Parish history
A wonderful and sacred mystery
We all know the truth about parish histories. They are usually boring and often somewhat dishonest. The boring part comes when we make it a history of the buildings. Or just as bad, a the history of the rectors. The history may go along with a rouge’s gallery, hanging in the parish hall, a picture of each of the rectors for the last 100 years. We make our history a slog. The somewhat dishonesty comes as we avoid not noting the times of conflict, the trauma and pain. You know, all the juicy stuff.
Just to be clear, a linear history of the parish is fine. Have a rouge’s gallery of rectors, that’s fine too. But those things don’t stir the imagination or grab the heart of most people. They don’t contribute to the formation of people. They don’t help shape a healthy and dense parish culture.
So what’s the alternative?
Alternative
Spend a few minutes competing this task: Identify three moments in the parish’s history that effectively illustrate the parish at its best.
You are looking for touchstone events that helped shape the pariah’s culture. Possibly turning points that moved the parish into a better life.
Maybe they were occasions that showed great virtue and giftedness. Times of humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance. Times of great piety and love, of wisdom and openness to the Holy Spirit, of persistence and courage. Times of kindness and forgiveness, self-control and good sense.
Or you might use Esther de Waal’s Benedictine insight. What were times when we faced into the three basic demands of the spiritual life -- "the need not to run away, the need to be open to change, the need to listen.’
Fox Company, USMC
I’m going to tell a war story to illustrate all this. If you don’t want to read a war story, jump pass it and consider the conclusion.
I have a booklet from the United States Marine Corps that has stories of what they call the three touchstone engagements. Belleau Wood (1917) in the First World War, Iwo Jima (1945) in the Second World War, and the Chosin Reservoir (1950) in the Korean War. It’s an odd selection in many ways. At Belleau Wood more Marines were killed then had been killed in all the battles they had fought since the Revolution. At Iwo Jima they faced one of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps history. And the Chosin Reservoir is a story of incredible suffering as the Marines retreated down the Korean peninsula as Chinese and North Korean troops fired on them from the hills above. I’ll stay with that last to illustrate why they consider that a touchstone event worth holding up new recruits and officers.
Let’s do this in microcosm by looking at one company of Marines cut off from the rest of its division. It was incredibly cold, and they were surrounded by an experienced and larger Chinese force. Fox Company, 2d Battalion, 7th Marines, was trapped on a mountain in North Korea. “The unit was composed of fresh replacements, some of whom were reservists who had not even attended boot camp. A few of these Marines had only been through a few drill sessions with their reserve units. Others were World War II veterans in the Inactive Reserve who felt irritated that they had to fight again.” They had suffered many losses. “Nearly half of the company became casualties, with 26 killed, 89 wounded, and 3 missing in action.” They refused to abandon their wounded and escape down the mountain and to somewhat safer base. So, for five days they fought on. Finally there was enough assistance to allow them to move out with their wounded.
(Source https://www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Marine-Corps-University-Press/Books-by-topic/MCUP-Titles-A-Z/Always-Faithful/Always-Faithful-Chapter-22/ “The Chosin Few, Holding Toktong Pass, Fox Company, 2d Battalion, 7th Marines”, Marine Corps University Press.)
About “sixty Marines and Navy corpsmen of Fox Company … arrived at the roadblock demarcating the perimeter of the American lines. … “The ragged remains of Fox Company, Second Battalion, Seventh Regiment parade-marched into Hagaru-ri four men abreast, to a drill sergeant’s cadence count. Someone began humming, softly at first, the Marine Corps Hymn. One by one, though their throats were dry and raw, the entire company picked up the tune. Soon each man was singing.
From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli,
we will fight our country’s battles,
on the land as on the sea.
First to fight for right and freedom,
and to keep our honor clean,
we are proud to claim the title
of United States Marines.
As Fox Company crossed the checkpoint, a Navy corpsman stationed at the gate shook his head. He turned to a guard. “Will you look at those magnificent bastards,” he said.”
(Source – Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of U.S. Marines in Combat, 2009)
My guess is that you see why the USMC called the Chosin Reservoir a touchstone. A story of persistence and courage, of wounded officers carrying out the dual task of doing the mission and caring for their people, of managing their fear and doing their jobs. It reinforced their call for every Marine to be a rifleman and that each Marine was to care for the Marine on his left and his right. For them it was an example of the best of their culture and a way of nurturing those characteristics in future Marines.
A process
If your parish is able to have community conversations you might try this as a way into developing your three touchstones.
Gathering a number of people. Maybe an open session for everyone. Maybe just 6 – 8 people who know the history and are willing to be open and truthful.
Brainstorming a list of what they see as the kind of events we’ve been discussing.
Prioritize the list. Give everyone three votes, have them come up and put a checkmark next to the ones they think most effectively communicate the best of the parish’s culture and identity.
Then bring together the people who know something about marketing and have then craft the story to be shared on the website, at orientations, in an adult foundations course, and in sermons.
A Possible Twist
Sometimes when you get into this kind of conversation what emerges are not the touchstones of the past but the hurt of the present. Someone brings up how we have 120 less people attending on Sunday then we did two years ago. Or they tell how the story that gets told to visitors at coffee hour is about the parish moving to this suburban location to escape the African-Americans that were moving into the city neighborhood we used to be in. Or one brave parishioner wonders why we have a parish staff person with a conviction related to child porn.
Once you begin talking and asking for truth, well, things will emerge. Usually the story is already known to some or many. They just never felt free to talk openly about it. The opportunity is that it offers us a chance to be at our best. To face into something difficult instead of avoiding it. To persist and be courageous. To be gentle and kind with one another as we struggle to deal with it.
This abides,
Brother Robert, OA