Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s mind was on Absalom. Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He said to her, “Pretend to be a mourner; put on mourning garments, do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead. Go to the king and speak to him as follows.” And Joab put the words into her mouth. (From 2 Samuel 14, today’s Morning Prayer)
A few more thoughts about the impact of the internet on all of us, especially younger people and our response to the situation. This builds on Freedom and responsibility, Virtue and Piety.
How We Got the Internet All Wrong by Yascha Mounk in The Dispatch arrived this morning with more details on the report I explored yesterday. Mounk also expands the nature of the impact in this statement.
Given the opportunity to communicate with anybody they wish, most people are spending their time on social media connecting with people they already know, with those who share their identities, or with those who share the exact same political views. The greater ease of communication was supposed to help the human species transcend its traditional boundaries and expand our collective horizons; instead, it has amplified our tribal instincts and turned every aspect of our politics and culture into a fevered battle between the in-group and the out-group. Early evangelists of the internet conjured up a touching vision of universal human connection. Instead, the technology they rhapsodized has turned us into tribalist creatures, giving ever greater importance to our race, our gender, our sexual orientation, and our political convictions.
In essence, he is suggesting that the Internet has helped explode the effect of philosophical and social trends that have grown over the last few decades.
What is a parish to do?
I’ll begin with an idea on the role of the parish priest.
The parish priest has the task of shaping a dense organizational culture that advances the three purposes of any parish church: the worship of God, the formation of the People of God for the sake of the world, and being a sanctifying presence in the broader community.
As it is the feast day of Florence Nightingale, I'll use her to illustrate. “Then war broke out in the Crimea (in Russia, on the north edge of the Black Sea), and Sir Sidney Herbert, now Secretary of War, obtained permission for Florence to lead a group of 38 nurses there. Of these, 10 were Roman Catholic nuns, 14 were Anglican nuns, and the remaining 14 were "of no particular religion, unless one counts the worship of Bacchus." They found conditions appalling. Blankets were rotting in warehouses while the men did without, because no one had issued the proper forms for their distribution. The lavatories in the hospitals had no running water, and the latrines were tubs to be emptied by hand. But no one emptied them, since official regulations did not specify which department was responsible for doing so. The result was that the hospital had a foul stench that could be smelled for some distance outside its walls. Far more men were dying in hospitals of infection than of wounds. The chief concern of many of the Army doctors was that the nurses might usurp some of their authority. Florence gradually managed to win the doctors and other authorities over, and to reform hospital procedures, with spectacular results.” (From the posting on Blessed Florence Nightingale in the Calendar of the Church Year)
I’ll highlight two elements. First, given the significant involvement of the Roman Catholic and Anglican nuns, the effort had a critical mass of faithful spiritual practice at its core . Second, Nightingale didn't just see her role as an administrator or a nurse. She set out to create a dense culture of effective healing.
Those of us serving as parish clergy would do well to give ourselves to the same tasks: shaping a critical mass of faithful spiritual practice at the core of the parish and a dense parish culture that served the three purposes of a parish. The need for an apostolic center in the parish is seen in the Shape of the Parish model and explored in Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church (Chapter 4) and A Wonderful and Sacred Mystery: A Practical Theology of the Parish Church (Chapter 3 “Power from the center pervades the whole”).
The conversation
The issue of how parish clergy understand their role is an ongoing conversation in the church. It's ongoing, in part because it's complex but also because of a struggle within each priest. The actual requirements of the job come up against the actual gifts of a particular priest. So the temptation is to redefine the job so there is an easy fit with our own temperament and competencies.
Here are a few of my shorthand images in an attempt to get at the issue of role. We are the captain of a ship navigating toward a destination, not the ship’s social director providing entertainment and activities. We are the gardener concerned with the totality of the garden’s design and the relationship among the elements of our garden, we are not just the planter and the weeder. As the priest, we get to preside at the Holy Eucharist because we preside in the Eucharistic community, including in the vestry and parish meetings.
When I was the oversight staff person for the 21 mission parishes in the Diocese of Connecticut many years ago, from time to time I would have a priest come in to talk. It was usually about the priest’s self assessment regarding their oversight of the community. “I’m fine with providing spiritual guidance but awful at actually leading” or “I didn’t become a priest to do all this administrative work.” The struggle was about coming to terms with the need to expand their vision and skills and at the same time accept that they would have areas of weakness and challenge throughout life.
Resources
Books: Fill All Things: The Dynamics of Spirituality in the Parish Church (Chapter 2 especially the sections on Oversight of Parish Life and Development and Creating Holy Order; also see other chapters on shaping parish culture); Finding God in All Things: Contemplation, Intercession, and Intervention (Chapter 6 Implementation and oversight)
PDFs: Oversight of Parish Life and Development and Parish Oversight Assessment; Strategic Oversight of the Parish and related assessment form.
Cultural scaffolding
I’ve mentioned David Brooks’ idea of “cultural scaffolding” in the last couple of postings. - “that develops our moral vocabulary, orders our loves, grounds our identity, and channels these sensibilities into coherent actions. And it is fundamentally relational.”
In Yascha Mounk’s How We Got the Internet All Wrong he breaks out the broad categories. “Decades of research have demonstrated that some of these traits are highly predictive of life outcomes; in particular, conscientiousness (“the tendency to be organized, responsible, and hardworking”) predicts everything from greater professional success to a lower likelihood of getting divorced. Extroversion (a tendency to be “outgoing, gregarious, sociable, and openly expressive”) is associated with better mental health, broader social networks, and greater life satisfaction. Meanwhile, neuroticism (understood as a propensity toward anxiety, emotional instability, and negative emotion) is strongly correlated with negative outcomes, such as higher rates of depression, lower life satisfaction, and poorer overall mental health.” We can see comparable lines of thought in the module on Emotional and Spiritual Maturity in Shaping the Parish. We focus on the stance needed to engage parish development work. We link resources such as Reflecting on Emotional Intelligence with the biblical understanding of self control as a way to address the kind of issues noted by Mounk and Jonathan Haidt.
How do we shape a parish culture that nurtures emotional and spiritual maturity? A culture that connects with the Holy Spirit’s nudging us to humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance born of love, eagerness to maintain unity in the bond of peace, truthfulness mediated in love, mutual kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness, and love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; wisdom, understanding, counsel (openness to the Spirit), fortitude (courage), knowledge, piety, and awe (fear of the Lord); prudence (good sense), justice (what we own others), perseverance, and temperance (self-awareness and self-control).
It certainly includes teaching and preaching that names and explores these virtues. It also matters whether there are several times in our parish's history that we can point to in which some virtue was clearly expressed. But the most important pathway is in the habits and practices of the parish. The beauty and awe of liturgy that expresses our faithfulness and piety that is matched by a stance of patience and forgiveness when mistakes are made. Meetings that use processes that facilitate listening and a spirit of truthfulness and mutual kindness. Being able to lead such meetings requires some awareness of group dynamics, trust development, and skill in methods and processes. (You can find more on groups in Shaping the Parish Resources and Finding God in All Things: Contemplation, Intercession, and Intervention)
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This abides,
Brother Robert, OA
The Feast of Florence Nightingale, Nurse, Social Reformer, 1910