EMERGENT “encouraging” steps towards fuller inclusion of disabled and neurodivergent clergy suggest a willingness within the C of E to go further, a latest report says.
The report, “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”: Understanding the wellbeing of disabled and neurodivergent clergy, was published yesterday by Church House. It sets out what the authors discover as barriers to disabled and neurodivergent clergy and people undergoing discernment and training for ministry.
Commissioned by the Ministry Development Team from Dr Alex Fry and Dr Sally Lee, it says: “Encouragingly, there have been some clear steps towards fuller inclusion of disabled and neurodivergent clergy in very recent years. Whilst these are still emerging, they indicate that there’s a desire for change in at the least some corners of the CofE.”
It is predicated on interviews with 27 “clergy who’re either disabled or neurodivergent (or each)”. These are known as “dialogue partners” throughout the report. Of those, women accounted for 56 per cent and men 44 per cent.
Thirty-three per cent are incumbents, 33 per cent are curates, 15 per cent are self-supporting clergy, seven per cent are chaplains, 4 per cent are senior clergy, and 7 per cent hold other positions. Those who’ve a physical impairment (including neurological diagnoses) are 67 per cent; 18 per cent have a mental-health diagnosis; 56 per cent are neurodivergent; and 63 per cent experience co-occurrence or multi-occurrence conditions.
During the primary phase of knowledge collection, the researchers asked the dialogue partners to send a creative personal artefact, “akin to sermons or blog posts to spotlight the breadth of possibilities. The artefact could even have been something previously created by the dialogue partner.”
To refine the initial findings, 14 of the dialogue partners then attended a spotlight group.
The report found that “the wellbeing of disabled and neurodivergent clergy may be summarised as under significant risk due to inherited assumptions and processes within the CofE — i.e., due to structural aspects.
“Unfortunately, that is true no matter when dialogue partners were ordained, spanning those that have been in ministry for many years and those that were only priested the yr of their interview. To ensure, these inherited assumptions aren’t unique to the CofE; they’re present in wider society.”
The report lists separate recommendations for dioceses, theological-education institutions, the Ministry Development Board, the Office of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Archbishops’ Council, and the House and College of Bishops.
Recommendations include introducing mandatory training for those involved in selection and oversight for disabled and neurodivergent clergy, in addition to consistent access to reasonable adjustments, properly resourced support structures, and improved accessibility in churches, housing, and other working environments.
The report says that from the info evaluation emerge 11 themes that shape the well-being of disabled and neurodivergent clergy. These include “structural and cultural aspects”, akin to hidden expectations in discernment and training; narrow models of priesthood; power imbalances that discourage disclosure; and dealing practices that normalise overwork.
Participants felt that these “expectations may be easily internalised and so dialogue partners reported having expectations of themselves that were unrealistic and damaging.”
The themes were categorised into “theme clusters”, which include: “This is my body broken for you: Threats to and opportunities for human flourishing”; “In the start was the Word: Probing language and theology”; “My strength is made perfect in weakness: Ableism and modes of oppression”; and “Enter through the narrow gate: Barriers to discernment”.
The report says that “the theme clusters were labelled with Scripture in a way that is meant to attract the reader’s attention to the jarring experienced by our dialogue partners when Scripture is misappropriated.”
The Bishop of Bedford, the Rt Revd Richard Atkinson, who’s the lead bishop for disability, writes in his foreword: “The participation and flourishing of disabled and neurodivergent ordinands and clergy is at the guts of being that Church that God desires. The Body of Christ through which every part is honoured.”
