Three symptoms of our illness

There are three symptoms of our illness in the Episcopal Church that we can’t adequately engage. I’ll name them for now. I don’t have some fix in mind.

1. We can’t talk honestly about membership decline

2. We can’t talk honestly about prayer and action, worship and service.

3. We can’t talk honestly about drawing our social ethics from the far left. I’ll add a sentence to this one – it would be far worse if we took our social ethics from the far right.

So, no grand solution. I do know that an inability to name things and explore them is a symptom of something deeper. I have enough experience with ascetical theology and the behavioral sciences to know that much.

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Salman Rushdie

We live in a society in which writing and speaking uncomfortable truths and opinions face attack. The assault on Salman Rushdie is a reminder of the cost of freedom.  Elements of a religious hierarchy were offended many years ago by his writings. Over the years he has had to go into hiding and people associated with his work I’ve been attacked and in at least one case killed.

The kind of thinking that lies behind what has happened in New York has also gained increased position in our society and in the Episcopal Church. “I’m offended so you must be shut down, silenced, shunned.” Most involved in such thinking will say they don’t mean that to go as far as violence. It’s a paper thin rationalization. Ideas we find offensive are to be engaged with listening, humility, openness, courage, and persistence. Dialogue and discussion are the appropriate tools. Threats, outrage and attempts to silence others are simply wrong.

My own interest in this goes back to the years when Mr. Rushdie was first under attack. Here’s an article from that time.

I hope you will include Salman Rushdie in your prayers and continue in the struggle for a humble and free church and society.

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Resources: Organization Development

We're going to call your attention to several resources in the field of Organization Development. 

The Leadership Institute of Seattle (LIOS) prepares leaders, change agents, and organization development practitioners through small group experiential education to pursue and achieve individual, business, and social justice goals.  Students learn powerful skills in: Use of Self, Group Process, and Systems Thinking. This is the re-establishing of a program that offered training and degree programs for many years. Some of you may remember Anne French who worked with us in the LTI programs. She received her Master's from LIOS when working at Alcoa. In recent years Sister Michelle, OA and Brother Richard, OA participated in training programs facilitated by Chris Crosby who will be the CEO of the new LIOS. Give it a look.

The OD Network is the largest professional association in the field. From their website "As an organization, we serve Organization Development Professional change agents by creating a global community for meaningful connections, exchanging best practices, opportunities to interact with thought leaders and access to leading edge practices, tools and technologies. As a result, our members elevate the importance of OD practices by creating sustainable impact in today’s organizations, communities and beyond!"

Two articles from the OD Practitioner, the professional magazine of the OD Network. These were written by Sister Michelle and Brother Robert of the Order of the Ascension.

Understanding from Within: Working with Religious Systems

“Quality & Empowerment: Organization Development at WomenRising 1992 – 2016.”

Shaping the Parish Resources --  a variety of resources including organization development. You'll find everything from the History of OD Chart (note the early role of the Episcopal Church) to  The History of Parish Development in the Episcopal Church to group development theory (including I-C-O -- inclusion, control, openness) to organizational models (including the Organizational Diagnosis model) to a variety of change methods (including Survey-Feedback). The site also includes related resources for parish development and in ascetical theology.  The site is here.

The spirit of our age

They refused to love the truth (2 Thess 2:10b)

Sister Michelle was reading from Second Thessalonians today at Morning Prayer. Prior to that, as usual, I was reading the news and commentary. New York Times, Politico, The Bulwark, and the Seattle Times.   

Frank Bruni started his column with this:

I keep flashing back to Ronald Reagan’s preternaturally smiley face.

That’s not because I yearn for his presidency. It’s because his signature expression — his glow — provides such a clear counterpoint to the Republican mien of the moment, equal parts scowl and sneer. Reagan’s disposition was fundamentally hopeful. The Republicans in the foreground today are foundationally resentful. Recrimination, rage: Those are the fuels they run on. Those are the emotions they till. As Frank said, I do not “yearn for his presidency.” But he captured something about the spirit of our times. Ours is not a hopeful time. Ours is an age of resentment and grievance. Bruni focused his concern on the Right. I think he knows that the Left has made its own contribution. We grumble and moan about how unfair it all is. And, of course, there is much unfairness, much injustice. The struggle in the nation, and the church, is about which spirit we will give ourselves to. “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and through grace gave us eternal comfort and good hope.” (2 Thess 2:16) and “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12) The Order of the Ascension gathered in retreat last week at the convent of the Community of Saint John Baptist. We spent a good bit of time exploring how we might seek truth in these times.  We thought that prior to trying to address the issue in regard to the whole society, or even our own parish churches, we would begin with ourselves. We looked at how we could each broaden the news sources listened to. We planned to do more work in the coming months on spotting logical fallacies and what Ilana Redstone calls “the certainty trap.”[i] It’s a worthy project. Our starting place, however, wasn’t with those useful skills and stances.  We began with Kirk and Thornton. We began with the Daily Office, Eucharist and reflection. The Vision of God: The Christian Doctrine of the Summum Bonum is the title of a 1931 book by Kenneth Kirk. Two quotes from the preface: Worship is the Christian’s first and paramount duty. The highest prerogative of the Christian, in this life as well as hereafter, is the activity of worship; and that nowhere except in this activity will he find the key to his ethical problems. Then Martin Thornton in Spiritual Direction: Aquinas got it right: prayer is ‘loving God in act so that the divine life can communicate itself to us and through us to the world.’ Christian action is not action of which Jesus approves but action that he performs through his incorporated, and therefore prayerful, disciples. And in Pastoral Theology, when Thornton explores how we are able to properly engage ethical and moral behavior he writes: It is true no doubt that this grace can be gained by no mere human effort; it is something the wholly from without; but man can so rule and order his life as to open it out to divine influence, and to give that influence the fullest possible scope when once it has been received. It is in the supreme emphasis laid upon this principle that Christian ethics differs from every other system.’ The principal to which Dr. Kirk is paying tribute is that although we are to make volitional battle against sins, our most potent weapon is the Rule of the Church. Our first task, primarily done by giving ourselves the church’s pattern of prayer is to “stand firm and hold fast” to the central truth that our hope is in God. It is in the ordering of our life to open ourselves to divine influence. When Sister Michelle and I say Morning Prayer, we follow the tradition of always using the Benedictus Dominus Deus as the second canticle. The Order did that last week on retreat. There is in that canticle a few lines that I look forward to saying each day. It is a joyful anticipation. Words that I allow to influence my spirit. In the tender compassion of our God *     the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the                              shadow of death, *     and to guide our feet into the way of peace.  rag+

[i] Redstone wrote, “The fight against mis- and dis-information—a worthy goal—is often based on two flawed assumptions. The first is that definitive answers are known to the disputed points. The second, related to the first, is that the right people to provide those answers can be identified and agreed upon. Both assumptions are themselves often steeped in the Certainty Trap—a resolute unwillingness to recognize the possibility that we might not be right in our beliefs and claims.” In “The Tablet”, May 6-12, 2022

dare I say, holy

We are finding that there is something essential and mysterious — dare I say, holy — about human beings interacting in person and with the natural world that simply cannot be replicated in virtual reality. - Tish Harrison Warren

I'll be missing mass in-person today and next Sunday. I'll live-stream today and Zoom the Divine Office with Michelle all next week. I'm thankful for those virtual reality opportunities. And I do think there is the "holy" in that. But Warren is correct, it can't replicate in-person contact. And it's not just about worship in-person. All the talk in Seattle about people not wanting to return to the office makes my behavioral science brain explode. The processes of group and organization development hold true even in our Zoom meetings. Still, it is a severely diminished process. The group dynamics of inclusion, influence, affection, and openness are best done face-to-face. That’s true in the workplace and the parish church.                  

Warren’s article is in today’s New York Times, “The case for taking 10 minutes to watch a rainstorm.”  It spoke to me, who wasn’t going to be with others this morning and had for much of the past three years not gone to my local coffee shop.

“We are made to enjoy the physical presence of other human beings. We are made to enjoy rainstorms or sunshine or walks in the woods. We are made to enjoy touchable things. We cannot escape or overcome this need through technology. Our attempts to do so go against the grain of our deepest human needs and longings. … In the same way, I think we are finding that there is something essential and mysterious — dare I say, holy — about human beings interacting in person and with the natural world that simply cannot be replicated in virtual reality.”    (If you have a subscription, you can find the article here.)

Her article relates to reading being done by members of the Order of the Ascension as we prepare for our first in-person retreat in three years. We’re reading segments of K.E. Kirk’s “The Vision of God.” His 1931 thinking is similar to Warren’s in seeing the holy in nature and in-person relationships. Kirk writes, “God Whom we have come to know in nature, in art, or in friendship.” Here’s the whole quote.

“Wherever a man’s mind has been uplifted, his temptations thwarted, his sorrows comforted, his resolutions strengthened, is aberrations controlled, by the sight of purity, innocence, love or beauty, – indeed, wherever he has, even for a moment, recognized and responded to the distinction between good and evil, between better and worse, – such a man has had in part the mystical experience. Dim though his mirror may have been, he has yet seen God. Where he has seen God once there he may see Him again. Purity, innocence, love and beauty are to be seen no doubt most fully in the gospel. But they are to be seen elsewhere as well; and seeing them elsewhere we can discern their delicacies and refinements in the gospel better even than before. So far then from being rare, the mystical experience is at once the commonest and the greatest of human accidents. There is not one of us to whom it does not come daily…. We have already seen Him. Nor is there any need for us to make an effort to assume the attitude of worship; it is an attitude which has already been imposed upon us – it may be even without our consent -- by the God Whom we have come to know in nature, in art, or in friendship. The spirit of worship is not a remote prize. It is an actual endowment, possessed by all men. We are born into a world where we cannot but worship…. Worship depends not upon our own activities, but upon the activities which God brings to bear upon us; to them we are forced to react as worshipers.” -pp.464-465

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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