from Anglican Futures
If it were possible to sum up the problems of the Church of England in one job advert. This might just be it.
An ambiguous organisational setting requires a policy advisor who may or may not understand, or be committed to, the purpose of the organisation but must be committed to reflecting diversity within the organisation and be able to build strong relationships in numerous settings, in order to manage complex policy initiatives, from planning to implementation within six months.
The full job description can be read here:
1) An “ambiguous organisational setting”
The job description requires that the Policy Advisor to have, “Resilience and adaptability to thrive in ambiguous organisational settings.”
It is a well known fact that the Church of England is not a single ‘entity’. Yet even if one puts aside for one minute the 42 dioceses and 12,000 parishes that are all treated as individual charities – at the centre of it all are still seven national administrative organisations, which together form the National Church Institutions (NCIs).
- Lambeth Palace
- Bishopthorpe Palace
- The Archbishops’ Council
- The Church Commissioners
- The Church of England Pensions Board
- National Society for Promoting Religious Education
- The Church of England Central Services
The NCIs form a common employer and for the sake of clarity a structure chart of the NCIs has recently been produced: