Just got back from a strategic planning/goal-setting exercise at the church. Aside from setting direction for the congregation as a whole and bringing my attention to the directions it is choosing (and exciting me about those directions), it really helped pull into focus one of my personal long-term goals for my life in the church: that of engendering a self-generating culture of lay-led worship.
One of the common roadblocks to accessing the sacramental/liturgical traditions of Anglicanism I have heard from participants in Evangelical/Charismatic traditions of Christianity (i.e. those that draw the greatest number of new young participants) is the view of authority. A quote I have often heard is "I don't need a priest to connect me to God." While I am currently unable to articulate my understanding of the role of ordained ministry and why it is of such great importance to me, this does spotlight a misunderstanding of our worship. Most particularly, I fear that there is a feeling of disenfranchisement, that the worshiper feels she has been disallowed access to the tradition, that authority is distant.
This fear of the lack of connection is an overarching obsession for the young among us. We now live and grow in a world not only with instantaneous access to all manner of knowledge and art, but also to the tools to create that knowledge and art. We are connected to the source and the product of all the data we consume and we are constantly reminded of that. We like that. A church that cannot find a way to reflect that connection (which, by the way, seems to me to be a fairly fundamental aspect of Christianity) cannot serve that population.
So I propose a start, a way to reflect that connection. I propose that we, remaining fully within the medieval/renaissance traditions of our church, build opportunities and tools for young people to lead worship. I think most immediately of the daily offices, which contain very complete liturgies for worship without the sacramental oversight of a priest needed. And what would this accomplish?
1. A stronger individual and personal connection to the practices of worship. The broader and deeper understanding that grows out of a broader and deeper practice will serve to heighten the connection a person has to congregational worship
2. Support the development of the qualities of leadership within the church. The confidence, accountability and self-critique that would come out of the processes of learning this ministry would be a boon to any person in any area of their life. The commitment to understanding the variety of roles necessary to accomplish a task could be nothing but helpful.
3. Provide a scriptural and traditional foundation for adult growth in the church. We are very good at providing for the growth of children through Sunday School and Youth Groups, and through this are able to connect very well to parents. The elderly among us now come from a different time that they are still able to access through the practices of worship. (I am, of course, not stating the obvious connection we have with church). But we all know that we are dealing with a new kind of adult: a massive population of people with no connection to Church, and those living the relatively new idea that we can "out-grow" our parents' church. This, coupled with a lack of consistent support within the church, leads even those with a strong connection to church through childhood to find fulfillment and relation in other places.
While a participation in lay-led services is not the only way to serve these needs, I can easily imagine it to be a successful one. And young adults are obviously not the only ones who would benefit from such a practice, but are, to me, in the most immediate need of service.
So. How to build such a practice.
1. Identify and assemble a pilot group. Starting out is going to require a lot more hands-on leadership than the ideal practice of this will require to sustain. In my own parish I think immediately of two distinct groups. The first, which does not fit as nicely into the need for service represented by young adults, is the group of participants in a series of evening discussion/education sessions on the Anglican tradition. This group of people showed an interest in furthering their understanding of the context of our worship and church. The second, which does fit my proposed target better, is a group of young people who participated in a pilgrimage to Taize, France. This trip was part of a youth group at our church and seems to have been taken as a cap to or graduation from youth programming as we have offered it. This is not a negative thing, except that we seemed to have little to offer them to follow up with this experience.
2. Gather leadership. The obvious choice here is the most experienced ordained minister of the parish. But the obvious choice isn't always the best one. We also have at our parish a new Curate, recently ordained as a Deacon. Having recently graduated from theological school, she is beginning to learn the practices of parish ministry, including worship leading, and I have often found that the best way to learn something is to teach it. Leadership for such a project would, of course, benefit from a range of experience and expertise, and all available resources should be considered.
3. Schedule. Schedule times to meet and learn. Schedule opportunities to lead. Schedule debriefings. Start with small, specialized deadlines and goals and provide opportunities for participants to take ownership. As the completion of a deadline approaches, have further opportunities ready for people to look forward to. Again, looking at my particular parish, I think immediately of the Advent season. With the increased attention that people give church during this time, we would be more likely to get an interest for people to participate in a service during that time than any other. It is also an accomplishable target to have a service prepared and run by that time.
4. Plan for and build self-sustaining practice. The ideal here is that such a group would be able to take ownership of its own growth and maintenance, asking for input and care when needed, but also able provide care and find information for itself. Work with a constant view to seeing the group attain this.
I am no longer able to sustain writing this, so I will close. I hope to return with notes on the development of this particular Ongoing Obsession.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
Pacing: Torch-on Product Dilemma
A couple of weeks ago I was in conversation with a good friend of mine who works to repair machinery, both mechanically and electronically. Having just finished his education on the island, he has returned to the mainland to take up a job offer with a manufacturer near our hometown.
This manufacturer makes torch-on roofing product. Besides the product itself containing tar and other hazardous materials, the method of production is fossil-fuel intensive, as is the installation of this product. While not an explicitly destructive product, it is not the most environmentally sound way to make a living. To say nothing of the big-box, warehouse-type buildings that the product is primarily used on.
So my friend is generally well-paid, in a supportive company that provides opportunities for growth and learning in the trade itself, as well as other areas (he is able to go to Quebec to learn French through his company), but there is a piece of doubt and guilt sitting undigested in the pit of his stomach. During my pacing today I've come to recognize this as spiritual sickness.
He sees what he is participating in as sin, though he would never call it that, non-religious as he is. So the question for me is: how does one treat a malady that the sufferer doesn't have ways to admit. I patently refuse to simply point out the ailment as I see it because that would be divisive. I need to be able to find a shared understanding of it in order to have terms to talk about it in. But is that understanding pre-required for effective treatment? I think it might be. What is important to remember is that it is probably useless for me to try to get a person to discuss something on my terms. This means I need to learn how this person frames their world before I can help them frame a problem, let alone see a direction to move.
I'm certain this particular malady is not the sole territory of my friend. In fact, I had the very same dilemma during my time working for an ESL school in Taipei. I was participating in a system of privilege and dishonesty. This was a major contributing factor to my leaving the country, among a few others. Although, at my work, I did find a few opportunities for doing good, I never did find a way to reconcile what I was participating in with what I believed. Never did find peace without sacrifice there.
This manufacturer makes torch-on roofing product. Besides the product itself containing tar and other hazardous materials, the method of production is fossil-fuel intensive, as is the installation of this product. While not an explicitly destructive product, it is not the most environmentally sound way to make a living. To say nothing of the big-box, warehouse-type buildings that the product is primarily used on.
So my friend is generally well-paid, in a supportive company that provides opportunities for growth and learning in the trade itself, as well as other areas (he is able to go to Quebec to learn French through his company), but there is a piece of doubt and guilt sitting undigested in the pit of his stomach. During my pacing today I've come to recognize this as spiritual sickness.
He sees what he is participating in as sin, though he would never call it that, non-religious as he is. So the question for me is: how does one treat a malady that the sufferer doesn't have ways to admit. I patently refuse to simply point out the ailment as I see it because that would be divisive. I need to be able to find a shared understanding of it in order to have terms to talk about it in. But is that understanding pre-required for effective treatment? I think it might be. What is important to remember is that it is probably useless for me to try to get a person to discuss something on my terms. This means I need to learn how this person frames their world before I can help them frame a problem, let alone see a direction to move.
I'm certain this particular malady is not the sole territory of my friend. In fact, I had the very same dilemma during my time working for an ESL school in Taipei. I was participating in a system of privilege and dishonesty. This was a major contributing factor to my leaving the country, among a few others. Although, at my work, I did find a few opportunities for doing good, I never did find a way to reconcile what I was participating in with what I believed. Never did find peace without sacrifice there.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Spaces to Connect
I re-signed myself up for a task tonight, to create digital, online, physical and offline spaces for people to connect. More specifically, to help people connect names to faces. The forms for this are up in the air a bit, but it involves photographs.
How do we interact with photos of people? I never got any of my high-school yearbooks, though I have enjoyed the very few occasions I have looked through them from my time there. I generally looked to them for reflections of my associations and accomplishments in that environment. Something along the lines of "wasn't that great of me to do that." Ze Frank proposes that perhaps we use photos to make an experience more real, that somehow a representation, regardless of how distant, gives witness in a way that experience does not. The Placebo Camera: doesn't take pictures, but makes you feel like you were there.
Read an article in Adbusters today about "Hipsters." It briefly highlighted the photographic culture within hipsterism. The blog, the "social networks." To paraphrase a line from it: if we carried stones like we carried cameras, we'd look like revolutionaries. Instead we look like...well, like hipsters. Is looking at pictures of myself in yearbooks, on facebook, on my phone, self-obsessed?
I propose that our thorough obsession with the sharing of photos is an expression of fear. If we're not in the media, we're not real. This is not an inherited fear. The project I signed up to do is directed towards providing another layer to pre-existing connections. This is the photograph of our parents. Our photograph is how we create and sustain the connection. This is dishonest. The connection is there. We've forgotten how to see it. We only know how to see the media. We have un-learned how to admit the connection.
I'm sitting writing this in front of my church with a cigarette in my mouth. I'm reminded of Sartre's Garcin, in my shirtsleeves, doing the manly work of writing. I'm connected to a tradition. It is not ironic. This very place is where I make my regular practice of outwardly admitting the connection. The photo below, however, is ironic.
How do we interact with photos of people? I never got any of my high-school yearbooks, though I have enjoyed the very few occasions I have looked through them from my time there. I generally looked to them for reflections of my associations and accomplishments in that environment. Something along the lines of "wasn't that great of me to do that." Ze Frank proposes that perhaps we use photos to make an experience more real, that somehow a representation, regardless of how distant, gives witness in a way that experience does not. The Placebo Camera: doesn't take pictures, but makes you feel like you were there.
Read an article in Adbusters today about "Hipsters." It briefly highlighted the photographic culture within hipsterism. The blog, the "social networks." To paraphrase a line from it: if we carried stones like we carried cameras, we'd look like revolutionaries. Instead we look like...well, like hipsters. Is looking at pictures of myself in yearbooks, on facebook, on my phone, self-obsessed?
I propose that our thorough obsession with the sharing of photos is an expression of fear. If we're not in the media, we're not real. This is not an inherited fear. The project I signed up to do is directed towards providing another layer to pre-existing connections. This is the photograph of our parents. Our photograph is how we create and sustain the connection. This is dishonest. The connection is there. We've forgotten how to see it. We only know how to see the media. We have un-learned how to admit the connection.
I'm sitting writing this in front of my church with a cigarette in my mouth. I'm reminded of Sartre's Garcin, in my shirtsleeves, doing the manly work of writing. I'm connected to a tradition. It is not ironic. This very place is where I make my regular practice of outwardly admitting the connection. The photo below, however, is ironic.
I want this in classes
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