Benedictines assume that growth in holiness—the ability to change and sacrifice in response to the call of the Holy Spirit—does not magically appear. Rather, it grows out of practices of stability and obedience.

In a New York Times opinion piece called “The Problem with Political Christianity,”^[i] columnist David French said, “If you aren’t trying to change for the better, church should be an uncomfortable place.” He was responding to those who claim that people who object to politics in church are simply afraid to confront their own sin. These folks say that churches aren’t “political” so much as they have correctly identified God’s views. So, if you don’t like what they say, you’re disagreeing with God, and that can indeed be pretty uncomfortable.

French agreed that if you don’t want to look at your own sin, you may not enjoy church much, but he was also making what is to me a strange claim. When he says that church should be uncomfortable if you’re not trying to change for the better, he seems to imply that the change required to address your own sin is inherently a “comfortable” thing. If you’re anything like me, you have a pretty decent sense of some of the ways you fall short, but it’s not pleasant to dwell on. There are also many times when I like the idea of changing something about myself, but when it comes down to it, actually changing seems too hard, or maybe too scary, or maybe not even the right thing to do.

I’m a big fan of St. Peter. He’s always doing the ridiculous or embarrassing thing. He’s always reacting inappropriately, usually in public. He’s often presuming to know better than Jesus. In today’s Gospel, he shows us a typical Peterism: in response to Jesus predicting his crucifixion and resurrection, Peter rebukes him for saying that he will suffer and die. That’s simply too awful and so Jesus shouldn’t say it.

This is so Peter and so human. Despite all the evidence around us of pain and failure, of sin and evil, we say it should not be so! It’s often much easier, much more comfortable, to deny reality than to have the humility to see and accept things as they are—not to like them, but to see and accept them—and to wait in the presence of God to learn how best to respond.

This capacity to see what is true, what is actually in front of us, and to respond in the way we understand God’s will is central to our vocation as Christians. It is central to picking up our own cross. It doesn’t, though, seem like a comfortable thing. And of course, our own bumbling St. Peter was eventually crucified himself, though the story goes that he insisted on being crucified upside down because he didn’t think he was worthy to die in the exact same way as Jesus.

Bishop John Krumm, in a short piece on Christian ethics he wrote in 1965,^[ii] pointed to a common tendency to assume that each of us is to pick up the cross of Christ, to imitate his death in a way that requires total submission, a kind of complete defenselessness. This way of thinking is most likely to arise in the context of international relationships and issues of war and defense, or any situation where power is maintained through force. It can be very confusing and sometimes lead us to black-and-white assumptions about the single right way to approach Christian responsibility.

During the Civil Rights Movement, for example, those protesting were trained in non-violence and did, in fact, submit to the brutality of segregationists. This was a powerful and effective witness, and the embodiment of non-violence was critical to the movement’s success. It was also a statement about the participants’ commitment to respecting the dignity of all persons, including the enemies of civil rights.

And yet, when schools were ordered to be desegregated after Brown vs Board of Education, President Eisenhower federalized National Guard troops in Arkansas to enforce the law and to protect Black schoolchildren from mob violence. I think the President saw that justice would not be served by allowing the mob to subvert the law, and that what he did was perfectly congruent with Christian duty. He had an obligation to the nation, to executing its laws, and to protecting the defenseless, even if he needed to employ state threats of violence to do so.

Bishop Krumm said that, “When someone talks about ‘love in an ideal world,’ I really don’t know what he means, because it seems to me that love in an ideal world would be so ideal as to bear very little relationship to what we mean by love.”^[iii] He goes on to say:

The New Testament understands love as that mode of behavior and action which in the specific situation best meets the needs of the neighbor that are found in that situation. And if that is the real meaning of love, then we are not talking about compromise but about how love can express itself in this or that particular relationship…The act of Jesus in going to the cross is his vocation, under his particular circumstances, given his role as the Son of God. But this doesn’t mean that everybody goes to the cross literally. It means, rather, that the cross represents a kind of limit of self giving, concern, and love for others which we must reproduce in our own circumstances, under our own vocation.

Seeing and taking up our own cross requires us to remain sensitive to what love requires in light of the totality of our commitments and obligations, in light of what is actually happening in front of us, and despite our own sin and human limitation.

The good news is that we are given ways to develop that sensitivity and to deepen our capacity to rely on our life in the Trinity, and membership in the Body of Christ. One of the gifts of Episcopal spirituality is its Benedictine underpinnings. Benedictines assume that growth in holiness—the ability to change and sacrifice in response to the call of the Holy Spirit—does not magically appear. Rather, it grows out of practices of stability and obedience.

Stability requires us to seek and find God where we are, in this place, with these people. It requires a willingness to accept both how things are and that God is with us. We see it most easily in our daily prayers and in coming together each week for the Eucharist. We also see it in our connections to and commitments to the people of this parish and this community, as well as to our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.

“Obedience” means a way of accepting and submitting to both God and one another. Another word for “obedience” is “listening,” but it’s a special kind of listening in the presence of God. It includes listening to things we may not want to hear. It’s listening to what is true and what is painful, to what pleases us and what disturbs us. And all of that is listening as part of our vocation, as part of our responsibility to seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, circumstances, and things of our lives.

Our listening is deeply entwined with our stability; we are committed to remaining in place and that means we must listen for understanding. It means we don’t just hear what others say, but that we also respond. Not that we necessarily do what others want, but that we take it seriously and incorporate it into our understanding of what it is to be part of the Body of Christ.

We have a very concrete opportunity for listening in our parish meetings. They are a chance to share our own experiences and to hear what matters to others. They are an opportunity to grieve what we may have lost, to talk about what sustains us now, and what we hope for in the future. They are also an opportunity to face into what is true and to reflect on the crosses we may bear as a parish church; both the limitations on our resources and energy, and the things that may be more about sin and blindness, habit and complacency, or simply not knowing.

And from our stability and obedience, or listening, we have an opportunity for true conversion of life, for change in the direction of God’s call to us, even change in the crosses we pick up and carry. And that is what God wants for us. Not a cross just for the purpose of suffering, but a cross that is a tangible, loving response to where we find ourselves. Our cross is never comfortable. And it’s exactly what we’ll find is needed if we stick around and pay attention.

If you’d rather watch and listen to it -

This abides,

Sister Michelle, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

^[i] “The Problem with Political Christianity,” David French, New York Times, July 30, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/30/opinion/gen-z-religion-evangelicals-trump.html

^[ii] John M. Krumm, The Moral Climate: A Christian View. First recorded and produced in a series on “Christianity and Modern Man,” by Henderson Services, Washington, D.C., 1965. Forward Movement Miniature Book Edition published in 1972.

^[iii] Ibid.

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This morning’s Tangle offered a piece on shame by their newest editor, Carina Pacheco. I don't have a paid subscription so I didn't get to read her entire essay. But the part I could see jumpstarted me into a time of reflection.

Calls to normalize have long been reasonable pushes for progress from tiny academic circles — like efforts to normalize breastfeeding in public in the 1990s and 2000s. But in the 2010s and 2020s, the idea exploded as an attempt to normalize just about everything — a trend I’m comfortable placing at the feet of millennials and Gen Z. What started as a silly fad to commiserate or bond over little quirks has quickly devolved into a compulsive need to overshare and overvalidate every experience, characteristic, or predilection — especially unconventional ones, and especially those tied to personal insecurity. My generation (the Zoomers) has long been inundated with demands to normalize everything from buying coffee every day to skipping class (and now, as adults, work) for “mental health reasons” and cutting someone off at the first sight of difficulty. … I shudder to think of the mud that so many good, necessary emotions have been dragged through to get to the altar of normalization, chief among them shame and embarrassment. They are, as Rosenfield says, “essential ingredients to a functioning society.” They form the bedrock of the shared norms and values that keep society functional. … Shame, embarrassment, humiliation, and stigma are all deeply entrenched in the human experience — but more importantly, they’re inevitable. We’ve all had some not-so-pleasant experiences with these feelings. I know I have. But we don’t have a God-given right to feel comfortable all the time. (Carina Pacheco, Have we no shame?: Against normalization culture.)

In his Summa Theologiae Aquinas drew on Aristotle in exploring shame (verecundia). He noted a difference between its useful and faithful expressions that nudged a person away from sin and what was often a slow falling away from clarity and a harmful form of shame that paralyzes the soul. Lack of the first causing a spiritual ethical corruption while the second could lead to self hatred, despair, and a withdrawal from society. In the saint’s view, healthy shame was a useful emotional response directing us toward the good verses a toxic shame that becomes a "sorrow of the soul" paralyzing one’s ability to act for a better future grounded in hope and forgiveness.

Pope John Paul II, in discussing shame and sexuality, saw shame as key to a transformation in which shame is "swallowed up by love." He wrote of how deep love removes the fear of being used or degraded. Others have pointed to how the shame that isolates is resolved by loving relationships. The impulse to hide is replaced by deep acceptance.

In my lifetime I have been divorced, had cancer and now I live alone. All things that in the first part of my life would have been seen as shameful. Societies change in their view of what is shameful. Over the last 80 years, there has been a shift in what is seen as socially acceptable. Behaviors and conditions that once involved public shame, and even social exclusion or legal penalties are now widely accepted, and in some cases celebrated, e.g., divorce, children born out of wedlock, interracial and interfaith marriage, gay relationships and marriage, being transgender, having mental health struggles, left-handedness, cancer, women working outside the home, tattoos, and living alone. I’m fine with all of is. Though when out walking yesterday, I passed a woman with face tattoos I thought that maybe social acceptance was going too far.

And that's a question isn't it? Can we go too far in accepting? Are those seeking a society in which there is no sense of shame causing great damage to individuals and society? As Carina Pacheco put it about the shame feelings, “They form the bedrock of the shared norms and values that keep society functional.”

Here is another question. To what extent are those who urge more caution in removing boundaries playing a useful role in our society, even though I might disagree with them in just about every specific instance. And what am I to do when the evidence piles up about unforeseen and negative consequences in some situations?

Yesterday, Tim Burgess, a Seattle politician wrote about the difference between our city and San Francisco. Burgess is an practicing Christian attending Bethany Presbyterian Church on a weekly basis. He holds progressive political and faith views. More progressive political opponents have occasionally targeted his religious background. His article looked at the unforeseen and negative consequences of the city’s harm reduction approach to addiction.

I’ve always advocated for more on-demand addiction and mental health treatment services. Yes, it would be expensive, but what is the cost of our current approach, in which people openly smoke or inject drugs, overdose, or frighten others by screaming and running around naked? The harm reduction approach we follow now waits until someone seeks help, believing that effective help is only possible when it is voluntary, not compelled. The result is what we see on our streets and sidewalks every day. As Powell argues in his Atlantic article, this approach has created a “zombie apocalypse.” Maybe it’s time to adjust to a more diversified approach, including being more assertive about treatment options.

I then did an AI search for examples of areas in which Western societies continue to see certain behaviors and conditions still carry strong social stigma or shame, e.g., “long-term unprovoked unemployment, severe personal bankruptcy due to reckless spending, poor personal hygiene, hoarding, uncontrolled public outbursts, infidelity and cheating, nepotism, driving under the influence, visible public intoxication or illicit drug dependency.

Then I asked AI to look at how what is “shameful” gets defined by political ideology. Examples from a progressive viewpoint: paying unlivable wages or preventing employee unionization, extreme wealth hoarding, corporate greed, systemic discrimination, opposing refugee settlement or demonstrating hostility toward immigrants, supporting mass incarceration over rehabilitative prison systems, rejecting environmental science or lobbying for fossil fuel expansion, profiting off life-saving medical care or blocking universal healthcare systems, enacting laws that make it harder for minority or low-income communities to vote. Examples from a more conservative direction included: experiencing or causing divorce, desertion, or raising children out of wedlock; rejecting traditional gender roles, monogamy, or heteronormative family structures; disrespect for authority; lack of work ethic, unpatriotic behavior; substance abuse; expressing open hostility toward religious faith or mocking traditional religious practices and beliefs; engaging in casual sexual behavior or publicly celebrating lifestyles that deviate from traditional marital fidelity.

So, apparently, most of us are in favor of shame in some circumstances and not others. Or maybe this is just another example of confusing our religion and our politics - People are picking their religion based on their politics (also here and here). I found myself sympathetic with many of the items on both lists.

Some of you are aware of my interest over many years in what happened in Germany from 1920 - 1950. I explored some of that in The American Church Conflict and The totalitarian mindset,

The climate in Berlin during the pre-Nazi Weimar Republic has been of special interest. There was a sense of personal freedom, artistic and life style experimentation and expression along with the rejection of old moral codes. The erosion of traditional social restraint set off significant anxiety among more conservative citizens. The resulting political and social polarization and instability made it easier for left and right wing extremist movements to fight in the streets and control the national dialogue. The Nazis promised a harsh restoration of order and discipline.

In The American Church Conflict I highlighted the thinking of Paul Miller.

“We live in a moment when political extremists have figured out how to game our system and hijack our parties. They may well be succeeding.”

He makes the case that we are too quick to declare who are the good guys and the bad guys. Some on the right see the secular progressive left as today’s Nazis with its support for abortion and an authoritarian climate in the universities. The other side sees the MAGA movement as the Nazis with its nationalism and demands for loyalty to a leader. Miller wonders whether there’s some truth in each. We have “bad guys” on both sides. He suggests there is a need for the church to recognize that evils may come from either political side acknowledging the “inescapable realities of sin and injustice in every human institution, including every political party.” And to play our proper role we must maintain our independence from any of the political tribes.

I remember loving the movie, Cabaret. It explores the tension between radical lifestyle experimentation and social stability. A contrast of the hedonistic, sexually fluid world of Weimar-era Berlin with the rise of the Nazi regime. And yet, I find myself sympathetic with the expression and experimentation of those years. Predictable I guess as the 60s were so formative for me. Side-by-side with that sympathy comes an awareness of the unforeseen dangers. There's a tragic confusion in our society today that fails to understand something as specific as how the totalitarian states such as the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany targeted both the Jews and the LGBTQ+ community (to use today’s terms) linking them to societal decay or lack of commitment to the state.

If you thought I was going to come up with some brilliant way to approach all this. You should be ashamed of yourself!

I can identify four phrases that are echoing within me.

Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God

The “inescapable realities of sin and injustice in every human institution, including every political party.”

They form the bedrock of the shared norms and values that keep society functional

Swallowed up by love

God will not turn back his anger; the helpers of Rahab bowed beneath him. How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him? Though I am innocent, I cannot answer him;I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.For he is not a mortal, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand on us both. If he would take his rod away from me, and not let dread of him terrify me, then I would speak without fear of him, for I know I am not what I am thought to be. ( From Job 9, in today’s Morning Prayer)

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

The Feast of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo and Theologian, 430

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I’ve been sitting on my apartment deck listening to the city awake. It’s a gentle beginning - hazy sunlight, cool, the sound of noisy delivery trucks, neighbors out walking their dogs, A favorite playlist is on — many of the songs come from the 60s and early 70s, a very formative time in my life. Three play in a row. Judy Collins Thirsty Boots, Joan Baez and her sister Mimi Farina Catch the Wind, Carole King You’ve Got a Friend. [1] An email arrives from LIOS (Leadership Institute of Seattle) telling me about an upcoming Tough Stuff training program. My reflection drifts as I consider the people and events of those years that shaped me: the civil rights movement, the Marine Corps, friendships, the church, and lab training.[2]

My lab training experience

To the extent I’ve matured - and there are many opinions out there among friends and acquaintances - lab training played a significant role beginning in 1971 and sporadically continuing until relatively recently I stopped doing such training. When you participate in several weeklong labs you end up having received a massive amount of feedback on the impact you have on others in the group. It requires you to develop some skill at receiving and learning from the feedback.

At the time I was part of an Episcopal commune [3] with a house in West Philadelphia. Mike had gone to a human relations lab conducted by MATC. [4] He became something of an evangelist, wanting all of us to go to one. Eventually, after much hesitation, most of us did. I became rather invested in the whole process and convinced the bishop’s office to finance an extensive course of training in exchange for me working off the hours by helping to create and manage a diocesan consulting network. By 1975 I had received professional accreditation in group development, educational design skills, and organization development (OD), had a masters degree in OD, and was a senior trainer with MATC and the leader of the diocesan consulting network. Let me share four elements of my training that helped shape me. This will take awhile. Feel free to jump to the list of current providers of this kind of training.

Wrestled to the floor - I think it was in my first week of human relations training when Nona, the lead group trainer, wrestled me to the floor. I had been exercising a significant amount of leadership in the group and Nona thought I required a bit of correction. Instead of the normal process of just receiving feedback from participants she thought it would be useful to have a wrestling match. In these days of safe spaces and trigger warnings, we wouldn't do that anymore. But at that moment, for me, it was a moment of grace. She was considerably older than me, and a grandmother. The challenge seemed absurd. But within a few minutes, she had me pinned to the floor. It wasn't a challenge to my role as a group leader. It was an encouragement toward humility as a leader. (God “purposely sets in our path each day four or five humiliations” - Helder Camara)

My twitching eye - When I was a participant in the MATC organization development program we each had to contract and pay an experienced OD practitioner to serve as our mentor for that year. I selected Bob Dow, a Philadelphia based OD consultant and pastoral counselor with a good bit of training in gestalt psychology. I went to my first session, thinking we'd talk about some of the consulting work I was doing and he would help me reflect and learn from that. A few minutes into the session we had this exchange:

Dow: I noticed your eye is twitching

Me: Yes it’s been doing that on occasion

Dow: I’d like you to let me try to help you with that, would that be OK?

Me: Yes

He then put two chairs facing each other. And asked me to sit in one.

Dow: I want you to put your eye on the other chair and talk to it

Me: Okay (while I was thinking, “oh shit!”

Then there was an exchange between me and my eye. Dow wanted me to explore the twitching with my eye.

Me to my eye: “Why are you twitching?”

Eye to me (meaning my imagining what my eye would say): “Why are you asking me. You’re the one with the twitching eye. Why do you think it’s twitching?

I don’t remember everything that followed, except I realized that by the time I walked out of that room, I no longer had a twitching eye.

Consulting skills and gestalt psychology - After I had completed three years of training with MATC and a two-year trainer development program with Lands' End, I began to work with Jack Anderson, who was the coordinator of the MATC Consulting Skills Lab. Jack had done a lot of work with using the methods of gestalt psychology in his consulting practice. That became my pathway into a new dimension of working with groups and organizations. I found myself working with clients in a new way. There was this paradoxical approach to change. The starting place was to help clients understand and accept where the organization currently is rather than helping them live up to some abstract notion of perfection (beware of best practices). The assumption was that the organization or the person would change organically after more fully realizing their current state. We did a lot with the “Use of Self” as an instrument in the change process. Learning for ourselves and teaching others to draw on immediate, present-moment reactions, emotions, and presence as diagnostic data. It helped us see what was happening beneath the tip of the iceberg (beneath the surface of the client system.) We also did a lot at the boundary between what an organization knows and what it avoids or rejects. We’d intervene by helping leaders and groups engage with difficult truths, conflicts, or external realities. Each step of the standard consulting process (i.e., Scouting, Entry, Contracting, Diagnosis, Planning, Implementation, Evaluation, Exiting) might still be used but was now infused by intentionally “making contact” through five movements within each of the steps: 1) awareness of self, others and the surroundings. Which leads to excitement. 2) Finding something in what is happening that draws your interest; that has positive or negative energy that you can invest yourself in. 3) A decision to engage your excitement. 4) Focused contact that is not “wandering around” the situation and each other. Doing what needs doing. 5) Closure, meaning we stop when you are done! It's an awareness and decision within yourself to know when we “Are we done, for now?” Over the years, I have absorbed much of this stance so I'm not very conscious of it as a series of steps anymore.

Theory conflict - I think it was 1973 when I received two different messages about the place of theory in lab training and consulting work. I was on the staff of a group development lab. I'm sure it had to be one of the first four or five labs I served on. I was to present Jack Gibbs trust development theory. I did it using a variety of diagrams and humor. I solicited written feedback at the end. Participants were overwhelmingly pleased. After lunch, there was a staff meeting. It began with one of the more respected and experienced trainers blasting me for taking so much time for the presentation. A couple of others joined in that feedback. Others in the room were silent (by that point I had already learned that coming to the defense of other people usually had the effect of escalating the tension and delegitimizing the critical feedback.) So I listened to the feedback and took some notes. I was feeling defensive and threatened. The person who launched the effort had the kind of influence that could derail my future as a trainer. Finally, that person used a standard phrase which trainers relied on, “So, is there anything you would do differently?” I said “no.” I knew that wasn't the answer that was desired. Years later, I learned that this particular trainer also had influence in a diocese in which I had two client parishes. The priest of one of those parishes took me aside at one point and said that the influential person was stopping the bishop from using me to conduct a diocesan Church Development Institute. Around the same time several senior trainers have been asked to send references to the MATC office. It was a normal process done with new trainers. Roy Oswald kindly sent me a copy of that included this, “I was impressed from the start with his insight and skill. Bob did more up front input theory in plenary sessions than most of us. His theory on the function of support for follow-through, led us to the formation of support groups throughout the week for learners. Each day he gave some theory input for these groups.” I think Roy's letter might have saved my career. Some years later, the person who had initiated the critical feedback died and the bishop of that diocese retired. Soon after that, I was invited to run the Church Development Institute in the Diocese and asked to take on several contracts with parish churches. As I look back on it. I think my critic saw themself as the upholder of traditions and saw me as a stubborn newcomer. I've always preferred to refer to myself as persistent rather than stubborn. All our gifts often come with a blind side and maybe that's what the person was focused on. My temperament desires harmony, but it also desires competence and truth. The lack of harmony saddened me. But I think my persistence (stubbornness?) helped the system do better when dealing with theory.

Basic background on T-groups (also here), experiential education, and Organization Development (more)

I've dwelt on these four elements because they interest me. If you go through a significant amount of lab training, you'll have a different list, probably comparable in many ways, but not the same as mine. In the abstract, you may realize that you're going to learn some skills and methods for working more effectively in groups. What you don't know in advance is the three or four or five elements that will most shape you.

Lab training today

There are several agencies that provide experiential lab training.

LIOS (Leadership Institute of Seattle - Website) - The next offering of their Tough Stuff program is October 5-9, 2026 going from 9am to 5pm each day, ending on Friday at noon. The location is the Southwest Youth and Family Service building in Seattle, WA. Tough Stuff™ is the name of their T-Group adapted for organizations and is the foundation for all their academic programs (they offer a masters degree in organization development). At the heart of Tough Stuff™ is the Skill Group (T-Group) which was invented in 1946 by Kurt Lewin along with colleagues Leland Bradford, Ron Lippett, and Ken Benne at a workshop in Connecticut. More on Tough Stuff.

NTL (National Training Labs - Website) - NTL’s signature program is the Human Interaction Lab offered to develop key areas of personal and leadership effectiveness: self-awareness, interpersonal skills and ability to observe and be facilitative in a group. In real-time situations, you learn how your own behavior impacts others. You learn to give and receive feedback in a way that creates connections and learning for others and yourself. The core methodology for NTL's HI Lab® is the T-Group™, or Training Group, which is a type of experience-based learning in which participants work together in a small group of 8-14 people, over an extended period. Learning comes through analysis of their own experiences and interactions, including feelings, reactions, perceptions, and behavior. T-Group™ provides a setting in which people are encouraged to experiment with new behaviors, examine their experiences in light of feedback from others, and consider what range of behavior changes to consider. NTL also offers a certificate program in organization development.

Stanford University Business School, Introductory T-group training (Website) - The training provides an opportunity for participants to develop greater mastery in interpersonal skills and gain exposure to the T-group learning method used in the popular Stanford MBA elective, Interpersonal Dynamics. The program is geared toward those applying for the Interpersonal Dynamics Facilitator Training Program (IDFTP); we do consider Introductory T-group applications from those whose aim is not Facilitator Training but wish to strengthen their interpersonal skills.

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

The picture is of a human interaction (t-group) 2008 In Georgia

[1] In 2002, Judy Collins and Eric Andersen, joined by Tom Rush and Arlo Guthrie, on Thirsty Boots, a 1960s folk song written by Eric Andersen as a tribute to the exhausting, heroic efforts of civil rights workers. He wrote the song for a close friend who had gone down south to work on the civil rights frontline. Andersen actually scribbled the very last verse of the song onto a matchbook cover while using the bathroom at Judy Collins' apartment. In 1966 Joan Baez and her sister Mimi Farina recorded Donovan’s Catch the Wind, a love ballad about unrequited love and longing for a relationship that seems impossible to grasp. Donovan later said he wrote the song about his future wife, Linda Lawrence, a year before they met. Carole King’s 1971 You’ve Got a Friend written in direct response to James Taylor's song "Fire and Rain, specifically the line "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend," prompting her to compose a musical response. Carole King and James Taylor share one of the most enduring and supportive friendships in music history, defined by a deep creative partnership that began in 1967. King said the tune came to her so fast it felt like an inspiration coming from outside herself. King and Taylor singing it together in 2010.

[2] Shaped by the civil rights movement, the Marine Corps, friendships, the church, and lab training. Each has a story. The short version: The Marine Corps- a lot of time in uniform from ages 8 to 20, Scouting, Army ROTC, Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Class. Friendships - Mary, Don, Margie, Jack, Evy, Alice, Larry, Rick, Gary, Jeannie, Cotton, Mike, Molly and more. Civil Rights Movement - Philadelphia CORE, Penn State CORE, Penn State SURE. The Church - Don Farrow, Paul Washington, Jack Black, Dick Norris, John Scott, Martin Thornton, Evelyn Underhill, Church of the Advocate, Saint Mary's Hamilton Village, St Elisabeth’s South Philadelphia. Also, see the “me, me, me” section of this article.

[3] The commune - All the long-term members were either Episcopal priests or seminarians or their spouses. We cooked and ate meals, argued and danced, and grew up together. We joked that the difference between an Episcopal commune and the Quaker commune down the street was that we drank more wine, had more comfortable furniture, and said the Daily Office instead of sitting in silence.

[4] Mid-Atlantic Training and Consulting, Inc. (MATC) was a​n ecumenical training and organization development (OD) agency active from the 1950s ​into the 1980s.​ MATC provided​ l​ab based training in human relations, group development, educational design skills and OD. They also offered consulting services for churches, religious judicatories, and nonprofit groups. ​Their approach: ​combined organizational psychology and systems thinking to help parishes navigate change and build leadership skills​.

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Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name. (From the collect for the 13^th Sunday after Pentecost.)

Today’s collect and the reading from Romans stress holy unity. Curiously, they describe a unity that comes from diversity, not sameness. How does that work? St. Paul points to part of it: we have different gifts and functions, but all of them matter. This epistle is one of the places he uses the metaphor of the Body of Christ. Like a human body, the Body of Christ is made up of members who have different functions within that body, with all contributing to a complex and unified system. In today’s epistle, Paul talks of those who teach, or give, who lead, or prophesy, those who provide diligence or cheerfulness. We may feel the loss of some parts more acutely, but that feeling too often conceals the reality that all contribute to a healthy whole. In many ways, the job as the church is to help us regain a sense of what wholeness really is.

Membership in a body implies mutual aid and concern. If I’m struggling with my part, maybe there’s someone who can compensate for me, or help me see how I might do things differently. Or maybe others can simply stand by me in the continuing struggle. There are always those whose role is more visible at times, and less visible at others. But that vision of what wholeness is—that understanding of a single Body united in purpose— it gives us a profound insight into the Church’s role in the world and in each of our lives.

Many years ago, at another parish I was a member of, we were having some difficult conversations about why parish membership had declined so much. The rector and vestry were defensive and tried to prevent the discussion by pointing out how many demographic factors were at play and why parish leadership wasn’t to blame. They weren’t entirely wrong, exactly, but they did miss the point. By focusing on abstract polling about church attendance and Seattle’s broader demographic trends, they ignored the elements of parish life that were within our control and suppressed real exploration of the kind of community we wanted to be. And they also ignored that we had lost real human beings, that we had lost irreplaceable parts of our Body.

Recognizing the different needs, gifts, and capacities of the whole Body of Christ is part of what helps us see our purpose. We always start with the understanding that we’re part of something bigger than any one of us individually. We also need to see clearly and honestly; we need to understand our lives as God-given and returned to God’s service. With this lens, there’s no reason for false humility or false bravado. What we have is God’s, not ours, so why should we be dishonest about it or hide it or be particularly proud of it? God can make use of us in both strength and weakness, and it requires humility to see that. Our sense of ourselves as part of one Body can, paradoxically, improve our humility to improve our service, both within the church and outside of it.

And this points to the foundational assumption in what St. Paul is saying. We are the Body of Christ, not the Body of Food Bank Donations, or the Body of Beautiful Buildings, or the Body of Warm and Welcoming Community. We are not a mutual support society, or a social justice organization, or a group of like-minded individuals who enjoy one another’s company. We may at times function as all those things, and they’re often important and worthwhile, but they’re not our purpose. We’re also not a literal body with its inherent limits on time and space. We are certainly part of a real community, that meets in a building at specific times, and allows us to be physically present with people who are very different from us and yet whose aim is to love and serve the same God. And we also are part of a mystical body that gives each one of us a transforming power to be in the world while remaining deeply connected to this otherworldly Body of Christ.

Perhaps most critically, this metaphor of the Body of Christ puts Christ at its head. Not the bishop, or the rector or the vestry, or our own matriarchs and patriarchs. And certainly not ourselves. Christ’s headship means we must constantly seek to understand our collective life as the Church, as well as our lives as individual Christians, with Christ as our ultimate measure. The bishop, the rector, the vestry, our matriarchs and patriarchs, and each one of us as individuals—we are all, of course, figuring out our roles in God’s unfolding story. And our continued faithfulness, as well as our inevitable failings, can help point us back to Christ as long as we remember that Christ is in fact the aim.

Christ as the measure is a bracing thing. It requires a stance of tangible love toward all, while also understanding what tangible love requires in one situation isn’t the same in another. All Saints, Margaret Street, is a famous Anglo-Catholic parish in London. They have beautiful, stirring worship that reliably brings you into the presence of the transcendent. They also, for a number of years, kept their doors open to the homeless, providing shelter and safety to some of the most needy in their neighborhood.

All Saints understood that these two things carried inherent tension. They imposed boundaries—the men sleeping on pews could be heard snoring during Morning Prayer, but they weren’t talking or yelling, and they weren’t threatening anyone. And when the parish needed more space on Sunday mornings, they limited the number of pews that could be used for sleeping. The parish recognized the limits of their own resources, as well as their primary purposes in worshipping God, forming its members, and being a sanctifying presence in the community. They couldn’t provide meals or housing, but they could at that time provide temporary respite and enough security to protect both those visiting for worship, and those visiting for shelter.

Ultimately, after the parish’s long-term rector retired and a new rector was called, All Saints decided not to continue to provide shelter. Instead, they’ve turned their attention to partnering with other community groups who do this work. My guess is that decision took place in a context of prayer and reflection and that not everyone agreed with it. The fact of disagreement, though, doesn’t change the fundamental unity of the Body of Christ. In both agreement and disagreement, our unity of purpose requires us to keep listening carefully and honestly for how Christ calls us to serve in our present circumstances.

Not every parish can do what All Saints did, and some, of course, can do more. What all parishes can do is shape their members in their baptismal identity and purpose, and help them develop their own understanding of the Body of Christ and their necessary and irreplaceable part in it.

On September 13, we are gathering as a community to begin a period of discernment as we prepare for Fr. Kevin’s retirement. Over the next 18 months, we have an opportunity to deepen our understanding of who we are as St. Clement’s particular expression of the Body of Christ. Just as each one of us is an irreplaceable member of the Body, St. Clement’s itself is also a unique and irreplaceable expression of that Body. This is a time to look honestly and faithfully at our strengths and our challenges, and to answer questions about what we hope for in our life together. Our gatherings will be structured to encourage deep listening. The aim is to foster our commitment to this parish and to one another, to our shared understanding of the purposes of the parish, and to a vision of diverse individuals united in baptism and united in love.

Each of us has been formed in God’s image. Each of us has been affected by our membership in this community. Maybe we’ve found more clarity about our own frailties and learned how to rely more on God and one another. Maybe we’ve come to better understand our own gifts and how we might make use of them for the benefit of others. Each of us goes out into daily life strengthened by our encounter with God in worship and in our relationships to one another. We may find ourselves better able to serve as the light of Christ in the many places we find darkness. As members of the Body of Christ, we know we are not alone, and we know we are not the source of the light we carry. Yet our very membership in this Body may give us eyes to see the dark places. And it may give us new strength for the work we’ve been given to do in response.

If you’d rather watch and listen to it -

This abides,

Sister Michelle, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

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When asked about the most essential elements in the teachings of Christ, Saint Augustine said, “The way to Christ is first through humility, second through humility, third through humility”

In today’s Gospel, there are thousands of people. It’s late. They are far away from villages where they might buy food. The disciples have five loaves and two fish, not enough for a dozen people let alone thousands. The situation is impossible.

People need to be fed. Jesus says to his followers, “you give them something to eat.”

Many hear that and take on the impossible situation. We must try to do the impossible. It is the delusion that leads us into arrogance and pride. We will save the situation. We will create a new world. We see it in the story of the temptation of Jesus when he refuses to turn stones into bread. It’s there in the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel, humanity trying to build a tower to the heavens. Maybe it’s also there in the populous dreams of the political left and right that they will create a new and better world.

Jesus says, “you give them something to eat.” But it seems that Jesus doesn’t mean it. The followers say, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled.”

Is the miracle Jesus doing a magic act? Wave a magic one and food for thousands of people appears. Or maybe the miracle is that Jesus brings out the trust and cooperation of the crowd. Isn’t it likely that these people came carrying some food for the day? That they all had some fish and bread tucked into their bags. And given the human propensity toward greed and self-centeredness, left to their own devices they would hold onto what they had to address their own personal hunger. Maybe, just maybe, Jesus had drawn them out of their preoccupation with themselves and into a willingness to let go and to share what they had.

And what about the disciples? It turns out that the disciples did not provide the food but helped to distribute it among the people. What is Jesus hoping the disciples, you and I, will understand in this story.

The saints point us to the solution. First a stance. We take a stance toward humility. Saint Augustine also said, “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.” That foundation was a stance we are to assume and a set of spiritual practices that would open our hearts to self-knowledge and humility. Augustine urged our participating in the Eucharist and the divine office, the daily prayers of the church, along with time for reflection in which we confronted our illusions, human limitations and sins. Augustine invites us to give ourselves to a stance of humility and practices of worship and reflection that nurture humility.

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

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Humility - war and peace: “We should learn to view ourselves with a sense of proportion and Christian humility before the enormous complexity of the world”

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People naturally make the analogy between the Church and other groups with which they are familiar: clubs, corporations, families and so on. Parishioners are just trying to make sense of things. The process is inevitable. At the same time it can significantly impact and confuse things in the parish.

Some find the model “The Church: Analogies and Images” useful. It was developed based on the work of Father Richard Norris.[1]

“Norris provided helpful insight into issues associated with identity. He wrote about the ways people compare the parish with “various associations which are consciously and voluntarily formed for the pursuit of common interests, ideals or goals. The idea is that a group of individuals band themselves together because they find they have convictions, needs or aims of a similar, if not identical, sort; and they are prepared to cooperate in the cultivation of their shared purposes.” In developing identity, the danger is that parishioners begin to see the parish as a “society created by human enterprise and designed to serve particular human ends,” that the church itself is created by the “agreement of a number of individual persons who presumably define the terms of their association and its goals.” We recognize that people naturally make the analogy between the Church and other groups with which they are familiar: clubs, corporations, families and so on. References to “organized religion” or “institutionalized religion” reveal the assumption that the Church is just one more form of human organization. While the process of making analogies with the club, corporation, and so on is inevitable, it also creates a problem. “Church means, not corporation and not club, but a collection of people who have been called out together by a voice or a word or a summons which comes to them from outside.” (M. Heyne & R. Gallagher, Finding God in All Things: Contemplation, Intercession, and Intervention, Ascension Press, 2023. More in Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church, Robert A Gallagher, Ascension Press, 2008)

We all realize that every parish consists of parishioners that range from the vicarious, to the Christmas and Easter, to the tentative and immature, and to the more mature and spiritually disciplined. In the Shape of the Parish model, we have described the more mature members as people of apostolic faith and practice. One of the marks of that is likely to be that they have some grasp of the nature and purpose of the church. They know what business we are in. And they know we are not a business, or a club or a social service agency, or a mental health society.

Martin Thornton [2] called that apostolic core, the Remnant, “This palpitating heart pumps the blood of life to all the body as leaven leavens the lump or salt savours the whole.” In Pastoral Theology: A Reorientation, he wrote about how the parish church was, “the complete Body in microcosm,” and explained his Remnant Concept, “in which power from the center pervades the whole.” The holiness and love of a Remnant at the center of parish life is for Thornton what makes a parish a true parish. The primary purpose of this "Faithful Remnant" is to pray and worship on behalf of the wider, nominal community. For Thornton, the church is not a social club or an activist organization, but an interconnected organic body bound together by a collective rhythm of life. In English Spirituality and Pastoral Theology: A Reorientation, he offered the Threefold Rule of Prayer: eucharist, daily office, personal devotions, especially reflection. He believed that the three elements are interdependent. If a Christian neglects one, their spiritual health—and the health of the parish is diminished.

Three ways we offset the distortion are by:

• In sermons, classes, and written material introducing both the church’s way of understanding itself and the disrupting effect of certain analogies. And offer it without a judging tone but as a way members are trying to make sense of the church.

• Keep nurturing the apostolic center.

• In its common life, the parish lives the Threefold Rule of Prayer

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

[1] Richard Norris, Understanding the Faith of the Church, Seabury Press, NY, 1979). Norris taught patristics at the Philadelphia Divinity School, the General Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary. He provided a one-on-one tutorial for me on two occasions: “History and Revolution” and “Theology and Revolution.”

[2] Thornton beloved that the clergy shouldn’t be spending their time and energy catering to nominal members or engaging in what he called “multitudinism”— a preoccupation with numbers. We should attend more to what he called the Remnant, and what in the Shape of the Parish Model I called the Apostolic Center. Grounding them in the practice of the Threefold Rule: Mass, the Daily Office, and personal devotion. Also that we needed to trust the organic process involved. Thornton wrote, “there is nothing so contagious as holiness”.

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Father Richard Benson was a 19^th century superior of an Anglican religious order, the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE). That community of British mission priests sent its members all over the world - South Africa, India and the city parishes of Boston and Philadelphia. They were sent into worlds very different from the English universities and comfortable homes they came from. He called his monks to take a stance – To avoid “a dreamy dissatisfaction with the present state of things” and “to make ourselves at home under all circumstances” and turn everything to good account.

The Cape Town work of the monks involved living in slums and caring for people with leprosy. Possibly the most difficult moment came in 1901 when the government forcibly resettled the non-white population out of the area where the Mission House was located. People were move into segregated townships. The monks followed their displaced congregations into those resource-deprived, under-developed townships and established schools and churches.

I gather that our organist, Gary James, plans to attend St. Clement’s of Rome in Philadelphia when he moves after Christmas. In 1876 the monks arrived at St. Clement’s. They lived and worked in what was then a poor, industrial, polluted neighborhood. They also faced battles and lawsuits from conservative church authorities who opposed their monastic existence and Anglo-Catholic traditions.

We might pray that Gary will “make himself at home” in his new city and and that other Saint Clement’s.

Blessed Mary made herself at home under all circumstances. Unmarried and pregnant she stays with Joseph and makes a home. Traveling from her home and giving birth in a stable. Fleeing her country into Egypt to save her son because Herod had ordered all first-born children to be killed. Being the mother of Jesus as he goes through adolescence and wanders off on his own, scaring his parents. Standing at the foot of the cross as he dies. Going to live with St. John. Her life fits Esther De Waal’s understanding of conversion – conversion “means that I must be ready to pick myself up, and start all over again in a pattern of growth which will not end until the day of my final dying.”

Jesus told Peter: “When you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18)

Jesus isn’t talking about a change of location. He is pointing to Peter’s death by crucifixion. The Christian task “to make ourselves at home under all circumstances” and turn it to good account is about all the events of our life.

In 2009, I had preached the Thanksgiving Eve sermon during mass at Trinity Church, Seattle. Then I went home. Then I passed out. I was taken to Virginia Mason. I was diagnosed with stage four esophageal cancer. The doctor delivering that news had tears in his eyes. I felt awful for him.

I asked the oncologist about hospice care. Sister Michelle was there, being my second set of ears. Later, she said to me that within what the doctor had said, she heard that there was a possible treatment. I had missed that. So, as it turned out, even though I was a Benedictine and had followed the Saint’s advice to meditate on my death —it appeared that I might not have to make myself at home with death, at least not yet. Benedict’s call to “keep death daily before your eyes” was not a morbid or fearful practice; but a tool to help us live more fully, stay grounded in the present, and avoid taking life for granted. It was a way to make ourselves at home even as we face death.

I had to make myself at home with cancer. The spiritual discipline of making ourselves at home in all circumstances and seeking to turn things to a good account – is a call to necessity and faith not passivity. It is grounded in the knowledge that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That God is in the new place whether it be Philadelphia or cancer or death. 2010 was my cancer year – a brutal course of chemotherapy that almost killed me and threw me in the hospital for 12 days, surgery, a feeding tube with a delicious vanilla substance. It was a time of dependency – nurses and doctors cared for me; Trinity Church was supportive - Richard and Eleanor showed me great compassion, Fr. Paul fed me, a parishioner did my laundry; friends and family came and slept on my couch in the days after surgery; Sister Michelle went to the medical appointments with me, and my neighbors in the condo’s homeowners association took over my share of cleaning the building.

It is certainly understandable when in the face of sudden or drastic change, we become filled with resentment and anger. We live in a cocoon of grievance. “It’s not fair! Why has God done this to me?”

One response to that, of course, is in the prayer of Jesus in the garden just before his arrest -- “’My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.’” (Matthew 26:39). Another response is to focus our attention on all the ways in which the Holy Spirit often brings others into our life to comfort and help us in such times.

Saint Paul offers the image of putting on the armor of God. In the new place we find ourselves we are make use of the virtues and tools God gives us – Mass, the daily prayers of the church and times of reflection that will nurture in us a stance of “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

Fr. Benson calls us to take a stance – To avoid “a dreamy dissatisfaction with the present state of things” and “to make ourselves at home under all circumstances” and turn everything to good account.

If you’d rather watch and listen to it, includes recessional hymn Ye watchers and holy ones -

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

The image of Father Benson is from an icon hanging at St. Clement’s Seattle - Restoration of the Religious Life in Anglicanism

Gary James, organist St. Clement’s Seattle - Fraction Anthem “Be Known to us, Lord Jesus” Gary James (b. 1957) Sung during the Eucharist at St. John’s West Hartford

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The impact of trained parish-based teams on parish improvement and renewal

All the major training programs in parish development have emphasized the value of parish-based teams and efforts to improve and renew parish life. That first became obvious at the Church Development Institute operating at General Seminary between 1985 and 2000. The teams offered a more sustainable approach to the effort. This has proven to be true in all types of organizations. Teams of employees or members working to improve the culture and productivity of the system drive positive organizational change by increasing engagement, lowering turnover, and boosting efficiency. Change led by peers feels less forced. It builds local ownership and trust. It’s also true that teams can fail if leaders do not listen, resources are low, or burnout occurs. All the major parish development training programs stressed the need for the rector of a parish to be part of the team. It is very difficult to make progress on improvement and renewal if the rector is not willing to actively support the effort.

Teams within Shaping the Parish

The program has included teams from a wide variety of settings -Mexico, Zambia, the UAE, Canada and the US- as well as a range of sizes and current health.

While in the program participants get to work in six different small groups, a new one every five weeks. This offers them both wide exposure to a variety of parishes and six opportunities to join in the formation of a productive working group.

Team theory and methods

Shaping the Parish introduces participants to eight theories of team and group development as well as a variety of methods to facilitate participation that enables the internal commitment that provides depth and sustainability to improvement efforts.

Theories: Shared Leadership, Establishing and Maintaining Group Norms, Trust Development Theory, Inclusion-Control-Openness Theory, The Dynamics of Inclusion, Group Development Theory – Leadership issues and the Tuckman Stages of Team Development.

Group methods: Listening, channeling, testing process, mutual obedience, managing grumbling, deciding to be in community, around the circle, Likes-Concerns-Wishes.

About STP

Shaping the Parish is a two-year, Zoom based training program in the methods and skills of parish development. The course is sponsored by the Order of the Ascension, a dispersed Benedictine community of laity, priests, and bishops in the Episcopal Church. The program is grounded in Anglican pastoral and ascetical theology, especially Benedictine spirituality. We also draw on the fields of organization development and organizational psychology.

The workshop fee is $300 for a parish team of three to six people and $100 for an individual; plus the cost of books.

Training staff Overview Reading List. Registration

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

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but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

The wind is often against us. It was that way for the disciples – “the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them.”

Jesus had gone “up the mountain by himself to pray.” He was engaged in the one spiritual practice that allows us to cope with the winds – the practice in which we know the “sound of sheer silence.”

I want to tell you a bit about the formation of the Order of the Ascension that Sister Michelle and I are members of. For 5 years from 1983 to 88 we were in discernment and formation. We spent three weeks together each year – one a spiritual retreat, another of learning, and the third on business, also called chapter. We established Ascension Press, wrote and published a few books. Partnered with the General Seminary in New York City to create the first in-depth training program in parish development in the Episcopal Church. We had an Associates program involving about 80 people from across the country. We were very busy. All those who were to become professed members had jobs as parish priests or in my case on the staff of the Bishop of Connecticut. We were very busy. Our work was difficult. The wind was often against us.

In late January 1988 we gathered in the Chapel of the Good Shepherd at General Seminary – We stood before Rodger White, the Bishop of Milwaukee and took the Benedictine Promise – “To seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things and circumstances of life through stability, obedience and conversion of life.” The week prior to that was a retreat with Father Kenneth Leech at an Episcopal convent.

Fr. Ken didn’t speak to the busyness of our lives. He didn’t offer help in the difficult work we were doing. He didn’t even empathize with us about the wind blowing against us. He called us to find an inner core of silence.

Fr. Leech said this to us very busy, wind tossed people. “Any authentic priesthood must derive from an inner core of silence, a life hid with Christ in God ...Only those who are at home with silence and darkness will be able to survive in, and minister to, the perplexity and confusion of the modern world. Let us seek that dark silence out of which an authentic ministry and a renewed theology can grow and flourish”.

It’s a stance. An attitude we can take on. It’s not a feeling. It’s a decision. A decision about how we will live in the world. How we will cope with the wind, the earthquakes and the fires we face. Father Leech spoke of our need for “an inner core of silence.” It is that internal stance in which the noise is made quiet and we hear the Lord say, “Peace! Be still!” Then the wind within us ceases, the chaos of our desires, fears, and anger dies away. Then we can listen.

The answer to our busyness and fears, to our feelings of inadequacy and being overwhelmed, to our longings for meaning and recognition -- is to seek, “that dark silence” .. ‘that inner core of silence.”

but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence.

If you’d rather watch and listen to it -

This abides,

Brother Robert

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

Correction: I mischaracterized the three weeks we spent together every year. There was a week of spiritual retreat, a week of vacation, and a week of learning. Business/chapter might take place for a short period during any of those weeks.

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It's the Feast of the Transfiguration. “Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.”

The Scriptures don’t tell us why Jesus selected these three to be his inner circle. We can guess it was part of his understanding about how groups function. Martin Thornton saw it as an intentional strategy. Jesus was spending almost all of his time and energy on shaping the twelve. He was training a small, responsive core. A spiritual heartbeat that would bring into being the Church.

Jesus was working a "critical mass" model. [1] Thornton understood the dynamics this way — “Energy from the center pervades the whole.” Jesus appears to have understood that there would be concentric circles: an inner core of Peter, James, and John. Then the rest of the 12 and a few others close in. Then the 70. Then the 5000. He focuses his time and energy on the 12 not the 5000. Thornton took notice that when many turned away because of the "hard sayings," Jesus did not water down the message or go running after them. He gave himself to the formation of the Twelve. [2]

“Our parishes are like that too. An apostolic core offering a measure of spiritual maturity to the parish both in its presence and its vicarious effect. Then there’s most people who attend most Sundays and range from those progressing in faith and practice to those who are uncertain and tentative. Beyond that you get your Christmas and Easter crowd. And then most parishes have a significant number of people who connect vicariously through family or living in the neighborhood of the parish.” (Power from the Center)

Nurturing the inner circle of leadership

So, maybe Jesus had selected Peter, James and John because he saw in them the potential to be the leaders of the church that he was forming. That too makes sense for our efforts in parish churches. That over a period of time, we identify those among the more apostolic members who also have the potential to lead.

In the book A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery: A Practical Theology of the Parish Church Sister Michelle and I suggested a first step in that direction. “Using the Shape of the Parish model as a lens, parishes would do well to build leadership groups from the Stable/Progressing Sacramental and the Apostolic rings. For many parishes, this will require careful attention over time—it can’t be forced. The strategy is that by building the Apostolic core and attending to those of Stable and Progressing faith, over time, the parish will naturally have more potential leaders from these rings.” Too many clergy engage themselves in an attempt to pressure the current vestry into being more Apostolic. It’s a strategy that is likely to generate resistance to spiritual growth.

Accepting the reality of human limitation and sin

Peter, James and John failed Jesus frequently. They didn’t stay awake and pray with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. They abandoning him during the arrest. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times. When walking on water toward Jesus, Peter was overcome with doubt and began to sink. James and John sought positions of power.

In the process of nurturing the apostolic center of the parish, and most especially those who have the ability to lead, there will be frequent setbacks. It will happen again and again. Some may be as extreme as Judas. More commonly there will be jockeying for power and influence, backsliding in spiritual practice, and emotional and physical withdrawal in the face of challenges. All this will also be true for the priest.

Stay with it

The parish priest needs to pray for perseverance and courage in the task of nurturing the center and the leaders. Peter, James and John matured over time. Jesus shaped them in teaching, gentle corrections, common prayer, times of retreat, times of fear and testing. and moments of glory like the Transfiguration.

It's important to keep in mind as we apply this to the parish church that Jesus was with these people all the time for three years. The parish priest does not have the same time available. We need to think about the shaping process in terms of seven or ten or twenty years. That means managing our own impatience and pride.

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. (From Exodus 24, today’s Morning Prayer)

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

[1] There is more on the Critical Mass model in chapter 3 of A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery and chapter 6 of Finding God in All Things: Contemplation, Intercession, and Intervention.

[2] Thornton beloved that the clergy shouldn’t be spending their time and energy catering to nominal members or engaging in what he called "multitudinism"— a preoccupation with numbers. We should attend more to what he called the Remnant, and what in the Shape of the Parish Model I called the Apostolic Center. Grounding them in the practice of the Threefold Rule: Mass, the Daily Office, and personal devotion. Also that we needed to trust the organic process involved. Thornton wrote, “there is nothing so contagious as holiness”.

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For thirty-six years, in two separate parishes, I preached, presided, and officiated a lot, and so, it must be said, I also talked a lot. For several reasons, I’ve not been doing much of any of that lately. My life is different now. The rhythm has changed, which means my habits have had to change as well. I’m learning to pray without being in charge. Of course, my ego needs must be confronted. There’s no need to mutter the words of the Eucharistic Prayer during Mass—the celebrant is doing just fine. The rector at your new parish doesn’t want to hear your liturgical opinions. You don’t always have to talk during Bible Study. It’s OK. You’ll survive.

But there is an issue deeper than all that. There are times in life when God’s still, small voice seems to say, “Can we talk? Just you and me? And by you, I mean you, just you, without the chasuble or the collar. There’s not going to be a lot of structure. There’ll be some silence and some waiting, but let’s see how it goes.” This sounds lovely, but it isn’t always. Change is hard. Thomas Merton thinks it means letting the true self emerge, but Merton also knows that the false self doesn’t surrender without a fight.

Lately, I’ve been reading Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection’s anthology, The Practice of the Presence of God. [1]

Brother Lawrence (1614–1691) was a French Carmelite lay brother, born Nicholas Herman into a poor family, part of France’s peasant class. He was literate but didn’t have a lot of schooling. During the first third of his life, France was embroiled in the Thirty Years War (1618–1648). Brother Lawrence joined the French Army when he was around sixteen and sustained a wound to his leg that would trouble him for the rest of his life. During this time, he had a transformative experience:

The first time I saw Brother Lawrence, he told me that God had granted him an exceptional grace at his conversion. At the time, he was eighteen years old, still living in the world. One winter day, he looked upon a tree stripped of its leaves. Reflecting on this sight, he thought: in time, its leaves will appear anew, followed by flowers, then the tree’s fruit. All of a sudden, he received a profound insight concerning God’s providence and power—a vision that never faded . . . [2]

This experience is something special in the history of Christian spirituality. It took place entirely in nature and it was entirely God-centered. It wasn’t a vision. It didn’t lead to ecstasy. The tree wasn’t a symbol, and it wasn’t God. As he considered the tree, Lawrence, still Nicholas, saw with great clarity that God had created the tree and it had created him and it had created everything else. And this had convinced him that God was always and everywhere present to the creation—intimately and lovingly present. And there’s more: if God is in every moment present to us, sustaining us, keeping us alive, being merciful to us, and loving us, then we, too, are also participants in “the presence,” though we may not know it, since the Spirit must awaken us to the presence of God.

Out of this experience, after several failed experiments, and when he had finally become a Carmelite, Brother Lawrence began to live out the practice of the presence of God while working as cook in the Order’s friary in Paris.

The practice is neither esoteric nor complicated. He describes it this way:

During our work and other deeds . . . and indeed, even more so during our external devotions and spoken prayers, we ought to pause for a moment . . . to adore God in the depths of our heart . . . Since you are aware that God is present . . . in your deeds, that He is in the depths and center of your soul, why then not pause at least from time to time in your outward occupations—even in our vocal prayers—to adore Him inwardly, to praise Him, to beseech Him, to offer Him your heart, and to give Him thanks? [3]

That’s the practice: to develop the habit of turning to God early and often, telling God what’s in your heart, and then pausing to listen, trying to remain open to the presence. For a newly retired priest, such a practice is a gift.

One more thing. For Brother Lawrence, the fruits of the practice can never be hoarded. When grace flows, it tends to overflow. Service happens. Generosity happens. Love happens, and sometimes love means cooking an omelet for someone who’s hungry. Brother Lawrence shares this wisdom:

It is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelet in the pan for the love of God. When it is finished, if I have nothing else to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and adore my God, from whom the grace to make it came, after which I rise happier than a king. [4]

The experience of the presence of God makes us happy, shows us how to be creative, convinces us that we are loved, and teaches us to love. Perhaps this is the better portion that can never be taken away from us (Luke 10:42). — JRS

Father Jay Smith served at Saint Mary’s first as assisting priest, then as assistant, curate, and associate rector between 1998 and 2025. He and his husband, José Vidal, live in Columbus, Ohio.

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

[1] It is an enjoyable thing to learn more about this straightforward, direct, charismatic, awakened mystic and about the ways in which his letters, conversations, maxims, and biographies were collected and transmitted. It is a surprisingly ecumenical story. There are two new English translations of The Practice of the Presence of God that have emerged from the Roman Catholic world, though from quite different ends of the Catholic theological spectrum. There is some good introductory material to be found on these websites:
https://carmelite.com/brother-lawrence-of-the-resurrection/
https://carmelitesofboston.org/history/our-carmelite-saints/brother-lawrence-of-the-resurrection/
It may also be of interest that The Practice of the Presence of God has for many years been a source of strength to Pope Leo XIV: https://angelusnews.com/news/vatican/pope-leo-book-lawrence/
[2] First Conversation with Abbé Joseph de Beaufort, dated 3 August 1666, in The Practice of the Presence of God, Catholic Classics, trans. Matthew K. Minerd from the original MSS, with an introduction and commentary by Fr. Gregory Pine, O.P., and Rebecca Dougherty (West Chester, PA: Ascension Press, 2025), 17.
[3] “Necessary Practices for Acquiring the Spiritual Life,” No. 4, in Ibid., 90.
[4] Abbé Joseph de Beaufort, “The Life of Brother Lawrence: The Ways of Brother Lawrence,” in Ibid., 126.

The picture is public domaine

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The God That Failed: Why Six Great Writers Rejected Communism was published in 1949, I was 5 years old. I didn’t read it then and I still haven’t read it. Maybe I will now. Two of the six writers are familiar to me, Stephen Spender and Richard Wright. Spender knew Auden, Elliott and Hemingway. He became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1936. He was very disturbed by events such as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and the brutal purges brought on by Soviet-backed communists in Spain. He was an idealistic supporter in the 1930s and became an anti-communist during the Second World War. He had become a communist because of his humanism and became disillusioned when he realized that the reality of the movement and Party clashed with individual conscience and creative freedom. Richard Wright wrote Uncle Tom's Children (1938), Native Son (1940), and hundreds of novels, stories and poems. He knew Langston Hughes, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, and Ralph Ellison. He joined the American Communist Party in 1932 and left in 1944. He resisted CP leaders telling him what to write and ended up thinking that the rigid climate of the Party was as suffocating as the racial and intellectual oppression he opposed. Three of his books are on my shelves. I read two of them in the late 60s when I was going through my passion over James Baldwin. Spender and Wright left the Communist movement while remaining supporters of the left.

In The God That Failed: Why Six Great Writers Rejected Communism each writer tells a story of attraction and betrayal. How they were attracted to the Communist movement and party because they saw it as fighting for economic justice, equality and against the fascism of that age. Each had a specific moment when their belief was shattered. The title, “The God that Failed,” was a metaphor for how Communism demanded a religious-like faith from its followers.

I have been involved in left-wing causes most of my life. Even though I was never attracted to the Communist Party I had my own moment of fully expected “betrayal” when I was twelve. In 1956 Hungary there was a spontaneous uprising against the communist government that had been imposed after the end of the War. A peaceful student protest in Budapest escalated into armed conflict after security forces fired on civilians. There was a moment when the free world and the Hungarian people knew freedom and saw the Soviets withdraw from the country. Imre Nagy became Prime Minister, dissolved the one-party communist system, and formed a new government. A few days later thousands of Red Army troops and hundreds of tanks poured into Budapest and crushed the rebellion. I remember watching it on on our black and white television set. My working class family wondered why Eisenhower didn't do something. If I needed any reinforcement, it came in 1968 when Czechoslovakia sought to shape "socialism with a human face" and saw the invasion of 200,000 troops to destroy the experiment.

“The Return of the God That Failed” was posted today in The Free Press by Gary Saul Morson, a Professor at Northwestern University. Morson suggests that there is much to learn about the dynamics involved in the religious claims of current utopian ideologies from the old book of 1949. He writes,

As a Russian specialist, I cannot help wondering: How is this possible? Do these people really have no problem with the history of the ideology they’re claiming? With Joseph Stalin’s Gulag that took the lives of millions, his artificially induced famine that deliberately starved several million peasants, and the secret police’s form of interrogation that routinely included torture? Do they actually want to revive Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution and the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror that claimed the lives of a quarter of Cambodia’s population?

He explores how in the old Communist movement and in much of today’s far left movement we can see “the readiness to give up one’s own judgment…whenever it conflicts with the judgment of the Party. Slogans and formulas became the means to this end, wielding hypnotic power when repeated over and over again, especially in the presence of others doing the same thing.”

It is a kind of echo of Pope Leo’s concern about ideologies that have been noted in other pieces here. “In the end, they always undermine human dignity. “He argued that ideologies reduce the richness of human life to a single idea, offering a false sense of clarity by oversimplifying the world. For the ideologue, this illusion of certainty replaces the ongoing pursuit of truth, and the uncertainty through which faith must guide Catholics.” (in South Bend and the Holy See). The Pope has critiqued the rise of modern, especially Western, ideologies that undermine human rights and religious freedom. He takes a rather standard Christian approach that sees social doctrine, or social ethics, as a ‘way of seeing reality illuminated by faith and reason’ rather than a set of slogans or political programs. The church’s concern is with the nature of God, the dignity of human beings and the virtues and gifts of faith. The task is to base our social teaching on those things rather than a utopian scheme. In his January 2026 'State of the World address, Pope Leo spoke of an ‘Orwellian-style’ language being used in support of ideologies that claim inclusivity while excluding those who do not conform with the ideology. That leads to a condition in which basic freedoms around conscience and speech are restricted. He has cautioned about the immorality of indoctrination because it ‘stifles critical judgment and undermines the sacred freedom of respect for conscience.’” Pragmatism, ideology and faith

Morson seems aligned with the Pope as he compares the old movement with the new one:

There is no such thing as neutral, objective truth, irrespective of political interests. Truth was whatever was useful for the Party to regard as true. “This way of thinking canceled out all experiential objections,” Spender explains: “The thousands of people in prison camps. . . . Do these exist? Whether or not they do, it is bourgeois propaganda to maintain so. Therefore one must deny that there are any slave labor camps in Russia,” and that’s all there is to it. … Today, post-structuralist thought offers a version of this idea: There is no such thing as objectivity, only one or another point of view. So long as what one says suits the right interests, it cannot be a lie.

Morson continues with how the six writers of 1949 “discovered that their greatest loyalty was to the truth, in part because anything else insulted the memory of millions of victims and in part because they found it impossible to sacrifice their identity as writers.” And he close with Richard Wright.

I was most moved by Wright’s loyalty to writing. No demands of social justice could make him false to the honesty that his craft required. “My writing was my way of seeing, my way of living, my way of feeling; and who could change his sight, his sense of direction, his senses?”

For behold, you look for truth deep within me, *
and will make me understand wisdom secretly. (Ps 51)

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

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FROM THE CURATE: ON HER PATH TO SAINT MARY’S

Last week, while unpacking, I found myself rereading Ten Decades of Praise by Sister Mary Hilary, CSM. Published in 1965, the book is “the story of the Community of Saint Mary the Virgin in its first century,” as its subtitle purports. They were founded in 1865 in New York City, when Bishop Horatio Potter received the professions of five women. Today, the Benedictine nuns are the oldest extant religious order founded in the Episcopal Church.

My own path crossed with the Community many years ago, when I found myself Googling the phrase “Episcopal jobs.” The nuns offer both a summer and a yearlong internship at their convent now in Sewanee, Tennessee. I was a college senior and, after a circuitous path towards graduation, the prospect of gardening and praying with some nuns for a year sounded really good. So, on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I moved to Tennessee.

I knew very little about Sewanee. And I hadn’t really known that the Episcopal Church had monks and nuns. In retrospect, my knowledge of monasticism was merely academic. I quickly learned that actually praying the Daily Office and receiving the Eucharist every day was something different. And spending time with Jesus in Word and Sacrament changes you.

It took a month before the rhythms of Saint Mary’s Convent started to feel familiar. I learned in their chapel how to pray in community. Whatever a nun (or intern) might be doing when the Angelus bell rings, she lays down her work so that she might pray with her Sisters. Whatever happens in the nation or world, the nuns pray for the concerns broadcast nightly on their television. Whatever individual circumstances, the religious community gathers and prays anyway. As my nuns taught me, we pray not because we might change God’s mind with our lists of intercessions. We ask and we give thanks, because all things—both sorrow and joy—we offer up and place into Christ’s own sacred heart. We pray in hope that we might be changed by the Spirit who is already and always interceding for us.

Rereading Ten Decades of Praise, I was delighted by a mention of “the little parochial community of The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, New York” (ch. 11). After the death of Father Brown in 1898, the Sisters of the Visitation, BVM who were founded, lived and prayed here at the Mission House voted to join the Community of Saint Mary. The parish’s history published in 1931 notes “the most regrettable lack of information … concerning the Sisters” (The Story of St. Mary’s, p. 46). Yet the legacy of the 19th-century sisterhoods far outlives what little might be found in official records.

In these first few days of my curacy here at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, I have only begun to join in the daily prayers of this congregation. The stones of this parish church bear the physical mark of the religious orders, clergy, and laypeople who have prayed within these walls and who have been sent out everyday to love and serve the world. The voices of the people in choir pews and around the altars are not yet familiar to me—but I know you will be soon. Each of us carries the habits and cadences of the people who taught us how to pray. When I hear the tower bells ring, it is muscle memory from my time at the convent which prompts me to lay down my work and to go pray in community.

I do not yet know how praying together, joining my voice with yours, discerning together how Jesus is calling us to better love our neighbors in this present time and place, will change me and change you. But I know that we will pray together, in the hope that our finite wills here on earth might be changed towards God’s will, as it already is in heaven.

And thanks be to God. — EL

Mother Elis Lui began her curacy this week at Saint Mary’s. Make sure to introduce yourself and welcome her to the parish this Sunday. Visit the staff page on our website to learn more about Mother Elis.

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Romance and God

A line that Patty Greer will sing at the offertory goes: “I touched your hand and I saw God.” On Thursday’s Today Show, Father Andrew Greeley told Bryant Gumbel of the relationship between eroticism and prayer (though not necessarily at the same time!)

Father Greeley has written several novels that are a mix of mystery and love story. In each, he explores the relationship between romance and God. He offers the honeymoon as a metaphor for the Kingdom of Heaven: “it is a time of passionate and recurring celebration, a time of fascination with another person, a time of mystery and pleasure, a time when satiety does not seem possible, a time of challenge and of promise, of hope and wonder at the beginning of each new day…the honeymoon without end in the heavenly city is not merely a reward that awaits us at the end of our pilgrimage, a goal for which we previously seek. It is a real reality present among us, an opportunity for today and tomorrow and the next day. The one who invites us to eternal honeymoon invites and expects us to live with the joy and the hope of happy, fascinated lovers today…. The best way to prepare for death, then, is to carry on our love affair today with God and those She loves with zest and enthusiasm.”

He writes of this love affair as including second chances and new beginnings, as times of fighting and demanding answers of God and each other; he writes of a God who seems to draw with crooked lines. Greeley points to a biblical sorting out of our confusion about our hearts and our bodies. “ Purity of heart does not mean immunity to erotic images or belongings. Life without erotic longings might be easier, but it would certainly be much more dull… Cleanliness of heart, in the sense of Saint Matthews gospel, means, rather integrity of motivation, clear-headedness about the reasons for our behavior, honesty to ourselves about the purposes of our actions, a vigorous resistance to the self deception, and especially, resolute refusal to succumb to the insidious, demoralizing and pervasive vice of envy, or to be intimidated by those who have succumbed to that vice.” Now that is a direction in which to offer your Lent.

He sees our weekly sacrament as a “nuptial Eucharist that celebrates the passionate union between Jesus and his church, between God and his people, between the spirit and us,” and the marriage sacrament as something that “evolves very slowly, beginning the first time a man and a woman catch each other’s eye and culminating in true Sacramento permanence, maybe only after they’ve survived their first major crisis together.”

One way to spend Lent is in a claiming of the longing of your own heart, an exploration of how you love, and a risking of yourself to the embrace of God and all who love you. A way to begin is to listen to today’s music of romance and hear it as God song to us and our song to God; and as a celebration of the desires that God gives us which draw us toward one another.

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

The picture - each year we would have a local artist, create the graphics for a T-shirt that we would sell at the Trenton Jazz Festival. The picture on this article was from 1992. Within the picture, you can see a number of signatures. They are from local jazz musicians and the owners of jazz clubs in the city.

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I've been in a number of conversations recently in which people get very agitated about the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. For the most part in the United States, we are still against antisemitism just as we oppose racism. So it's understandable that some people who are critical of some of Israel's policies and practices would want to distinguish that from antisemitism and the hatred of Jews in general. At the same time, it seems rather obvious that there is some intertwining going on between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

So I decided to be very lazy this afternoon and ask AI Google. Here’s what came back:

Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are distinct concepts with separate historical origins, but they frequently overlap and intertwine in modern political and social discourse. [1]

Understanding how they intersect requires defining each term and examining where the boundaries between political criticism and religious or ethnic prejudice blur.

Core Definitions

To understand their relationship, it is necessary to first separate their foundational meanings:

• Antisemitism is prejudice, hatred, or discrimination against Jewish people because of their religious, cultural, or ethnic identity. It is a centuries-old form of racism.

• Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism, the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland (modern-day Israel). Anti-Zionism can manifest as opposition to Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, its foundational ideology, or its current government policies. [1]

Where the Concepts Intertwine

While it is conceptually possible to criticize Zionism without being antisemitic, the two overlap in several major ways:

• Use of Antisemitic Tropes: Anti-Zionist rhetoric sometimes utilizes ancient antisemitic conspiracy theories. This includes replacing the word “Jews” with “Zionists” while repeating tropes about global manipulation, media control, bloodlust, or excessive financial power. [1]

• Denial of Jewish Self-Determination: Many scholars and organizations argue that denying Jewish people the right to self-determination—while supporting it for other global groups—constitutes a form of discrimination unique to Jews. [1]

• Targeting Diaspora Jews: Antisemitism and anti-Zionism frequently merge when Jewish individuals living outside of Israel (in the US, Europe, or elsewhere) are held collectively responsible for the actions and policies of the Israeli government. This often leads to spikes in antisemitic hate crimes during periods of heightened conflict in the Middle East.

• The “Three D’s” Test: A framework often used to identify when anti-Zionism crosses into antisemitism is the “Three D’s” test developed by Natan Sharansky:

  • Demonization: Portraying Israel or Israelis as inherently evil or cosmic villains.

  • Double Standards: Applying moral and political standards to Israel that are not applied to any other democratic nation in similar circumstances.

  • Delegitimization: Denying Israel’s fundamental right to exist, a standard not applied to other nations with controversial policies or histories. [1, 2, 3]

Where the Concepts Separate

Conversely, critics argue that conflating anti-Zionism entirely with antisemitism is inaccurate and can be used to silence legitimate political debate: [1]

• Legitimate Political Criticism: Like any other sovereign nation, the government of Israel is subject to criticism regarding its human rights record, military actions, and treatment of Palestinians. Such criticisms are a standard part of international political discourse.

• Diverse Jewish Perspectives: Historically and presently, there are Jewish groups who oppose Zionism for varied reasons. For instance, certain ultra-Orthodox Jewish sects oppose a secular Jewish state on theological grounds, believing it should only be established by the Messiah. Other secular or progressive Jews critique Zionism from a universalist or human rights perspective. [1]

• Alternative Political Visions: Some anti-Zionists advocate for a single, binational democratic state shared equally by Jews and Palestinians, rather than the destruction or expulsion of the Jewish population.

Therefore:

In our effort to do social ethics with integrity, I find it useful to have a few guide posts. For example,

1. As a priest, it is not my task to get people to agree with my conclusions about political and cultural issues. In all things I am to point them to the Christ. I want them to take responsibility to inform their conscience and to act upon their conscience.

2. Engaging this work requires a degree of humility and curiosity.

3. “We do not embrace religion primarily to improve our morals, but rather undertake the moral struggle to improve our Prayer. However interdependent the two may become, the end of man is not purity of heart but the vision of God. The best way to attain the former is by aiming purposefully at the latter.” -Martin Thornton

4. I love how James Keifer came to understand Thomas Becket, “The chief moral that I draw from Thomas’s life and death is that when a man seeks to serve God, God graciously accepts that service, even if the man is quite wrong about what it is that God expects of him.”

My own views

I find myself pretty much in agreement with Sam Harris: “I’m not interested in exploring all the ways that Israel has missed the mark—from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corrupt alliance with the far right, to the many crimes committed by settlers in the West Bank, to the deaths of innocent noncombatants in several wars—because none of these failings, however grave, will alter my sense that (1) the ethical difference between Israel and her enemies remains vast, and (2) the global preoccupation with the Jewish state, as though it were the worst villain among nations, is contemptible, being the product of perennial lies and delusions.” Caution - There’s also a lot in Harris’ article I disagree with.

I think Israel needs to be more aggressive in addressing Settler violence. I also think the UK and France should have more free speech and press freedom and that Ukraine should do more about corruption.

I find it helpful to take note of specific instances of injustice while holding in mind the larger context. I think that liberal democracy is the form of government that best nurtures and protects human dignity. I also believe that the world is in a struggle between a totalitarian alliance that includes Russia, Iran and its proxies, North Korea, and China and the liberal democracies and more moderate nations of the world.

Kenneth Kirk reminds us that “worship lifts the soul out of its preoccupation with itself.” In worship we are drawn into a larger reality that may offer us the openness of heart and mind necessary to engage the issues of our time.

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

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In The hate only works if you redefine words I wrote about the history of totalitarian behavior “to manipulate language in an effort to restrict critical thought and enforce ideological compliance. Pope Leo has pointed to the danger in his statements on ideology. He has noted an “Orwellian-style” language being used in support of ideologies that claim inclusivity while excluding those who do not conform with the ideology.” I noted how the words genocide, apartheid, and Zionist have been changed in an effort to claim moral superiority around issues that are complex.

In the The totalitarian mindset I noted how the ideologies of the far-left and far-right strive for “ideological conformity, demanding absolute moral certainty, and utilizing coercive tactics to suppress any dissent from the preferred ideology or narrative. Both are likely to have a binary worldview that tells you who are the oppressors and who are the oppressed or who is the victim and who is the persecutor?. Both have underlying utopian visions that lead to attempts to control language and social behavior in a manner that forces conformity.” I wrote about the policing of language as an effort to create a social reality. Certain words must be used to show you are part of the tribe, e.g., privilege, equity, safe space, undocumented immigrants, genocide, apartheid, globalist. the homeless, parasite, degenerate, dual loyalty.

Sister Michelle and I addressed it in Antisemitism - yes, again “The end result of this avalanche of words is the dehumanization of Jews and the delegitimization of Israel.” We also noted how ‘the dynamics of a mob involve a loss of self-awareness and personal responsibility as individuals become absorbed by the group and emotions and behaviors rapidly spread through the group. A collective mindset forms and individuals are influenced by a herd mentality.”

Pray that He who made the universe may sustain the universe explored How some of this is about how words can cast a spell being used to reduce our anxiety and give us power over others. The piece brought in the work of Charles Williams, one of the Inklings. He wrote of people “engaging in magic and driven by pride or a desire to control. Faith was replacing such grasping for power with a trust in God.” I argued that “we can’t escape the word game going on. The struggle to place a hex upon one another by using or not using certain words in a certain way. It’s in the air we breathe. … We are to simply stop attending to the magic game, to the madness.”

Moral clarity requires humility

This morning I came across Nachum Kaplan reflecting on his dinner party experience where he was among mostly critics of Israel. He wrote,

I walked home reflecting on the strange burden of being pro-Israel in polite society. One is expected to arrive with evidence, history, nuance, empathy, military expertise, legal precision and a detailed alternative strategy for every available course of action. The other side need only arrive with adjectives. Colonial. Genocidal. Apartheid. Brutal. … The ignorance would be less irritating if it were accompanied by humility. Yet ignorance among the educated rarely travels alone. It brings status, vocabulary and the confidence of belonging to a moral majority. Its possessors do not merely lack knowledge. They regard knowledge as faintly disreputable, particularly when it interferes with the emotional clarity of their conclusions.

His experience called to mind what we see online and in the comment sections of the Washington Post and the New York Times whenever there is an article about Israel or antisemitism. A few brave souls try to offer a way to look at the situation in its complexity, offering a couple of paragraphs touching on the history and the current choices in front of us. Almost inevitably the response comes in the form of dozens of individuals with cute names -like ResistingBS and Pirate93 - who offer one sentence responses that include at least “genocide” and “apartheid,” and often Zionist, colonizer, and oppressor. The use of the words are a form of magical thinking and absolute moral certainty.

In The people who know nothing know everything Kaplan wrote, “I knew the evening was in trouble when the hostess described the table as ‘a safe space for difficult conversations.’ … “A safe space for difficult conversations is usually a space in which everyone is free to express precisely the same opinion, provided they do so using slightly different therapeutic vocabulary. Disagreement is welcome in the way vegetarians are welcome at a barbecue: theoretically, warmly, and without any intention of accommodating them.” He tells us who was at the dinner — a commercial leases lawyer with strong views on the laws of armed conflict, a storyteller, a failed documentary producer, a teacher of postcolonial literature with a skill for converting adjectives into accusations, and “a surgeon, who knew nothing about Israel but knew it with clinical confidence.” He describes the conversation in some detail. It's painful and fun to read. - HERE. I'll just give a taste of it -

“What is it that you don’t understand?” I asked.
“All of it,” she said.

“The occupation. The apartheid. The genocide. The colonialism.”
Four accusations, delivered with the rhythmic confidence of a wine list.

“Those are different claims,” I said.
“Are they?”
“Yes. Words retain separate meanings even when discussing Israel.”

Julian smiled. “I think what Nadia means is that the entire structure is indefensible.”
“What structure?”
“The structure of oppression.”

“Could you be more specific?”
He leaned back. He had expected moral submission, not follow-up questions

Humility, worship and listening

Saint Augustine said, “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.”

In Anglican Social Theology: Renewing the vision today is an encouragement to avoid utopian solutions and show humility and modesty. “We live in the interim between the resurrection and the last things, in the dynamic tensions between realizations of the kingdom of God and the persistence of sin. Grace is at work not only in the Church but within the common life of society, making for healing in human relationships. But we must recognize our continuing entanglement in sin, notably in the pursuit of self-interest by persons and especially groups. We therefore have to avoid utopian solutions and show humility and modesty.” This is an acceptance that despite our expertise or experience, we do not possess a monopoly on wisdom.”

Kenneth Kirk reminds us that “worship lifts the soul out of its preoccupation with itself.” In worship we are drawn into a larger reality that may offer us the openness of heart and mind necessary to engage the issues of our time. A process that offers this odd twist seen by Martin Thornton, “we do not embrace religion primarily to improve our morals, but rather undertake the moral struggle to improve our Prayer. However interdependent the two may become, the end of man is not purity of heart but the vision of God. The best way to attain the former is by aiming purposefully at the latter.”

Then, of course, there is the need to listen. Something missing in Kaplan's dinner party. We are called not to the façade of listening, but to listen with the ear of our heart says Saint Benedict.

I’ll end with pointing us to one way of listening that may remind us that “we do not possess a monopoly on wisdom.” This morning’s Tangle offers an invitation to humility and listening in Fighting resumes in Iran. It’s Tangle’s usual presentation of articles from the left and the right and the editor’s own take on an issue. It’s an easy way to expose ourselves to a range of thinking.

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

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I recently heard a wonderful story of how a priest struggled with how to proclaim the gospel and not fall into the trap of making it a proclamation of his political preferences. He wasn't offering some perfect pathway. What he did was acknowledge the inclination we have as we seek an internal harmony and consistency and end up aligning the gospel with a political ideology, be a conservative or progressive. He did offer one specific spiritual practice — hang into the relationship.

I then wondered, what practices do I think can help us stay grounded in Christian faith and practice? Here’s my list. I’d urge you to not adopt or argue with my list but begin by writing out your own list of practices and stances.

• Take a stance of curiosity and humility. Read widely and include intelligent thinkers who see things differently than you.

• Begin with what is concrete and inherent while avoiding abstract and false choices. There's always the temptation to make our decision making simple by creating a hierarchy. For example, I'm a Christian first and then an American. That was the hierarchy of the priest in the above story. He happened to be taking what we think of as the more progressive or liberal side in a situation. The problem is that many conservatives have the same hierarchy. I'm a Christian first and then an American. The whole process sounds a lot like the Christ and Culture discussions that were popular in the 50s and 60s.

  What is concrete and inherent for all of us is that things are a tangle within. Richard Holloway (one-time Presiding Bishop of Scotland) reminded us that piety was “A kind of fondness or love, a recognition of what you owe the land that bred you,” It is a duty, a response, to your parents, your nation and God. Piety calls us out of ourselves to a wider love. That movement is one of virtue. It is the reality of our spiritual development that we might love our mother many years before it occurs to us to love God. And that process is the work of God, it is the result of the nudging of the Holy Spirit within the child. Can it be misdirected? Of course. But fleeing to the artificial construct of hierarchy will not save us. We are saved by Jesus Christ.

• Use the words and stances of our faith and avoid the slogans of ideology. Pope Leo has cautioned “that true freedom of expression requires words to remain tethered to reality and truth. He warned that when language is manipulated to fit ideologies, it loses its objective meaning.” [1] For many of us one way is to use a variety of models, theories and quotes to ground us and orient us. For example, the Benedictine tradition invites us to consider situations in relationship to the Promise. In the Order of the Ascension it takes this form: “To seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things and circumstances of life through stability, obedience and conversion of life.” I find Esther de Waal’s language useful, “For stability means that I must not run away from where my battles are being fought, that I have to stand still where the real issues have to be faced. Obedience compels me to re-enact in my own life that submission of Christ himself, even though it may lead to suffering and death, and conversatio, openness, means that I must be ready to pick myself up, and start .all over again in a pattern of growth which will not end until the day of my final dying. And all the time the journey is based on that Gospel paradox of losing life and finding it. ..my goal is Christ. (Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict)

  I am seeking obedience, stability and conversion of life rather than some political stance that will make me feel good. I am not saved by finding the correct position on ICE, immigrants, guns, war, and climate change.

• Act on the truth that “worship lifts the soul out of its preoccupation with itself.’ The phrase comes from Kenneth Kirk. [2] It’s a standard Anglican approach to life and social ethics. Kirk, Underhill, and Thornton turn things upside down. Thornton put it this way, “we do not embrace religion primarily to improve our morals, but rather undertake the moral struggle to improve our Prayer. However interdependent the two may become, the end of man is not purity of heart but the vision of God. The best way to attain the former is by aiming purposefully at the latter.” (From Pastoral Theology: A Reorientation). Our confusion about this is illustrated in the practice so many have adopted in quoting Saint Irenaeus of Lyons. We love to say, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive."
  The full, original passage from his 2nd-century treatise “Against Heresies” reads, "The glory of God is a man fully alive; and the life of man consists in beholding God." So, mixing Kirk into it we might say, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and the life of humanity is the vision of God.” We too often make use of the part that fits with the passing culture and set aside what is more complete and true. [3]

  All of that is to suggest that our first priority is to respond to the Spirit’s nudging us to the life of worship and prayer. Engage the rhythms of the Prayer Book Pattern, the Threefold Rule of Prayer. The weekly and daily heartbeat that becomes the ground of our reflection. It is in that process that we might faithfully engage the political and cultural struggles of our time.

That’s my list. At least for today. What’s your list?

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

Also see Brother Poulson’s “The Book of Common Prayer: Against the Algorithm” in the Living Church.

[1] It is standard totalitarian behavior to manipulate language in an effort to restrict critical thought and enforce ideological compliance. Pope Leo has pointed to the danger in his statements on ideology. He has noted an “Orwellian-style” language being used in support of ideologies that claim inclusivity while excluding those who do not conform with the ideology. He asserts that this leads to a condition in which basic freedoms around conscience and speech are restricted. He cautioned that true freedom of expression requires words to remain tethered to reality and truth. He warned that when language is manipulated to fit ideologies, it loses its objective meaning. (See Pope Leo’s address to the diplomatic corps at the Vatican) The Pope’s concern is with today’s manipulation of language. The totalitarian practice has much longer roots. For example, we can look at the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Both systems manipulated language and successfully altered how citizens perceived reality. Violent language was sanitized. Human ideals such as freedom, democracy, and justice were inverted. Language was changed to dehumanize targeted groups, shifting the perception of human beings into vermin or biological threats. For example, the Nazis routinely used terms like Untermenschen (sub-humans) and compared targeted demographics—specifically Jewish people—to diseases, parasites, or vermin. George Orwell wrote of this approach to language in his 1984. (also see The totalitarian mindset) [From The hate only works if you redefine words]

[2] The first practical question for Christian ethics is…How is disinterestedness, unselfishness, to be attained? Once grant that moralism, or formalism, cannot bring the soul nearer to it, and there remains only one way—the way of worship. Worship lifts the soul out of its preoccupation with itself and its activities and centres its aspirations entirely on God… K.E. Kirk, The Vision of God, James Clarke & Co. Ltd, abridged edition, 1991.

[3] We see the same process in what many do with Donne’s "No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were, As well as if a manor of thine own or of thy friend's were. Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee" Immediately before the famous quote, Donne argues that baptism joins every individual into this collective body. Consequently, any life event, such as death, impacts the whole, making humanity interconnected. The quote is part of his reflection on the interconnectedness of humanity within the universal body of the church.

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The Shape of the Parish Model

This section is from Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church

A one page PDF of the Model

A Critical Mass Model The “Shape of the Parish” is a critical mass theory. Critical mass theories are used by many Organization Development practitioners. The model suggests building the level of commitment, competence and emotional maturity at the center of the organization so that it grounds the system in a mission orientation and an organizational culture that supports the mission. The grounding then is enfleshed; made real in the lives of men and women. It’s in the habits of people rather than statements of leaders. Critical mass models draw the attention of leaders away from obsessing about “fixing” the problems and dysfunction at the edges and toward building the center. We can all too easily find our attention drawn toward the “difficult people” or those who constantly demand personal attention. A critical mass model suggests that we give much more of our time and energy to developing the center. …

A Caution: This particular model needs to be used with care. More than all the others it has the potential of setting off in some people either judgment toward others or defensiveness about themselves. Leaders need to consider limiting its use to people of a mature enough faith that it will be used as a tool in spiritual and congregational development. Elements of the Shape of the Parish The model is based on observable characteristics, specific patterns of behavior and attitudes, connected to various forms of faith and practice. Parish leaders familiar with the Church’s tradition of spirituality, and present in a particular parish for several years, are usually able to make reasonable guesses about where members are in relation to this model. Caution needs to be taken in the process of making such assessments. Leaders need a stance of spiritual guidance and pastoral oversight rather than judgment and control. It is also important not to become literal in the use of the characteristics. Think of them as pointing in a direction: a person may fit a form of faith and practice without all the characteristics being present, and there are characteristics not mentioned that will be related to a particular stage.

• Apostolic Faith - People of Apostolic Faith are those who reliably live a grounded, mature faith and practice. …

• Sacramental Faith - They are there on Sunday! They are most of the people in any parish. They are regular in their participation because at some level they understand the notion of sacrament. They behaviorally function as though “outward and visible” things such as the Church and the Eucharist can convey inward grace. They may have developed, or be in the process of developing, a sense of their vocation and gifts. … This form of faith has its own phases. One way of expressing this is to think of those gathered on most Sundays as being primarily part of one of five groups: Tentative, Immature, Experimenting, Stable, and Progressing.

• Christmas and Easter - These people are there on Christmas and/or Easter, possibly another special occasion or two. People in this stage do not accept “Sacramental” faith.

• Vicarious Faith - People with this approach to faith do not attend worship; they are usually not members, but they may see the parish as “their parish.” They may be directly or indirectly influenced by the parish’s life. Their connection with the parish is through geography, history, family, friends, or events.

General Comments on Nurturing Growth

1. The core pastoral strategy is to accept people where they are and to invite them to move beyond where they are. 2. Individual growth often comes in leaps (e.g., a person may move quickly from Experimenting to Progressing to Apostolic Faith). 3. Foundations are important. At times there is a desire to grow, or there may be deep feeling about God and/or the Church. Such feelings can be the pastor’s opening to invite the person into a setting where the needed base is offered.

What is the shape of your parish?

Here is an exercise for assessing your parish. My experience is that it provides the base you will need to understand and use the model. Please follow the steps below:

1. Using the circles below, in circle #2 put your parish’s average adult Sunday attendance. Be sure to include all acts of corporate worship from Saturday evening through Sunday evening. For the most part these are the people you see frequently and regularly. They may range from weekly to every few weeks in their participation in the Eucharist.

2. In circle #3, first put the parish’s adult attendance at Christmas or Easter. Then subtract the number you have placed in circle #2. Put the result in circle #3. This makes up those people who relate to the Church primarily through the major holidays; also possibly through family occasions such as baptisms, weddings and burials.

3. For circle #4, you will not place a number here. Instead, make a few specific notes of ways in which people relate to the parish but don’t ever attend the regular corporate worship of the Church. It may be people who are connected through family who are members or because they are part of a group that makes use of the property or are in some way served by the parish. You may be able to name some of these people.

4. In circle #1, write the number of those that you see as having a deep, mature faith and practice.

5. Then subtract that number from what you have in circle #2. Place that number in circle #2 in place of the earlier number.

   

The section above is from Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church

A one page PDF of the Model

Power from the Center pervades the whole

This comes from chapter 3 of a Wonderful and Sacred Mystery: A Practical Theology of the Parish Church. That chapter explores four related ways of considering the parish: Martin Thornton’s Remnant Theory and Robert Gallagher’s Shape of the Parish model, are Ascetical theology models. The third is Robert Gallagher’s Critical Mass Model. This can be used in both secular and church settings, and also lends itself readily to thinking about subgroups, such as vestries. The fourth model is that of the Parish-as- Institution. This could conceptually be used with any organization. There is also a discussion of C.S. Lewis’s warning against the danger of pursuing membership in the “Inner Ring.”

In what’s below we are focusing on one issue within the Shape of the Parish Model.

The Shape of the Parish model suggests a pastoral strategy: attend to all rings, nurture the overall shape, but tilt the parish’s climate, tone, and resources toward the center. In all of this, the assumption is that we accept everyone where they are and invite them to go deeper. Ideally, the parish organizes itself in such a way that leaders establish processes, structures, and climate that facilitate the development of a healthy shape. “When a parish has a healthy and productive Shape you see a definite movement. People are drawn into a deeper relationship with God and the church. There is a sense of spiritual movement in the parish. The Apostolic Faith percentage increase. Those of Apostolic Faith serve others by the example of their prayerfulness, humility, and openness. The sacramental and apostolic life of the parish draws the C&E and Vicarious. This process of drawing is evangelization.” (FromFill All Things)

The “drawing” effect is more likely to occur in parishes that understand the business they’re in and have arranged parish life in such a way that there is a clear understanding of the pathways of grace open to us. The drawing effect is primarily a result of the Holy Spirit’s movement in our lives. It is also true that we must take responsibility for our response to that movement and structure parish life so that we can better cooperate with it. We see the primary things parishes can do in this area as (1) continued and careful attention to the Sunday morning experience, (2) development over time of parish leaders mostly from the Stable or Progressing Sacramental and Apostolic rings, (3) nurturing the total rhythm of prayer in the parish, and (4) more formal kinds of adult formation. …

Using the Shape of the Parish model as a lens, parishes would do well to build leadership groups from the Stable/Progressing Sacramental and the Apostolic rings. For many parishes, this will require careful attention over time—it can’t be forced. The strategy is that by building the Apostolic core and attending to those of Stable and Progressing faith, over time, the parish will naturally have more potential leaders from these rings. Further, to the extent those in the inner ring are fed spiritually by the parish, they may have more energy available to attend to its Institutional needs (but see below for the dangers of confusing Institutional needs with the Body of Christ). As long as the other elements are in place, drawing leaders from the inner rings becomes largely an organic process. It does, though, require clergy to be intentional about recruitment and about establishing norms over time for leadership roles.

The above comes from chapter 3 of a Wonderful and Sacred Mystery: A Practical Theology of the Parish Church. One page PDF Shape of the Parish Model

The story of every parish should be a love story … One possible definition for a parish is that it is God’s way of meeting the problems of the unloved. This meeting between God and the unloved, the unwanted, takes place in the preaching of the Word, in the Sacraments, in the social life of the parish made possible by the climate of acceptance which is engendered by those who have been baptized and confirmed in the Catholic faith. One of the main tasks of the parish priest is to train the militant core of his parishioners in such a way that they understand as fully as possible the true nature of a Christian parish. Kilmer Myers in “Light the Dark Streets”

This abides,

Sister Michelle, OA & Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life Order of the Ascension

Also see Brother Poulson’s “The Book of Common Prayer: Against the Algorithm” in the Living Church.

Other core models

The Renewal - Apostolate Cycle It is simply what happens

The Christian Life Model Worship - Doctrine - Action

The Benedictine Promise “A binding by which freedom might be found”

In Your Holy Spirit Adult formation and parish development resources

Maps & Models: There is no one model that will serve all situations

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It would be helpful if you have read Immigration: part 1 and Immigration: part 2. Yesterday we took a related trip with How are we to talk about America?

In Part 2 I closed by mentioning, “Two ways forward: the worship of God and reflective thinking in the presence of God.” In “Immigration: part 3” we’ll look at how theories and models in aesthetic theology and organization development offer us a way to manage our feelings and exercise self-control in a time of intense passion.

Independence Hall

Fifty years ago I was still living in Philadelphia. I was the new vicar of St. Elisabeth’s in South Philadelphia. The city and federal governments had spruced up the area around Independence Hall. A new visitor’s center had been opened. I loved walking through the colonial buildings and gardens of the restored area. I had been there before as an eleven year old child on an elementary school class trip. My last visit to the sacred hall was in October of 2018. Sister Michelle and I had a contract to work with the vestry of Trinity, Wilmington, DE. We decided to piggyback in a trip to Philadelphia. We had dinner with my family, said the Daily Office at St. Mark’s on Locust Street, attended mass at St. Clement’s and went to Independence Hall. There was a Federal government shut-down at the time and we feared that the trip would miss out on the history we had hoped for. But the shut-down ended on our last day in the city and we did get to go to Independence Hall. I remember the tour guide talking about how Abraham Lincoln’s body lay in state in the Assembly Room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. A few years earlier, Michelle and I had gone to the Gettysburg Battlefield and stood at the place where Lincoln delivered his address.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The Church and Immigration

I’d like us to explore several theories about change in social systems. Along the way I want to take note of the church’s stance toward America and its approach to influencing American policy on immigration. Caution - it will be a broad sweep that offers you an opportunity to engage the issue. I’ll be raising questions and wondering about possibilities more than proposing answers.

There are two things that help our self-control: the worship of God and reflective thinking in the presence of God. Both can lift “the soul out of its preoccupation with itself.” In this piece we are exploring how using models and theories from ascetical theology and organization development can help us, maintain self control, manage our emotions, as we seek ways to improve the situation. This is a form of reflective thinking.

Appreciative inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a change management approach that identifies and amplifies an organization’s existing strengths, core values, and past successes to build a positive future. Rather than problem-solving by mostly focusing on deficits, AI looks at what the system has done “really well” over a period of time? Appreciative inquiry has become very popular in many churches. In Shaping the Parish, we help participants look at how they can improve parish life and work by taking an appreciative stance that focuses attention on what the parish already does well, what its gifts and strengths are - and by building upon that. Expanding what we do well. It’s a bit odd that so many who love to use an appreciative stance in their parish will not use it in regard to their nation.

Information on AI: A PDF Appreciative exploration of the parish Videos -What is Appreciative Inquiry? (10 minutes), Appreciative Inquiry: A Conversation with David Cooperrider (4 minutes), A Skeptic’s Guide to Appreciative Inquiry (13 minutes), 4D Appreciative Inquiry (5 minutes)

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

Address of Pope Leo XIV Accepting the Liberty Medal July 3, 2026. A PDF

The Pope’s address was warm and appreciative. He grounded his comments in the values of the United States and the Christian faith. He spoke “as a son of this great country,”

From our youth, most of us have admired the eloquence of those words, with their resounding appeal to the law of nature and to nature’s God as the basis of their assertion that all men and women are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. While couched in the language of the Enlightenment, that claim is ultimately grounded in an understanding of the human person inspired by the great biblical vision of man and woman being created in the divine image.

In these past two-hundred and fifty years, for so many peoples throughout the world, it was the firm resolve to achieve the noble vision of the nation’s founders that made America a byword for freedom, as the country opened its doors to successive waves of immigrants, enabling them and their children to play their part in shaping the future of the nation. It was this same love of freedom that inspired the United States, in the darkest hours of the last century, at the time of the two world wars, to look beyond itself and, at great sacrifice, to champion the cause of freedom beyond its own borders.

I join you in asking God’s blessings upon America’s future, that the lofty ideals enshrined at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence may continue to guide the flourishing of the nation in unity, justice and peace.

Unity, justice and peace — He didn’t separate the three goals and so many do in pursuit of some political agenda. Some place unity and peace above justice. Others may chant “no justice no peace.” In a prayerful sentence he linked the future with the past. We might contrast that with the stance, from some in the church, that dwells on the nation’s sins with a suffocating moral clarity that invites us to an eternal Lent.

A danger for some segments of the church is to define ourself by mirroring the Progressive or MAGA tendency to focus on the problems as we seek some perfect country of our dreams or our nostalgia. We insist on an acknowledgment of all the sins and see ourselves as holding the nation accountable —-a kind of eternal Lent. Instead of a liturgy that includes a brief acknowledgment and confession of sin embedded in hope, mercy, and thanksgiving, we turn our life into a liturgy of endless lament. The danger is that we become comfortable with the spiritual practices of scourging and scolding.

As we move through other models and theories we might want to notice how the Pope’s stance and words appear to lean into approaches to change that offer hope and effectiveness.

Adaptation - identity and integrity

Whether you are looking at the question of immigration - from the standpoint of being a parish leader or as a staff person in a nonprofit organization that deals with immigration or as an public servant in city, state or federal government - you are going to be dealing with the tension between the need to adapt to the environment and situation you face and a desire or need to maintain the identity, integrity, and integration of your system.

In Part 1 we noted how “the waves of immigration have been shaped by changing global political and economic conditions, the human longing for freedom and safety, and changing federal policies. This is a story of an ongoing pendulum swinging between open-door welcome and strict nativist restriction. Influenced by the nation’s economic needs, foreign crises, and shifting racial/ethnic attitudes, the U.S. has redefined who belongs and who is excluded.” Sometimes adaptation had to do with opening the doors and at other times it involved closing the doors in response to social anxiety.

“The Episcopal Church champions and advocates for humane policy towards migrants because of our belief that every human being is a child of God and must be treated with dignity.” That’s the opening of the “Episcopal Church Statement on Immigration Reform.” We are upholding our integrity, identity, and integration. It's a statement of institutional leaders. However, it is the people-in-the-room, many of them baptized Christians, who make the decisions in government, corporate and nonprofit institutions. That setting inevitably brings people into the call for both adaptation and institutional integrity and identity. And that means pragmatic solutions that will not conform to our idealized visions.

The Change formula

We can use The Change Formula in assessing the reality of our plans to improve the immigration picture. Is there — in public opinion, in Congress, in your workplace, in the parish — an adequate level of dissatisfaction, a vision or sense of direction, and clarity about the first steps? Those three things must be strong enough to overcome the resistance in the system. In public opinion there is clearly dissatisfaction felt by most Americans, e.g., concern about the treatment of undocumented/illegal immigrants, anxiety about crimes committed by a few of them, a perceived lack of discipline and training of some law-enforcement personnel, and a fear of social disruption because of the high numbers involved. However, we also appear to be lacking a sense of direction and clarity about the first steps.

How exciting it would be for the church’s institutional leaders to bring together the baptized people-in-the-room who are in positions to actually make broad political and social welfare decisions about immigration. Invite them to construct the elements possible directions, and initial steps.

The Benedictine Promise

It's a standard bit of organization development and management thinking to acknowledge that institutional leaders are always engaged in the tension between stability and change. As a consultant, I've worked with a number of nonprofit organizations struggling with that dynamic. I think it was in my work with WomenRising in Jersey City that I realized that the Benedictine Promise was a useful resource in my thinking. The management of the dynamic called for obedience — listening to one another in a respectful manner, listening to the best values of the nation or of our particular organization. It's rather obvious that in relation to immigration, we are having a hard time listening to one another. The Pope’s address yesterday is a good example of listening to the deeper values of the nation and the church in regard to immigration - “In these past two-hundred and fifty years, for so many peoples throughout the world, it was the firm resolve to achieve the noble vision of the nation’s founders that made America a byword for freedom, as the country opened its doors to successive waves of immigrants, enabling them and their children to play their part in shaping the future of the nation.”

Change strategies

Those desiring to improve the immigration picture in the United States might find it useful to consider a variety of change strategies. All too frequently we get into a rut. In the early 1960s, I was deeply involved in the civil rights movement as a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). I went through experiential training with the Quakers in nonviolent civil disobedience, and participated in numerous picket lines and large demonstrations. It was external pressure from the outside on governments and organizations. And it clearly played a role in the passing of civil rights legislation and the behavior of a number of institutions. Later in that decade I was drawn into situations where other strategies were used. I worked with an industrial mission that did action-research on the role of the laity within the institutions of society (internal change agentry). I was part of meetings in which the People's Fund was created as an alternative to the United Fund (alternative organizations). I also worked with the council of churches on public policy and in an ecumenical training agency (education).

PDF on Organizational Change Strategies

Inside - outside

In the end, it is the social ethics of the-people-in-the-room that make the deals. Pope John XXIII had this in mind when in Pacem in Terris 1963) he noted that it is not enough for Christians “to be illumined by the heavenly light of faith and to be fired with enthusiasm for a cause; they must involve themselves in the work of [every] institution, and strive to influence them effectively from within.” The effective use of our influence in the sphere in which we find ourselves was the task. “Every day provides a more important, a more fitting enterprise to which they must turn their hands—industry, trade unions, professional organizations, insurance, cultural institutions, the law, politics, medical and recreational facilities, and other such activities.”

In all the churches there is a tendency on the part of institutional leaders - bishops, executive councils, parish priests, seminary faculty - to pronounce what the church thinks about an issue like immigration. Sometimes the statements are invitations to improvement and other times they sound more like prophetic scolding. It seems that these leaders often forget that the church is much larger than their meeting rooms. It is the baptized, scattered throughout the institutions of society, the-people-in-the-room, who must make the difficult decisions of doing what is possible under the circumstances that exist.

For more information on the formal position of various religious groups see - Immigration and social ethics

Self-control in a time of high passion

Managing emotions during intense political times is incredibly challenging. Political passion can set off our brain's threat response, making rational self-control difficult. Many of us have become caught up in identity politics causing us to see everything as deeply connected too our core values and personal identity. Social media algorithms amplify outrage in order to maximize user engagement and profit. The high stress involved forces the mind into forms of binary thinking, i.e., “us versus them” and “good and evil” thinking. Also often there is a tendency to see only two possibilities.

Our brain gets hijacked as perceived threats activate the amygdala, bypassing the logical prefrontal cortex. It’s a serious issue for the young. Political climates are incredibly emotionally charged, and managing reactions to these passions is a common struggle, especially prior to our 30s. During childhood and adolescence, the emotional and danger-sensing center (amygdala) develops much faster than the logical, rational center (prefrontal cortex). This creates a neurological imbalance where the logical brain cannot easily regulate emotional responses.

There are various strategies for maintaining self-control that may be useful: place limits on your media consumption, learn to notice body signals, develop the practice of pausing before responding, and seeking common ground in shared values rather than specific policies and practices and nurture our long-term bonds over winning the argument of the passing moment.

And for the Christian there are two things that help our self-control: the worship of God and reflective thinking in the presence of God. Both can lift “the soul out of its preoccupation with itself.”

From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice; and from all want of charity,

Good Lord, deliver us.

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Celebration of Independence Day (BCP)

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life Order of the Ascension

Also see Brother Poulson’s “The Book of Common Prayer: Against the Algorithm” in the Living Church.

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Now Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, so he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. (From Numbers 24:1 today’s Morning Prayer)

Tomorrow or maybe later next week I'll get around to writing “Immigration: part 3.” One element of that will be taking models and theories from ascetical theology and organization development and running them up against how we talk about America. Given what we know from those models and theories are some narratives and descriptions more likely to improve things? More likely to resolve the current immigration struggle in a way that is good-enough-for-now?

In preparation for that I’m going to share some statements from the last few days as illustrations grounded in a range of narratives, feelings, and thoughtfulness. I'm going to jump-the-gun a bit and suggest just one model that you might use as a tool for reflection as you read these statements. It’s based on John Gardner’s Cornell University address in 1968. At the time Gardner was the chair of the National Urban Coalition. earlier he had served in President Johnson's cabinet as Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

That day he spoke about how society needed people who would be loving critics of the institutions in which they worked and about the choices we have in how we engage our institutions. He saw our institutions as caught in a savage crossfire between uncritical lovers and unloving critics. On the one side, those who loved their institutions tending to love their rigidities more than their promise and shielding them from life-giving criticism. On the other side, there was a breed of critics without love, skilled in demolition but untutored in the arts by which human institutions are nurtured and strengthened and made to flourish. So we have a model, a triangle. (More on Loving Critics)

As you read the statements, do you find them to be expressions of loving critics, uncritical lovers, or unloving critics? Where would you put the person’s statement within that triangle? And are there ways you might modify the statement toward that of a loving critic?

Statements on America’s 250th

One rector put it this way, “It is always good to remember that we can hold two completely opposite feelings at the same time. We can celebrate the beauty and diversity of America, as we mourn both the violence and evil actions toward Indigenous people. We can embrace the greatness of America that has been an inspiration to immigrants for generations, while also grieve the treatment, both historically and currently, of refugees and immigrants. We can enjoy fireworks, music, and potluck barbeques, while also remembering with soberness and prayer those who are no longer with us from death from serving in the military, as first responders, or violence at home or in our neighborhoods.”

Darializa Avila Chevalier, who won a New York congressional primary has made a series of comments on America. She described the United States as "a f*g disgrace" and asserted that the country is "occupied native land.” "I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me". She labeled President Joe Biden a "rapist" and "war criminal," critiqued Senator Bernie Sanders for "liberal Zionism," and posted "F--k Kamala Harris." (We should note that she has since then said this, “I deeply regret tweets I posted between 2018 and 2022 attacking establishment Democrats. This is me taking accountability, and I’m happy to model accountability”. She added that she would not use much of that language today, emphasizing that she now believes it is “deeply important to use unifying, accessible, and kind language that fosters empathy and understanding”)

In today’s The Free Press’s email introduction to a series of articles on America, “Two hundred fifty years ago, 56 men gathered in Philadelphia and signed a document that changed the world—a declaration that all men are created equal, endowed with inalienable rights, and entitled to govern themselves. Amid all the gloom and division that often dominates the headlines today, it’s worth remembering this: Our Founding Fathers would be astounded at the country this has become. They would also, we think, be proud that the foundation they built has been so enduring. That the democracy they first envisioned has been copied around the world. That America has been blessed by great statesmen and survived incompetent leaders. It has shaken off the scourge of slavery and witnessed the triumph of the civil rights movement and the defeat of the Nazis. The America they created is today a land of 342 million people bound by a set of common values and self-evident truths that the Founders first put forth in that sacred document.”

A Brit, now an American citizen, Andrew Sullivan wrote, “And then the real America showed up. Not the psycho president, but the American people. A small-town sheriff in Texas helped a group of Swedes in a broken-down RV, and another Texan invited fans from France and Poland to his 30-acre property for a cowboy tour. Zoom in on Lawrence, Kansas, where 300 Americans waited in the rain for hours in the night to cheer the arrival of the Algerian team. This is America:

Lawrence and the University of Kansas have welcomed the Algerian team and its fans with cheers of “Rock Chalk Algeria” [the KU chant is usually “Rock Chalk Jayhawk”]. Lawrence-based artist Stan Herd created earthwork art of the Algerian flag. What really put it over the top for me was learning that a KU band learned the Algerian national anthem, “Kassaman,” to play at the national team’s open practice last Thursday.

And it’s always a joy when Europeans express the same amazement I felt all those decades ago as I first discovered this wonderland. “Everyone’s just so nice,” said one, which is what every relative who has ever visited me always says about America. Always. The openness and friendliness, the mind-bending hospitality: it’s a truly new world.

In an Episcopal News Service we have, For America 250, Episcopal leaders reject nostalgia, lift up church’s prophets - “This year, as the nation celebrates America 250, Heyd and other Episcopal leaders say the anniversary is a time to examine the nation’s and the church’s origin stories; a time for truth-telling and accountability, and for the church and the nation to live into their founding principles of liberty, justice, equality and respect for the dignity of every human being. ‘There’s no time better than this time for the church to claim who it is as church and to be that voice that holds the nation accountable to its lofty vision of appreciating the equality and dignity of every human being,’ the Rev. Kelly Brown Douglas, Washington National Cathedral’s canon theologian, said. …Brown Douglas says the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence is an opportune time to do some rip-the-Band-Aid truth-telling, especially when it comes to acknowledging that both the country and The Episcopal Church suffer from what she calls a two-narrative problem. ‘On the one hand, the Declaration of Independence has this lofty vision of a nation in which we respect the equality of all men – and men was what they meant, white property[-owning] men – who have inalienable rights for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” Brown Douglas said. On the other hand, she said, “this freedom is built upon the exploitation – and that is an understatement – of enslaved African bodies. …There are some over 500 million or more enslaved persons at this time, [including] Black people who fought in the American Revolution and yet were returned to slavery afterward.’”

The Washington Post Asked 25 Americans how they feel about their country. I’ll lift just a few of the comments.

• “I feel like a lot of people see an issue with how diverse America is, but I feel like that’s one of the good things about it. ... I like America enough to want to stay here but I really, really wish our politicians, and sorry but our president was a lot less racist.”

• “Being able to go after what I’ve been going after, especially with me wanting to pursue military academies. ... Just knowing that I can do that because not everybody in other countries is able to do that, especially as a woman.”

• “My parents came to America and immigrated here and they struggled a lot, right? They worked very hard to be able to have their child one day be able to pursue education. ... America had a place for my parents, has a place for me and I hope to develop that and maybe give back to the nation one day.”

• “The ideals of the Founding Fathers for freedom for everyone, even though everyone wasn’t originally included, but that’s the ideal. Until recently I wouldn’t have thought that I was a true patriot or American. I was just a person, a citizen of the world. But lately it’s just hit home to me that I really believe those ideals. So if anyone’s a true American or a true patriot, I am she.”

Larissa Phillips traced her own arc—from a progressive Brooklynite uneasy about her kids reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to a farmsteader flying giant Stars and Stripes over her land upstate. “Yes, America is imperfect,” she writes. “But so is everything: family and work and life. This is my country—the only one I’ve got—and I believe in it.”

I’ll close with a comment on an article in Episcopal News Service that began with this regarding how parishes will celebrate the 4th, “Many events won’t shy away from acknowledging the United States’ imperfect history.”

I’ll make two points. First, the actual content of the article was mostly about fairly traditional celebrations of America. So the lead-in was misleading. Second, I've found myself thinking this. — Is there some country that has a perfect history? Some perfect country somewhere. When Bishop Richard Holloway spoke about the meaning of piety and suggest that there was a relationship between what we owe and give our family, our community, our nation and God — is there some perfect country family and community he is thinking about. Or is it possible that what he was getting at is that we are to love this family, this community, this nation, even though imperfect?

It’s not easy

Looking at our statements and narratives in relationship to the idea of being a loving critic - rather than an uncritical lover or an unloving critic - isn't necessarily an easy task. John Gardner was convinced that the stance of a loving critic was moral and likely to be most effective in improving society. As you read some of the statements, your own feelings and biases undoubtably came into play. We all tend to like statements that say something we agree with. There is complexity in this issue. Many statements are not totally one way or another but hang in between or are more this than that. It's in that space that we're all called to take care about how we speak to one another and so to exercise self-control.

Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart - Rule of Saint Benedict

the tongue has the power of life and death (Proverbs 18:21)

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry (James 1:19)

Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:5-8)

This abides,

Brother Robert, OA

Parish development - Social ethics - Spiritual life - Order of the Ascension

Also see Brother Poulson’s “The Book of Common Prayer: Against the Algorithm” in the Living Church.

Immigration: part 1 Immigration: part 2. How are we to talk about America? Immigration: part 3

Pictures are in the public domain.

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