Combining

As I have already said, I’ve been pondering a planning exercise with a logo, slogan, and title that comes from a story in the Bible.  It’s certainly not an unusual way to go for strategic planning in church land.  It’s designed to suggest a new direction coming out of a pandemic.  I wonder though, if it is missing something when asking about where we are and where we are going. This was the time that our institution, along with our schools, our workplaces and our law courts became digital. You can’t start from there and get to here.

People complain now that their buildings are burdens.  They were doing so before the pandemic hit because of the cost of utilities, mortgages and aging infrastructure – but at least the churches were open then. Many places of worship have been locked and mostly dark for months on end. One that I know did put a small altar inside at the entrance – and some people walked up to the closed doors to see it and said their prayers.  The only other time I have observed similar behaviour was when I visited the Czech Republic during its last year under communist rule. Church vestibules were open but further entry was blocked by glass barriers. I frequently saw parents taking small children inside and whispering to explain what the spaces were about. Sometimes there were elderly ladies on their knees saying their beads inside; they must have entered defiantly through side doors but were assumed to be harmless to the regime.

For about 24 months, we couldn’t sing.  Part of my working life has been administering an organization that supports choirs and I have been a lifelong chorister myself. For many, singing in any choir is a lifeline to connecting with other people; we sit physically close to one another; we listen to the nearest voice and try our best to make a blended sound. The pandemic cut the lifeline. To compensate, some singers recorded a few lines on their phones singing at home alone –  heard how that single voice croaked and sounded terrible without the others – and sent a small tape to someone technically sophisticated enough to compile several files into one after dozens of hours – to be sent back out into the world as a one minute recording.

We couldn’t worship together. Clergy read lessons, preached in an empty space, conducted services with one person present and sent recordings one after another into the world. Alternatively a gathered grid of familiar faces appeared on screen. When they spoke at the same time it was a small cacophony of voices. Zoom changed from an active verb to a passive noun. You became joined to Tube – the latter used to refer to a TV screen – but no more. Or nothing happened at all.

Now we say we are coming back to normal.  But what is normal about still singing or preaching through a mask? What is normal about preferring to wear pajamas while watching church online, drinking coffee and checking email at the same time? We are grateful for technology as we advertise our online services. But are we pausing to ask – who are we now?  What is our work now? Where are we going? How are we using technology for our purpose?  How is technology using us?

Achievement

From Reinhold Niebuhr’s, The Irony of American History:

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness.”

How might this relate to the climate emergency? Just because we can’t achieve success in our lifetime, it means we have to play a part. We need to have faith in both small actions and join others in taking larger ones. It does seem that in some respects we don’t act because we can’t forgive ourselves for what we as a species have done. It is a paradox that we are also the species who can do so.

Never Again

Pope Francis has come and gone with an apology that was healing for some and unsatisfactory for others in both church and First Nations communities. The government’s lack of action has not escaped notice either.

What some, but not all, missed was his indictment of Christianity itself. Our arrogance in assuming that one religion is superior to all others is something we learn well when we are young and much time has to elapse before we even know that there are other possibilities with histories and an integrity of their own.

One of the pundits got it right in noting something that Pope Francis said to his bishops and followers. Nigaan Sinclair probably knew a different story from him father, Senator Murray Sinclair from the beginning of his life. The pope said.

“The pain and the shame we feel must become an occasion for conversion: never again! And thinking about the process of healing and reconciliation with our indigenous brothers and sisters, never again can the Christian community allow itself to be infected by the idea that one culture is superior to others, or that it is legitimate to employ ways of coercing others.”

Nigaan Sinclair commented to the TV host what a difference it would have made had a pope said this five hundred years ago? How would our history be different in this land? It speaks to the depth of the damage and the need to learn more quickly how to undo it. It will not be easy. It must happen.

An Elder Paves the Way

So many messages don’t receive an audience. Jane Goodall could teach many of us who want to communicate about a cause to think of the channels used by the receivers rather than the senders. She founded Roots and Shoots to speak to the coming generation about the three crises we currently face - biodiversity loss, climate change, and environmental inequality.

“Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, we shall be saved.” she says. She notes that we have been stealing the futures of the young at least since the industrial revolution. But the young are interesting what she has to say - and they have influence over their parents and grandparents and the way they think. Those adults may be CEOs or senior government officials and the influence of the young reaches others with decision making power.

She founded a global institute in 1991 - and it now has a Canadian chapter here. In a recent interview with Fast Company, she spoke about partnering with a comic book publisher to tell the story in a meaningful way for its readers. Starting as a book called Rewriting Extinction, the formats are monthly cartoon videos - webtoons - with scripts read by celebrities. What we can do alone is wonderful, she reminds us - but what we can do with at least one other person can be even better. The cartoon reading platform has 72 million global readers. You can become another one and share it with kids you know.

Mimicking Four Footed Friends

Something stolen from the late Robert Genn when he was talking about inventiveness and creativity.

Researchers conclude that animal activities are based on both inherited traits and observational learning. Further, creative and inventive tendencies run in families and species. For example, the comprehension records for dog vocabularies — 400 words or more — are held by Border collies, a breed traditionally involved in sheep management, where continued employment depends on the accurate hearing of a master’s commands. These dogs learn words quickly — ball, stick, keys, doll, Frisbee — and fetch the object called for. Alert and cooperative, they can be called upon to identify dozens of individual humans by name.

and there is more:

Creativity is closely related to invention. Other factors include the love of play and the ability to use tools. Studies of animal behaviour are constantly finding new evidence of play and tool activities. Creativity is not just the property of Homo sapiens. Apes select from a supply of different lengths of prepared sticks to dig grubs from crevices. Dolphins leap for joy and perform self-motivated tricks in unison. Invertebrate octopi toy with plastic bottles by squirting them with jets of water. Closer to home, kittens and puppies show innate tendencies to play..

Playfulness helps us to deal with solving wicked problems. It takes some of the pressure off taking ourselves so seriously - and as Jane MxGonigal says in her new book - only available in digital format so far but still well worth a buy - it is one of the best ways to start to imagine our future.