Abstract
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.