A sociological study of the Church Army

The thesis examines aspects of the organisational adjustment of the Church of England in the nineteenth century which occurred following the recognition that the working classes were so little reached by the Church's ministrations. Church leaders, increasingly aware that the Church no longer enjoyed a monopoly position in religion, came increasingly to accept the need for home missionary work as a way of competing with other religious organisations, and the Church Army was one significant response to this situation. The thesis examines the origins of the Church Army in 1883 and its development up to 1914. The problems of accommodating Church Army techniques within the structure and activities of the Church of England is examined, together with the reactions to this type of new enter prise, by local clergy and by the Church authorities. An appraisal of the appeal and effectiveness of the Church Army, and of the influences affecting the style of organisation and its doctrinal orientation is made, and the organisation is examined for its quasi-sectarian potentialities. Attention is given to the processes of internal change within the Church Army, both in response to problems encountered in missioning and with respect to its acceptability to the Anglican clergy. The accretion of new goals, particularly in the development of social work, and the gradual domestication of the organisation are the subject of analysis in which the transformation of a quasi-sect into an agency of the Church is documented.