Canadian urban ministry : the nature and challenges of success

This thesis characterises the nature and the possibilities of success including its tensions and obstacles in urban ministry. There are featured descriptions on the nature and dynamics of urban ministry and various understandings of success as posed - especially that which favours a purposeful aim toward fulfilment of a ministry's mission purposes, with attention to a faithful public-and-prophetic witness (as the ground and aim for ministry). A literature survey to help discern and frame the research questions focuses on England and North America, especially Canada. The chapters consider the research questions of what characterises success and its challenges in urban ministry and how do urban ministry situations engage the enduring tensions of charity and/or justice. The chapters include three detailed case studies in three different Canadian cities. They are narrated and analysed from the perspective of what makes for a meaningful, enduring civic presence and what caveats to be critically aware of - the UK and USA social theologian, Luke Bretherton, with additions, is constructively employed (as well as for framing the literature review). The concluding chapter provides a comparative summary analysis of the case studies. It proposes that the most comprehensive and integral way to depict the nature of success in urban ministry is by way of engaging the interweaving variables of earnest listening, stable places or presence, a capacity to endure, and dedication to what it takes to bear a public-and-prophetic witness - including constructive attention to the critical caveats of commodification, co-optation, communalism, clientelism, and cowardice. Two appendices on extending the range and challenges of a literature survey and how grounded theory assists, narratively, to discern a central story-line of the case studies, supplement the above

Name dc:type.qualificationname

mphil

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Morris, Barry Kent

• BL Crefydd

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:818