To everything there is a season: Parish Development during the Virus

Monday, April 20, 2020 at 7:41PM
Robert Gallagher

 

Here in Seattle

The last public Eucharist was March 8

Mass gathering restrictions March 11

Stay at home March 23

 

What if this goes on and on?

The signs on California Avenue business doors are like this – “The shop will be CLOSED till April 1, 2020” The date now crossed out and “until further notice” written in. An “essential business” sign said, “No more than 10 people in the showroom.” Now the 10 is crossed out and replaced with a 2.

Things have evolved. Maybe they will continue to evolve. 

 

The year ahead 

This is from an article in today’s New York Times, “The Coronavirus in America: The Year Ahead:”    Also, a NewsHour report on the article.

“In truth, it is not clear to anyone where this crisis is leading us. More than 20 experts in public health, medicine, epidemiology and history shared their thoughts on the future during in-depth interviews. When can we emerge from our homes? How long, realistically, before we have a treatment or vaccine? How will we keep the virus at bay?…

“We face a doleful future,” said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, a former president of the National Academy of Medicine.

He and others foresaw an unhappy population trapped indoors for months, with the most vulnerable possibly quarantined for far longer. They worried that a vaccine would initially elude scientists, that weary citizens would abandon restrictions despite the risks, that the virus would be with us from now on.

Our primary “take-away” from this article is something we already knew but didn’t want to fully acknowledge—until there is a cure, a good treatment, and a vaccine, the church will be unable to gather in ways it is accustomed to. This takes on more significance given that our membership is older and more vulnerable. 

Given what we know now, and what we have experienced, what kind of strategic thinking and action is needed? What are we to do if this goes on and on? What if the church is unable to return to its normal practices for the next 18 months?

We’ll need to consider how our ascetical, pastoral, and liturgical ways need to be lived if this goes on and on.

 

Initial thoughts on the process of how we engage one another

Listen and take counsel

We've had almost two months of experience with this new season. It's time to see what we can learn. It's time for disciplined reflection and learning. It will take a bit of humility. Parish clergy and lay leaders have done their best. As we open ourselves to hearing the collective voice of the parish there will be things we don't want to hear. Probably a lot of praise too. Now's the time to listen and take counsel. And once we've done that--we need to do it again, from time to time, in the coming months.

1) Let the data speak

Regular assessments of parish life and ministry are always crucial for parish health. When we are scattered, and unable to engage the practices that have fed us, it is even more important.  “Let the data speak,” is a phrase used by some organization development practitioners. It means that in the process of assessing our life and work we need to trust the community to interpret the information that has been gathered. When we engage in any form of data gathering and analysis we have an obligation to fully share the results and our analysis with the congregation. Few things catch people’s attention as much as coming up against what they have said about themselves as a community or vestry or committee. This will create pressures and expectations in the parish as the information has a catalytic effect in organizational change. If we are to hear God, the society we live in, one another, and ourselves the parish needs structures, processes and a climate for listening. If the data is to “speak” the parish needs to be a listening community that nurtures listening people.

2) Appreciative stance.

You want to make use of assessments that identify strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats, we face during this situation. And, you want to tilt your attention to the strengths and opportunities. Take a generally appreciative stance while being open and direct about problems and failures.  Ask questions along these lines: during the past couple of months--Where have we seen the parish’s strengths and gifts; especially those that have long been part of our life?  What have been the high points in the life of the parish? What has worked well in the past few weeks ? What has the parish done really well over a period of time? What has reinforced and grounded us in Anglican ethos and culture?

3) Take counsel with the seniors

Consult with some of the more apostolic, experienced, and strategic members. As individuals or in groups. Be broad on the processes of assessment while making use of “the wise ones.”

4) Give yourself to transparency

We can learn from how many state governors have approached leadership during the virus. Governor Cuomo’s press briefings have earned praise—efficient, adult, direct and blunt, factual, personal, emotional intelligence in the expression and management of feelings, and empathetic. If you want a model for communicating “out” to the parish spend an hour listening to one of his daily briefings and read a couple of reviews on the briefings. Take special care to be open about finances, participation levels, and whether there are cases of the virus among parishioners. Share how you are making decisions about worship, pastoral care and formation.

Pastoral necessity

Be open to experimentation, even experimentation that we initially find silly, offensive, or wrongheaded.  Things will sort themselves out as long as we have ways of reflecting upon our experience and learning from that. During a time of increased anxiety leaders may be tempted to shut down the anxiety by excessive control, or more rarely, excessive inclusion and experimentation. For example, you may have noticed the hierarchy’s and academic community’s reaction to various ways in which parish priests have tried to provide Eucharistic nurture—the rubrics of ancient Prayer Books are invoked, canons are noted, theological rational offered, and all sorts of possible (if not probable) problems raised. The Roman Catholics have the notion of pastoral necessity within their canons. Maybe we might make use of that phrase—pastoral necessity. If we knew that our inability to gather was just a matter of two or three months—it might be perfectly reasonable to ask priests to stay with the normative practices. But if we are going to be dealing with this situation for the next 18 months—how about more pastoral necessity on the part of the parish priest!

Fantasizing a future 

We suggest spending little time on speculation about the long-term effects for the church. We’re not saying don’t do it or listen to it. But keep it in proportion and in perspective. The task before us now is how we are to respond to what we are currently facing. How to live now. What ascetical, pastoral, oversight, and liturgical practices are needed for this strange time in our life? The future will come soon enough. 

Leadership

A recent book review by Jon Meacham titled “Great Leadership in Times of Crisis,” quotes John F. Kennedy about the Cuban Missile Crisis and Franklin D. Roosevelt about the path forward during the Great Depression. In both cases, these leaders are forced to tell frightening truths and to also chart a way forward.  Given the tendency we may have to let our religion venture too often into sentimentality, helping parishioners cope with the facts while retaining hope can be daunting. Facing the facts ourselves, and reflecting carefully on our own ways of grounding is critical as we try to help others.

“And, when it was time to go public, [Kennedy] trusted the people. There was no happy talk, no mixed messages, no self-pity. ‘My fellow citizens,’ Kennedy told the nation six days into the crisis, ‘let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead—months in which both our patience and our will be tested…’ “

The Church knows something about sacrifice and self-discipline. The Church knows something about hope in the midst of suffering.  And we are better able to live what we know when we avoid happy talk, mixed messages, and self-pity, despite the illusory comfort they offer.

 

Initial thoughts on the process of how we stay focused on our identity and mission 

 

A broad framework rooted in our tradition 

As we consider parish life during the virus we want to stay connected to our own “best”, our Anglican ethos. It’s a matter of figuring out how to live that in these circumstances.

For example, there are the four core frameworks used in the Church Development Institute. A PDF   How does each operate during this time of the virus? How might we strengthen each dynamic?

Renewal-Apostolate: the task is to renew people in their baptismal identity and purpose and send them, in Christ, for an apostolate in family, with friends, in work, civic life and church.

Shape of the Parish: The task is to nurture the Christian life of people at all phases of maturity; give special attention to guiding and equipping those of Apostolic Faith; encourages all toward a more prayerful, disciplined, and compassionate Christian life.

Christian Life Model: The task is to foster a strong life and ministry of worship, doctrine, action and oversight.

Benedictine Promise: The task is to enable people to seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things and circumstances of life, through stability, conversion of life and obedience 

Another model that could serve the same function is “In Your Holy Spirit” with its five elements: Eucharist and Daily Office, community and reflection, and service.  A PDF 

Attention to the three purposes of every parish church

We think that for every parish there is an interdependent three-fold action. During the virus how each is expressed will be different from our normal practice. That said, it may be useful for parish leaders to contemplate how each is being expressed now and to seek ways to improve.

First, the parish exists to worship God—for adoration, reverence, devotion, and love.

Second, the parish exists to form the people of God as instruments of God’s love.

Third, the parish is called to a responsible, sanctifying presence in relationship to various external communities. In most cases that’s a geographical region, a neighborhood or town, closer to the traditional sense of “parish.” In some cases, it’s an external community in some relationship to the parish, such as the performing arts, medical practitioners, the homeless.

A new season

This is a new season in our common life. We are given the holy work of discerning and living the pathways of grace in these times.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 King James Version (KJV) 

Turn, Turn, Turn - Judy Collins and Pete Seeger    It’s a lovely piece of singing by two of our favorite people. 

Michelle Heyne, OA & Robert Gallagher, OA

 

Article originally appeared on Congregational Development (http://www.congregationaldevelopment.com/).