Concluding reflections

The enthusiasm for the theological action research approach led to CAFOD’s participating in the final year of the ARCS project - our ‘capacity building’ projects⁵ - in which organisations formed their own ‘outsider teams’ and worked alongside insiders in investigating issues of shared interest. In proceeding with this additional research, led by the insider coordinator of the original project, the question of CAFOD’s ecclesial identity and mission was tellingly central:

What does it mean for CAFOD to be part of Church that is an agent of change? What does it mean in my practice?

In CAFOD’s Strategic framework for the next ten years (“Just One World”), we are focussing on four priorities for the International programme. One of these is, for example: “Increase positive social change through our work with the Catholic Church and communities”. The above question is of interest as the data we collect will develop the theological thinking behind the four priorities⁶ and will explore fundamental questions about CAFOD and Catholic Identity.

(CAFOD Research Proposal, Capacity

Building Project 2010)

This project was once again highly successful in its use of a variety of ways of gathering data and encouraging employees to be creative as to how they learnt, reflected and shared their learning in ways integrating CST and their practice. The pedagogical significance of this work was especially well developed by the co-ordinator in her subsequent doctoral thesis, which specifically explored theological action research as pedagogical practice.⁷

In our earlier work on the ARCS research, Talking About God in Practice, we profiled three types of group we worked with: the parish, the diocese and the more ‘entrepreneurial’ agency - and this three-fold typology has persisted in this book. In many ways, however, CAFOD presents us with another kind of agency, which had, explicitly, both an ad intra and ad extra ecclesial identity. In fact, subsequent to the ARCS project, some of the most fruitful theological action research has been carried out with such ‘church-edge’ organisations,⁸ contributing not only to the ‘edgy ecclesiology’ described in chapter 8, but also to the growing literature on faith-based organisations.⁹Our experience with CAFOD has been crucial in our better enabling a variety of forms of theological action research with in complex organisations, and thus engendering significant ecclesiological learning.

Notes

1 For example, see Just One World, 2010. Available at: https://cafod.org.uk/ content/download/3036/21931/version/l/file/JustOneWorld.pdf.
2 www.caritas.org.
3 Susy Brouard has since successfully completed her professional doctorate, using theological action research within CAFOD. Susanna Brouard, Abseiling in the Way to Emmaus: Using Theological Action Research to Embed Catholic Social Teaching in a Faith-based Agency. Unpub. PrD (Anglia Ruskin University, 2015).
4 The use of ‘North’ and ‘South’ here refers to the global demographics and disparities, broadly association with northern and southern hemispheres.
5 See chapter 2 above.
6 As set out in Just One World, op. cit. note 1 above.
7 See note 3 above.
8 Notably, the Visions for Educational Leadership Project, working with Catholic schools in England and Wales; and the Catholic Marriage Care project, working with the faith based relationship charity. Details of both these can be found on the Theology and Action Research Network website: www.theologyandactionresearch. net. See also the use of data from the Listening 2004 project, drawing on the experiences of Catholic families across England and Wales in, Clare Watkins,

“Conversational Methods of Discernment. Learning for Mission from the Domestic Church.” Thomas Knieps-Port le Roi and Aldegonde Brenninkmeijer-Werhahn eds. Authentic Voices, Discerning Hearts: New Resources for the Church on Marriage and Family (LIT Verlag, 2016): 15-29.

9 See for example the work of Malcolm Torry, Managing Religion: The Management of Christian Religious and Faith-Based Organizations (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014).

11 Tradition