Draft one-page role descriptions and a recruitment appeal for a vacant PCC officer or paid post from your own task list

Church minutes in 2025 show the same pattern: a secretary leaves, there are no churchwardens, the treasurer's job is held by a stand-in, the giving and Gift Aid officer is retiring and a paid youth post draws few applications. A page that lists the real tasks, the time of year they fall and who supports the postholder helps someone say yes. The AI only lays out the tasks you list. It does not say who is eligible, what a trustee or churchwarden must legally do, what a safeguarding or paid role requires or what a post should pay: the Rules, your diocese and your own PCC decide those.

A free AI chat tool, then your own word processor (no parishioner, pastoral, safeguarding or personal details ever go into the AI tool)

Steps

1. Pick the role and write its tasks in your own words: for example, issues the agenda, keeps the minutes, banks the collections, answers the electoral roll queries, reports on the fabric, runs the giving scheme. Add the busy times of year only where you know them from experience.
2. Check who may hold the office and how it is filled in the Church Representation Rules and, for churchwardens, the Churchwardens Measure 2001. Copy none of it into the AI tool: the page will point readers to the Rules and to your diocese. For a safeguarding lead, a youth or children's worker or any paid post, take the role requirements from your diocese and leave them out of the draft.
3. Paste your task list into the prompt. The AI returns a one-page description (purpose, main tasks, time and when, support available, who to speak to), a 120-word appeal for the notice sheet and website, and a shorter version for social media. It must not state eligibility, legal duties, pay or safeguarding requirements.
4. Add contact details and any support (a handover note, a mentor, diocesan training) by hand, and ask the vicar and churchwardens to read it.
5. Take the pages to a PCC meeting, minute the decision to advertise the vacancy, and record the date the appeal went out.

The exact prompt

I am the secretary of a Church of England PCC in England. Below is the list of tasks for a role we need to fill, copied from our own notes, with the time of year each falls. It contains no personal details.

Task: (1) write a one-page role description with these headings: Purpose; Main tasks; Time and when; Support available; Who to speak to. Use only my list; do not add tasks, hours, benefits or promises. (2) Write an appeal of about 120 words for our weekly notice sheet and website, and a shorter version of about 60 words for social media. Use the placeholders [ROLE], [CONTACT ROLE] and [HOW TO GET IN TOUCH]. Do not state who is eligible for the role, what the law or the Church Representation Rules require of the postholder, what a charity trustee must do, any safeguarding or DBS requirement, or any pay: instead write 'For eligibility and duties, see the Church Representation Rules and your diocese [LINK TO ADD]'.

RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my PCC's own rules, headings, dates, figures and anonymised notes. I have not included, and will not include, any name, address, phone number, email, date of birth or other detail about any parishioner, member of the congregation, child, volunteer, clergy member or trustee, or anything about anyone's health, family, pastoral care, safeguarding, DBS check or training record. Do not ask for any, and do not invent any: use the blanks and roles I give you, such as [VICAR], [CHURCHWARDEN A], [SECRETARY], [TREASURER], [PERSON] and [NAME]. Do not give legal, safeguarding, faculty, charity-law, tax, Gift Aid or data-protection advice, and do not say whether anything is lawful, valid, compliant, adequate or safe. Do not do arithmetic or count dates: copy every figure and date exactly as I typed it. If something is unclear, write [FOR THE PCC TO DECIDE] instead of guessing.

THE ROLE AND OUR TASK LIST: [PASTE]