Porous Boundaries:
Complicated notions of home and identity for women occupying clergy housing within the Church of England  

To be a clergy member in the Church of England means accepting a version of nomadism, with cyclical, periodic moves across the patchwork of dioceses making up the country informing clergy’s ministerial careers. Clergy members are required to live within the boundaries of these parishes during their tenures in housing ascribed and maintained by the local dioceses; to reside in clergy housing requires an alertness to the dialogic relationship between inhabitant, time and space.


This way of living produces complicated, distinct notions of home for clergy members occupying Church-ascribed housing within the Church of England. My project seeks to explore this relationship through the unique experiences of six women working as clergy members. Ideas of the stereotypical ‘domestic woman’, private/public spheres and the temporality of home have been investigated through substantial interview data and supporting theory, with complex, porous boundaries between different areas of the home site identified and extrapolated throughout the dissertation.

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