Patterns of Occupational Recruitment: The Anglican Ministry

Abstract

Recruitment can be viewed as a process of withdrawal of an increasingly homogeneous group from the population, affected by a complex of sociological variables. The Anglican ministry shows this same process both historically and today, but demonstrates interesting divergences. It is argued that although the pattern of recruitment has changed markedly between the 1870s and the 1960s the present recruitment pattern is an amalgam of two distinct groups and processes—a shrinking, `normal', first-choice group (stable in characteristics throughout the period) and a `late', second-choice group that displays somewhat different characteristics, and that has grown markedly since 1945. There is evidence that the same phenomenon is to be seen in other ministries, and it is postulated that this is linked to decreasing prestige, and the logic of selection procedures.