Subcultures in the parish
Parishes need ways of effectively and faithfully managing the relationship between the body as a whole and necessary and important subcultures.
Edgar Schein writes[i] about how over time subcultures form in an organization. People share “common experiences that become the basis for mutually held assumptions about how things are and how they should be done.” Using examples from the workplace he notes how unionized employees and divisions within an organization such as middle managers, financial and planning people develop shared assumptions based on the similarities of their work. These assumptions and practices are likely to differ from those of the institution’s leaders. In some cases the reference group is one outside the institution. For example, engineers and other technical fields may “share assumptions about a perfect design being free of people and that it is people who make mistakes and should be engineered out of processes as much as possible.” An approach that would seem foreign for those engaged in sales or advertising.
Three parish subcultures
I’m going to look at three subcultures that exist in almost every parish church: the vestry, the rectors circle, and the choir. The first two are rarely seen as subcultures even though they are. Choirs are often a more distinct group.
The vestry
A mindset is developed as they work together month after month; dealing with matters most in the parish are not very aware of. This is all offset a bit by the fact that most parishes have a number of people who once served on the vestry. So, while they may not be fully aware of all the current issues of finances, property, and parish health, they have some understanding of the type of work taking place.
As with any group, vestries may move down pathways that are out of touch with the hopes and desires of the larger parish. And, of course, there are times when leadership requires action that a majority of parishioners would disapprove of. But even then, what is not helpful or necessary is for the vestry to be unaware of what the larger parish thinks. Vestry members may think, “I’ve been here at St Julian’s for 15 years, I know what everyone thinks. They tell me at coffee hour.” In that approach they lose touch with the fact that at coffee hour they hear from a small group of friends and are unaware of how as part of a group, they are now part of an informal subculture.
There is a polarity to address: vestry cohesion and the parish’s common mind. You want the vestry to have a level of unity and solidity to adequately engage the work before it. Some vestries stay focused on the canonical requirement around property and finance oversight. They might follow the lead of many non-profit boards and meet just four times a year. Others are deeply involved in large endeavors such as a major capital fund campaign or serving as the search committee or being strategic partners with the rector in the pastoral oversight of the parish. They may need much more time together and a higher degree of trust.
I’ve seen two approaches that seem to help vestries manage the polarity. Instead of a vestry retreat each year have a parish retreat in which every vestry member is expected to participate and all non-vestry members who attend agree that they will serve on a working group for 3 or 4 months after the retreat. It broadens the experience and also has the benefit of helping identify emerging parish leaders. The second method is having quarterly all parish community meetings. These are meetings of about 1 ½ hours during what is the normal coffee hour period. They are designed to allow the parish community to express a common voice. That allows a vestry to make better decisions and possibly meet less often. An important consideration in a period when many parishes find it difficult to fill vestry slots. Both the meetings and the retreat also have the additional benefit of increasing transparency, collaboration, and trust.
The rector’s circle
Sometimes a rector has a group of parishioners that serve as a kind of kitchen cabinet. Observant parishioners notice that the rector relies on them. Usually it’s rather unorganized. No meetings. No formal acknowledgement. Over a period of time they have become an inner circle[ii] of supporters and advisors. In some cases it’s primarily about emotional support. In other cases it’s more strategic, possibly based on the rector’s need for political support among the influential or consisting of people who are wise about matters of parish oversight. On occasion such a group may have a formal life and purpose, for example a parish development team.[iii]
The choir
Choirs spend a considerable amount of time together, once or twice a week and over the course of years. It’s an experience of collaboration and collegiality, and often friendship. They develop ways of working and norms about group behavior. There are espoused values and underlying assumptions about what they do together. All the stuff of a culture. Some choirs have a rather dense culture that leaves a mark on the participants. And like any group, choirs will at times see themselves as serving and at other times as being in an antagonist relationship with the larger group. They usually have more stability than a vestry where there is a rotation of members every three years.
Performers not worshippers -- In addition to parishioners in the choir there may be paid professionals. Of course there may also be parishioner volunteers who are professionals. For the paid professionals this is often a primary vocation. They may make their living through their music or hope to in the future. They may legitimately be more invested in advancing in their profession than in this particular gig. They often aren’t Christians. We have hired them for their talent. That means that the worshipping community includes several people who are performers not worshippers. We can give thanks for them even if they are agnostics or atheists. Ralph Vaughan Williams comes to mind as we make use of his hymn tunes for Come Down, O Love Divine and For All the Saints.
Their presence in the choir intensifies the distinct sub-culture. And if not carefully managed can contribute to tensions within the choir and between the choir and the priest or whole congregation. We seek to respect their gifts and investment as professionals while needing to ask them to maintain
a degree of connection with the congregation. I suggest two broad considerations. They need to be asked to avoid cutting across the liturgy by behavior that may seem normal to them but some in the congregation would find distracting and even disrespectful. It’s best to offer guidance before the fact so as to avoid embarrassment and tension. We can’t reasonably expect them to come in knowing what we see as appropriate. The second consideration is to expect them to connect with the congregation in some minimal way. Human to human. The easiest thing would be for them to spend a few minutes talking with a few people at coffee hour every couple of months.
Other
There are other mental-image groupings that aren’t really subcultures in that they don’t usually meet formally or informally. Parishes often have people who have a common mind set about how to approach problems and decision making. It sometimes appears in parish meetings when an issue is being addressed. For example, in many parishes, every few years, a conversation takes place about the endowment (if there is one). Shall we dip into the principle or not? You can see the various mindsets in some responses – “You never use the principle!”, “The human need is now. We need to use the funds we have to address that!” Some of us are so certain that our view is correct that they can’t understand why there is even a discussion taking place. For them there is a “right answer.”
There being a right answer, a correct approach, may arise because of a work or professional subculture that the person is part of outside the parish. For them there is a technically correct answer to issues. The parish needs a new website. We ask three parishioners who work for Microsoft to serve as a working group. They go ahead and develop an up-to-date site. And then hear criticisms. Or maybe they don’t hear them because people are polite and conflict averse, so they mutter at coffee hour for a few weeks. “The pictures don’t capture the spirit of St. Mary’s.” or This doesn’t adequately serve the internal communication needs of the parish.” Or “It isn’t adequately oriented to the potential new members.”
Some find the model “The Church: Analogies and Images” useful. It was developed based on the insight of Father Richard Norris.[iv] “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.)
The Relationship Cycle
The parish needs ways of managing the relationship among subcultures and between particular subcultures and the whole parish, especially its leadership. I’ll use the Relationship Cycle in Parishes model to explore that.
These rubs between cultures are inevitable and often life giving. They offer new pathways for parish life and ministry. And if poorly managed the rubs can bring significant conflict and pain. We might also hold in mind that parishes consist of people who are sinners and have human limitations. Even apostolic Christians can experience envy over the influence and closeness of others in the parish.
· You may want to get an overview of the process by looking at this one page PDF of the Relationship Cycle in Parishes A more complete exploration is available in Chapter 3 in An Energy Not Its Own: Three cycles of parish life and the purposes of the parish church AMAZON
Edgar Schein writes about the need for meetings and events, where mutual understanding can develop among the various subcultures. For example, he notes the possibility of using methods to identify and better understand the assumptions of the various subcultures. A mix of humility and mutual respect.
When there are rubs in the relationship there are two broad, productive ways to approach it if we’re to avoid moving into a serious conflict cycle. People may self-renegotiated by deciding the issue isn’t important enough to fight about it. Or they make use of structures and processes the parish has for managing lower level disagreements and conflicts.
Self-renegotiation
“For the most part, harmony in the parish is maintained as people deal with the rubs they experience through self-renegotiating. It does matter if that self-renegotiating process is in response to the Holy Spirit or simply a temperamental inclination to avoid the discomfort of speaking up. Discernment that includes a sense of proportion and perspective, along with a bit of humility, is how we faithfully move to a decision to “let it go” or to speak, even at the risk of conflict. We make such decisions and act upon them by internal renegotiation, or along the green lines of reconciliation and planned change, or by entering into the conflict cycle. With self-renegotiation, the person or group manages it themselves. They decide it really is not worth the trouble of having the parish address it or that it is something that is best handled in a manner that doesn’t involve the parish.” (Heyne and Gallagher, An Energy Not its Own: Three Cycles of Parish Life and the Purposes of the Parish Church, Ascension Press, 2023)
Establish structures, processes, a climate, and resources
“This stage works best in a parish that operates on the assumption that “rubs” will be frequent, inevitable, and useful. That assumes they may be positive (“How do we use the recent giant bequest?” “We have two wonderful candidates for choirmaster”) or negative, and that they will be both small and large. With that understanding, the parish can establish structures, processes, a climate, and resources that enable it to hear and engage the issues.” (Heyne and Gallagher, An Energy Not its Own: Three Cycles of Parish Life and the Purposes of the Parish Church, Ascension Press, 2023)
Some parishes have a practice of holding four parish community meetings each year. After the Sunday Eucharist those wishing to participate get their coffee and meet to explore and develop some level of a common voice about parish issues and dynamics, e.g., Do we want to grow in membership and if so by how much? How does this parish engage serving and being a sanctifying presence in the larger community? How much of the endowment fund do we want to invest in music during the liturgy vs. underwriting having a priest able to live by the church vs. an upgrade to the kitchen? Etc. Using assessments, small groups, and whole group discussion, the parish seeks to listen to one another and the Holy Spirit. Such meetings then provide the rector and vestry with a clearer understanding of the Eucharistic community’s mind as they make formal decisions. A parish with that routine has an existing structure and processes that can be used as they manage the subcultures.
There are also times when establishing a process to work out a way forward comes at the initiative of an individual or small group. There’s a disagreement over the job description of the new choir director between the vestry and the search committee. One person does a bit of work seeking the best in both and suggests a process to harmonize the document.
For your reflection
The place and time where all these ideas and relationships come true is in the Eucharist. Here is the pattern and the power. Here in the Offertory is the time and place to offer all that each life takes on in its special environment of poverty or wealth, of sickness or health. Here, as Charles Williams would say, is the time and place for an exchange – an exchange of my burden for yours, an exchange of our burdens for the light yoke of Christ, an exchange of sin and penitence for forgiveness. And in the Consecration of the bread and wine is an exchange of our bodies for his body, of the Cross for Resurrection, of captivity for freedom, of death for life, of all else for joy. -Paul Moore in The Church Reclaims the City, 1964
This abides,
Robert
Feast of Gregory the Illuminator
[i] The Corporate Culture Survival Guide Hardcover, Edgar H. Schein AMAZON
[ii] Don’t confuse this kind of “inner circle” with the parish’s apostolic core or in Critical Mass Theory the “high Competence and Commitment” center.
[iii] Find more on Parish Development Teams in Shaping the Parish Resources on the Order of the Ascension website at www.orderoftheascension.org Teams are a strategic management group to focus on those matters while the vestry attends to more routine issues related to property and finances. Teams are a useful adjunct to the rector’s role and serves as an extension of the rector’s authority and shares responsibility for improvement efforts.
[iv] “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, etc., is inevitable, it also creates a problem. "People come to the conclusion that the Church is a "society created by human enterprise and designed to serve particular human ends," that it is created by the "agreement of a number of individual persons who presumably define the terms of their association and its goals." … "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." (Understanding the Faith of the Church, Seabury Press, NY, 1979).