Searching for a Priest ... or a Man? Using Gender as a Cultural Resource in an Episcopal Campus Chapel

Abstract

This paper examines an Episcopal campus chapel's search process for a new priest. I argue that gender, at the group level, is a fluid cultural resource that search committee members use in contradictory ways to select a male priest. I illustrate my argument using data drawn from twenty‐eight in‐depth interviews and participant observation (1994–1995) of a search committee in an Episcopal campus ministry located on the grounds of a southeastern state university. My findings show that a patriarchal agenda can be upheld by a search committee without it ever being specified or codified. Well‐intentioned search committee members routinely do gender even as they claim and believe they act in gender‐free ways. The contribution this analysis makes to our understanding of congregational search processes and discrimination against female clergy is considered.