Ephemeral change or lasting change
Tuesday, September 15, 2020 at 2:04PM 
It will last as long as you’re sitting on it and then quickly disappear once you are gone
In reading the news this morning I came across an AP report on Kamala Harris and policing. Before becoming a senator, she had been San Francisco’s DA and California’s Attorney General. So, she had a lot of experience with policing issues and police unions.
A couple of paragraphs in the story caught my attention –
Those decisions were based in part on her own experience as a San Francisco prosecutor. She also understood the need to change “hearts and minds” to make long-lasting change, said Nathan Barankin, Harris’ former chief of staff in the attorney general’s office and Senate.
“Otherwise, if you haven’t done that, any change you do implement is Pyrrhic, it’s ephemeral. It will last as long as you’re sitting on it and then quickly disappear once you are gone,” he said.
I immediately sent an email off to a friend pointing out the article and saying, “If only we could get clergy to understand this.”
Lasting change
A central decision made by the priest in charge of any parish is whether the years spent in that parish will bring lasting change or ephemeral change.
Too much of the change that is done in parishes is transitory. The words in the AP article capture the issue, “It will last as long as you’re sitting on it and then quickly disappear once you are gone.” Clergy invest their time and energy in “things passing away.” You serve a community for 7, 10, or 15 years and when you leave a new priest comes and changes most of what you’ve done. That’s because you have spent your time on things that have not become part of the parish’s culture.
Which raises a second decision clergy make--whether the change is important and faithful. Does it advance the long-term health of the parish?
Recognizing the issue
Many of us have a difficult time recognizing the issue. We come to the parish with our experience and our imagination. We arrive with the skills and knowledge we have at the moment. And we proceed to offer that to (inflict it upon) the parish. New clergy arrive with half thought through utopian ideas. More experienced clergy with programs and methods that “worked” in their last parish. And supposed mistakes they will never try again.
We often miss the deeper and more significant decisions we are making. Will the investment of our lives in this parish community have a lasting effect grounded in the central purposes and concerns of any parish?
Given that most of us arrive knowing what we know and are inclined to get to work based on that, aren’t we going to overlook and shoot right pass the issue? How to we offset that?
That’s hard and painful. We know what we know. And we don’t know what we don’t know.
It does help to keep in mind that there’s much we don’t know. You know—that humility thing!
In addition to a bit of humility we can broaden our knowledge and skill with training and education. In the early years, get a good coach. Also, by developing our capacity to be reflective. Okay, got it! It’s life long. We all know that bumper sticker. The trick is to act upon it.
My own bias is that we do well to focus our after-seminary training on a mix of ascetical theology and practice and organization development. One of the reoccurring debates is along the lines of--“am I a manager or a priest?” The fact is that the priest in charge of a parish is a leader and has responsibility to both tend the flock and also to shape the parish in such a manner as to enable a productively faithful culture.
Two rules of thumb
We could come together and brainstorm dozens of “rules of thumb” about this. There are many useful mental models in both ascetical theology and organization development, especially in what’s call “use of self.” I’ll offer two.
Wisdom
What we’re seeking in our clergy is wisdom. Which comes only in part and over time. Which is to say—not enough and not when we need it. So, back to the humility thing. And also, immersing ourselves in wisdom in the threefold rule of prayer, in our work with a coach and spiritual guide, and in on-going training in the relevant fields (Anglican ascetical theology and practice, organization development and organizational culture). We compensate for what we are not yet proficient in by being with the people who are proficient.
Then there is wisdom as a gift of the Spirit. Richard Holloway suggested that wisdom was the coming together of all the other gifts of the Spirit—awe, affection, knowledge (a capacity to accept paradox and hold things in balance), courage, counsel (openness to the Holy Spirit, listening), understanding (seeing the world rightly). It is wholeness; spiritual maturity. Wisdom is a gift. It is also something we can make ourselves available for. Ken Leech wrote of it in regard to prayer and self-knowledge.
Prayer must involve the unifying of the personality, the integration of mind and heart into one center.... Without self discovery there can be no further progress. ‘In order to find God whom we can only find in and through the depths of our own soul, we must first find ourselves.’ Without self-knowledge our love remains superficial. (Kenneth Leech, Soul Friend)
The purposes of a parish church
What does any parish exist for? This isn’t about us creating a mission statement or vision. I think there are three intrinsic purposes for a parish church.
1. The worship of God
2. The formation of the People of God
3. A sanctifying relationship with the external “public” the parish is most connected with (usually the neighborhood around the parish, sometimes an entire town or city, other times a particular community, e.g., the performing arts. In practice each has its own integrity and also overlaps with the others.
The priest needs to direct her energy around those three areas. And in the process learn how to see the relationship and synergy involved.
There is also the need the hold in mind how we can rationalize time spent on what in fact will be ephemeral by categorizing it under one of these three purposes. I'll offer one example that may help see the difference between what would be unlikely to last, and what would be more likely to be lasting and become part of the parish’s culture.
Most of us would agree that a parish is more fully engaging the purpose of “the worship of God” if the Eucharist is celebrated each Sunday and major feast days and the daily office is said each day in the church. To bring in an ascetical mental model, a parish that grounds itself in the Threefold Rule of Prayer is engaged in an integrated and complete expression of worship. Living this Prayer Book Pattern means the parish is expressing the best of our tradition. It’s an appreciative change approach to base our change efforts in those things that run deep in the tradition. Those practices that have endured over time and under stress.
During the pandemic many parishes have found ways to do the daily office using web-based resources. It’s providential that when we are under such stress we fall back upon the riches of our traditional practices.
There's some useful discussion going on about how the use of web resources in saying the office might be continued in the future. So, we may have the possibility of seeking to have the office done in person in a parish chapel while allowing others to participate from home.
The pathway of integrating the daily office into the parish’s culture can include many elements that contribute to it becoming a permanent part of parish life—the parish priest always participants, there is a space for saying the office that feels right given the smaller numbers and rhythm of the office, it has happened consistently for a long time. Here is a page with other elements.
I’ll describe one element that is useful in all size parishes but especially in middle-size and smaller parishes. Small communities of people doing the office in the church on assigned days of the week. Teams of people who agree to attend every Tuesday or Friday. The team both takes care of the various roles that need to be filled (officiant, readers, etc.) and also provides a reliable community of worship. The priest needs to be present at all the offices but only serve on one of the teams. Teams may be between two and six people. Parishioners are asked to agree to serve on a team, to be part of that small praying community, for at least a year. Some will stay with that service to the parish for many years, others will do it for a year or two and then leave the team even as they continue to attend frequently. An advantage of this approach, over asking people to be the officiant on certain days, is that it is done with others, so it’s not all on you, and that you can be on the team taking on less demanding roles for a time as you learn how to officiate.
It can take more energy and persistence for a priest to initially recruit and maintain the teams. But rather quickly the teams begin to self-manage within the customary that’s been provided. Each year the priest needs to recruit new people. Over time that gets easier as current team members help with the recruiting.
After a few years a parish may find that a significant number of people have been part of these small communities of prayer. In the course of that involvement they will have developed an investment, an internal commitment, to being part of a parish that gathers for prayer each day. And within that process some will have matured in faith and practice. That may well become a critical mass engaged in and supporting the parish’s prayer life. Such maturity and numbers make it more likely that the practice will be long lasting.
Of course, nothing is guaranteed. You can do all the right things and somehow it doesn’t happen—“It will last as long as you’re sitting on it and then quickly disappear once you are gone,” There’s that humility thing again.
Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious
favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our
works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify
your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting
life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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