Church Resilience in Conflict

Abstract

The Church is expected to be peaceful union of Christians leading to a holistic life on the way to heaven. This calls for total peace, which is only achievable in absence of all types of conflicts, this is not so within the Anglican Communion. The Anglican Church is a product of conflict based sub-divisions and has also experienced complex conflicts that have led to further sub-divisions. This study seeked to investigate the nature of conflicts experienced among the Churches within Maseno North Diocese in Kenya. The objective of the research was the assessment of the nature of conflicts experienced among the Churches within the Diocese. The target population was the 43 parishes in the Diocese while the study population was 520 leaders of the parishes and all congregation members. A sample of 390 respondents was selected using cluster random sampling in the study which was carried out as case study research. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted in this study because it involved different parishes which were treated as subgroups. Closed ended Questionnaires and In-depth Interview Guide was used to collect Data from the randomly selected leaders and congregation members in a Face-to-Face interview. The findings were; Intra-church and inter-church conflicts were frequently experienced in the Anglican Church. Leadership conflicts were the most common intra-church conflicts followed by financial conflicts, marital conflicts, ideological conflicts and spiritual conflicts respectively. The inter-church conflicts experienced in the Anglican Church were finantal, ideological, human resource, Material and spiritual conflicts