A53 The UCAN story

Networking Church Administrators: 1981 - 2017

First published on this website in August 2022 and last updated in July 2024

Synopsis

This article is somewhat different from others in that it tells the story of how the UK Church Administrator Network (UCAN) came to be formed.

It does this by going back to 1981 and the setting up of Administry with its Church Administrator Resource Centre (CARC) stream. The article explains how CARC developed within Administry until the parent organisation closed down at the end of 2003.

There was then a five-year gap until I set up UCAN in 2009 and the story runs through the next eight and a half years when it operated as an add-on to my professional work as a church consultant and trainer.

UCAN was built on original work in CARC and to have both parts of this story offers a valuable overview of Church Administrator development over the past 40 years. This will be of interest to Administrators, Ministers and many others.

The story continues to the point when I handed UCAN over to a Board of Directors in 2017. Others can continue the story at a future date when the further developments can be seen in perspective.

This article was updated in July 2024 with minor text and layout amendments.