The Critic: The failure of Anglican managerialism
Gerry Lynch looks at managerialism and the employment of managers in the CofE.
”The most high-profile of these “Ministers in Secular Employment”, as they are officially termed, is now undoubtedly Paula Vennells, the disgraced former Post Office boss. While it is possible for priests initially recruited as unpaid volunteers to later move into paid roles, sometimes senior ones, it is unprecedented that Vennells was one of three candidates interviewed as a possible Bishop of London in 2017, despite never having held an actual paid job in the Church. That says much about the C of E’s obsession with management and “leadership” as a panacea for the problems of institutional decline. Since around 1990 ,the C of E has been strangely convinced that its crisis of attendance and vocations was caused by poor management.”
He would beg to differ.
