidence indicates that the practice of creative repair in a group sustained routinely the ministry of my participants; it was beneficial for their psychological health and self-care; and it enhanced the confidence of the female participants; it supported role flexibility in all participants through allowing them to move from the spotlight of leadership into a group in which they were a member; and it gave a sense of belonging beyond the parish. The fact that the participants were aware of the impact of routine engagement in their creative groups upon their psychological health and of the impact of not doing so underlined the benefit of practising creative repair regularly and indicated that creative groups could usefully be included in a personal rule of life. The recommendations for practice arising from the research include an informal assessment of the way in which clergy routinely resource themselves, the encouragement of clergy to be members of groups outside of their parishes and the addition of creative repair to a personal rule of life.