Making space to breathe : values, identity and accountability in a faith-based NGO

This project examines the impact on a Christian mission organisation of the decision to accept government funding and add an explicit international development focus to its work. During the 1980s the Anglican Board of Mission (ABM), the national mission agency of the Anglican Church of Australia, entered into a contractual relationship with the Australian Government which ultimately led to accreditation as a development agency and involvement with the Australian international development sector. This process has significantly influenced ABM both structurally and philosophically, bringing a creative tension within the organisation between two related but distinct approaches to Christian witness. A cooperative inquiry method was chosen with the aim of fostering organisational learning within ABM. The researcher became a participant in a team of five which conducted three cycles of inquiry over a year. This team of staff members and the researcher explored the influence of the growing relationship with government on their faith-based NGO and its implications within the context of Christian mission. Notions of intentionality, accountability and legitimacy within the relationships with their stakeholders emerged as significant foundations for the work of the organisation. The cycles of inquiry generated a body of co-created knowledge which, it is argued, have pointed the way to managing ABM s dual roles. Its multiple accountabilities - to government, to its Anglican constituency, and to overseas church partners - are understood as offering a framework through which it can continually assess its organisational integrity and fidelity to its value base. Articulating intentionality of purpose and a clear theological understanding of mission and development were identified as crucial if ABM is to maintain its legitimacy as derived from the mandate of the Anglican Church to undertake Christian mission and development on its behalf. Making space to breathe became a metaphor to describe the task of the organisation in creating both a reflective space which opens possibilities for transformed praxis, and a liminal space between the two Programs of the organisation in which a unifying philosophical ground can be discovered.

Grantor dc:publisher

UNSW, Sydney

Year dc:date

2005

Author dc:creator

• Kurti, Linda

• non-governmental organizations
• nonprofit organizations.

Statement dc:rights

• open access
• CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
• free_to_read

Licence

• https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/

Language dc:language

EN

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/23262

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:unsworks.library.unsw.edu.au:1959.4/23454