Reflections on the Local versus the Churchwide - Where is Our Ground?

Tomorrow will mark 14 days since the last day of Executive Council’s first meeting of this triennium. It feels to me both more distant than a mere 14 days ago and also more recent at various times here in northern Colorado. The pass-through of Superstorm Sandy has placed another layer of unreality to this passage of time and distance from the Church Center offices in New York City.

This is a fake photo of Superstorm Sandy. Credit: @ry_hudson

The East Coast metro areas, including the New Jersey shoreline, come through our television sets and computer monitors like fictional movie sets reflecting Sandy’s horrific water, wind, and fire destruction that strain credulity. We are much more accustomed and inured to the images of destruction and human misery from places like Haiti and Cuba, where the distance is also measured in otherness, racism, and classism. We “get” the poor; we have been told that they will always be with us.

Many Episcopalians have commented on the physical, psychological, and sometimes spiritual, distance of “Church Center” from where they have their daily being and encounters with the people with whom, and for whom, they serve. Some of those experiences of distance were the impetus for the General Convention resolution that directs the move away from 815 Second Avenue, New York City.

Building bridges is hard work. It must be directed both inward into the organization to bridge hierarchy, privilege, and factionalism, as well as outward into the community to bridge class, race, and languages. The long-term, sacrificial investment necessary for successful bridge building is enormous. Bridge building is a “both-and” endeavor alongside the more easily recognizable and accepted mission and ministry endeavors like feeding the poor and housing the homeless. And, let us not forget – there have always been casualties in bridge building.

Six-year terms for Executive Council members, interrupted by mid-term elections of half of Council, aren’t particularly conducive to the long-term perspective, institutional memory, and perseverance essential to institutional transformation. Because of both the structure of the volunteer Council members’ service and the election process in both General Convention and the provinces, we also typically don’t elect the charisms and skill sets needed for effective governance. Additionally, we don’t have representation of the wide diversity of the church amongst our elected leadership. One might ask, “so, what else is new?” (Much more on structure issues of participation to come in future posts.)

I have had recent conversations with folks here in Colorado, including my husband, another General Convention deputy, and a long-time friend whose ministry is to help congregants form healthy relationships with money, about my service at the churchwide level and its relevance to folks at the local level. I will continue to share my evolving thoughts on this subject in this blog as I gain awareness and clarity. Some of the recent “a-ha” moments have been a bit of a surprise and a definite challenge to my “druthers.”

I purposely volunteered to co-chair the stewardship “campaign” in my parish this season. Most Episcopal churches engage the topic of stewardship in the fall, as we build our budgets for the next calendar year and try to influence congregants to give generously to support the work of the local and wider church through messages of gratefulness, generosity, and tithing. A large part of my motivation for volunteering for this role is an overwhelming desire to reconnect with my home parish, the community that has raised me up for church leadership and the community that grounds me in my identity as a member of The Episcopal Church.

When I am away, which has been frequently in the past three to five years, I often have an underlying feeling of being adrift, unanchored, and sometimes, unsupported. It is true that my faith keeps me strong. However, it is also true that as people of an incarnational faith, who believe in a fully human Son of God, Jesus, we also need the incarnational presence of our communities of faith to succor us and make real for us our connection to the Kindom of God.

If one were to generalize, I would say that many of us Episcopalians tend to be relatively intellectual about our faith, experiencing God more in our heads than in our bodies, finding it generally easier, and also, more pleasurable, to talk about our relationship with God than to experience our relationship with God through hands-on, in-person relationships with the other in the communities where we make our homes. I do not say this as a judgment. I am merely making an observation. It is an observation that unsettles me, because I am beginning to see and to admit that I am myself frequently not relevant to vast swaths of the church, especially to the younger generations.

For the moment, in my parish, I’ve recruited six guest preachers to deliver a variety of stewardship messages, asking them to focus on formational topics that look beyond dollars and cents. I’ve also participated by leading African Bible Study on each Sunday’s Gospel between the 8:00 and 10:00 o’clock services. The Bible Study, more so than anything else, has really connected me spiritually with my parish family. I am happy to report that there is sufficient interest in the Bible Study for us to keep this effort going after Stewardship season is over.

Although I am a so-called “churchwide leader” in my capacity as a member of Executive Council and as chair of Council’s Joint Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking for Mission, I believe that it is my membership and participation in my local parish where I must have my ground and being as a member of the Body of Christ. This is the place from which my participation in leadership must emanate. This is foundational for every one of us.

Let Love Triumph Over All

Life is hard

We are called to lighten one another’s load

not add to it

Life is hard

Why do some feel the need to dump on others

in order to make themselves feel bigger

and more important

when what they are doing

is making others feel smaller

and less important

I have witnessed the unkindness

and it grieves my heart

to breaking

I have experienced the unkindness

and a part of me dies each time

Words of kindness

and affirmation

are easy, my friends

Words of lovingkindness

and support

are life-giving

When we commend life

to one another

we are co-creators

of life unending

When we speak words that build up

we raise the heads of all

to turn their faces to the sun

to plant flowers for their sheer beauty

to wrap our arms around the little ones

and hold them safe in Love’s embrace

Love’s embrace is

worth losing all of Ego’s selfishness

and walking in equality,

justice and peace

for all,

for all,

for every one of us

Amen. Let it be so.

Collaboration & Cooperation Will Be Key

Filled with Hope

            Now that the first Executive Council meeting of this triennium is over, I am filled with hope. I am very hopeful that Council is embarked on a new path as we approach the work we have been given. The markers of this new path are a public acknowledgement from both presiding chairs* and the COO* of the importance of collaboration and cooperation between Council and the DFMS* staff. This collaboration is absolutely essential to make a meaningful dent in that work.

            Collaboration and cooperation must also be supported by our willingness to remove our egos from the work. It should not matter to either Council or DFMS staff who gets the credit for initiating or completing the work. After all, neither Council nor staff are likewise eager to claim the blame when things go awry. From my perspective, the work is simply too urgent and too important to get bogged down in playing credit games. I somehow can’t see our Maker or St. Peter reviewing credit tally sheets at the Pearly Gates.

Overwhelmed

            I am also overwhelmed at the amount of work before us. Maybe that volume of work always existed, and I was just unaware of it as a Council member. I suspect that staff has had a better awareness, because they have had to organize and implement the work.

            In this triennium, I will be approaching this work as chair of Council’s Joint Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking for Mission (A&N), and my field of vision seems vast. Part of my responsibility as a committee chair is to assist committee members in getting our arms around the work so that we can be both global and specific as we approach the work. I intend to articulate clearly the lenses that we will apply to view the work, the mandates and sources of the work assignments, and the time priorities that we will apply to doing the work. 

Priorities

            An aside about priorities: I think that we sometimes get confused about priorities. I often hear talk about priorities, meaning some notion about the rank ordering of the importance of subjects. However, I also hear the notion of priorities applied to the sequencing of important activities or projects, but not necessarily in the same rank ordering as to their importance. When we lack clarity as to which priorities we are talking about, we then easily fall into a morass where there are blame and accusations as to our sisters and brothers not caring about those subjects that are nearest and dearest to our hearts.

            In rank ordering tasks, considerations such as timing of budget expenditures, availability of staff time, and lead time needed for scheduled meetings must be factored into our planning, and they don’t always coincide exactly with the rank ordering of importance of these same tasks. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about: my daughter’s surgery and preparing for the trip to the hospital rank high in importance as to subject. However, taking the trash to the curb ranks higher in terms of scheduled events and must be done before we pack the car and leave for the hospital, because the trash truck is coming today while we’ll be at the hospital. If we miss the trash truck today, we don’t get another chance to take the trash out again until next week.

New Class 

            The new class of Council members elected by both General Convention and the nine Provinces of The Episcopal Church is exciting. The new members arrive well equipped with numerous, relevant graduate degrees and thinking skills that indicate they got their money’s worth in their educations. They also have a plethora of for-profit, non-profit, and church leadership experience that they appear eager to tap and apply to our work. The new class’ desire to make a contribution and create new solutions to old problems reflects their deep love for our part of Christ’s Body. Their commitment is palpable.

            The average age of the new Council members also appears to be, I’m estimating, about eight years younger than the continuing class. Listening to the new Council members in one-on-one conversations and as they participate in plenary and committee discussions, I feel assured that Council’s new members will not hold back, after this first introductory, orientational meeting. I would encourage them to be bold in speaking their minds, taking the chance that they just might be right and have something important to open up the conversations and take us to additional perspectives and solutions.

Balance

            Balance between boldness and deliberateness in approaching Council’s decision-making is necessary, and I vote for erring on the side of boldness. Knowing when to be bold and when to be deliberate will always be a source of tension.

            In this Council meeting, I did, however, speak up for deliberateness in discussing the Marks of Mission block grants. I believe there had been insufficient time for those discussions in our joint standing committees and in plenary in this Council meeting. I want to have in-depth discussions that allow Council members to be apprised of the thinking that went into the Marks of Mission project teams assembled by the COO and co-convened by staff and Council members. I want Council members to share their ideas that might further shape the proposed initiatives for living into the Marks of Mission and application of the block grant funds. I welcome the opportunity for Council committee members and staff to convene through online and teleconference meetings to do this work between this and the February 2013 Council meeting.

Promise

            I promise to write often and openly about what I’m doing in Council in this triennium, and I invite your comments both here on this blog and also directly to me by email at LelandaLee@gmail.com. Please keep Council and DFMS staff in your prayers.

Tackling the big hairy topic

I'm on an energy high these days, because I've been invited to engage in a lot of important work that I'm passionate about with really great, smart, stimulating, caring people. A young woman I'm serving with asked me how I handle the overload of information that exists for a big topic that impacts society at every level. Here's what I wrote to her:

"What a very, very good question. Yes, of course, we all go into a sense of profound overwhelm, sometimes even frequently. 

Here's what I think and how I handle it.

I remember what Mother Teresa said when asked about all the poverty and ills in the world. She said that she just began with the person in front of her. That's comparable to adages like "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step." 

I know that management workshops teach people to prioritize and then go to work, but I sometimes find that I can decrease my sense of inertia and anxiety simply by tackling a few small things that are directly in front of me. It's sort of like clearing a path or trimming the edges before doing the real work that's been assigned. It gives me a sense of accomplishment and refreshes my energy and ability to focus. Then, I can prioritize and be more strategic about the long list of things that I have to do.

Skimming is the only way to tackle the information overload that we face as educated people who utilize Web based resources. I use my judgment about which portions of a document, such as a recent lengthy report on Illiteracy and Innumeracy, to read. A wise female professor of management once said, "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well." Of course, the converse is also true: "Things really worth doing are worth doing well." The trick is for those of us who are perfectionists to know when to stop and move on. I try to project and allocate some range of time for my assignments so that I don't work open-ended, without end.

My purpose in surveying as much online material as I did for our committee, and I didn't list everything I read, was to develop a narrative frame from which to think and talk about our big hairy topic. I've done that in my capacity as co-chair, because I wanted to help our committee members grapple with our big hairy topic with some sense of coherence. One of the problems an entity like a national organization faces is the push and pull of many voices telling us that all their agendas are important. They are right; they're all important to someone. But, not all agendas are priorities when weighed against our limited resources of dollars, people, and time. Thus, a narrative frame becomes essential to help organize and prioritize all those topics. 

An analogy is a jigsaw puzzle, which is not a problem that one solves in a linear fashion. So, too, is tackling something like finding coherence and priorities in a topic as huge as our big hairy one. Am I making sense? A jigsaw puzzle is very frustrating in the beginning, but as the pieces slowly come together, our sense of possibility begins to overtake our sense of frustration, and the puzzle begins to form coherency.

Thank you for inviting me to think out loud with you."

Summer Hiatus is Over

I've had a lovely hiatus between the close of General Convention on July 12 and now. It's Fall, and it's time to gear up again for all the duties and assignments for which I've volunteered. Committee assignments, agenda setting, and planning meetings have begun, and I'm ready! Here's a brief recap of the summer since General Convention.

I've only attended a few church related gatherings. A major focus has been to re-engage in the local parish of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Longmont, Colorado, from which I've been routinely absent as I've traveled to serve the church in other dioceses and communities in Colorado. To that end, I'm co-chairing the stewardship effort for this year and enjoying the immersion into parish ministry. I had been invited earlier in the year to contribute a pew bulletin article for The Episcopal Church's Blessed to Be a Blessing stewardship reflection series, and my article can be downloaded here: Proper 24B: Mark 10:35-45.

(L to R) Husband Herb, son Corin, mother Frances,
grandson #2 Aidan (11), me, and grandson #1 Tristan (13)

Me and newborn grandson
Jameson Justin Stewart O'Connell,
born August 15th.

I've also tried to re-ground myself in my family and home, spending time with my son and his family as they welcomed a new baby into the family and with my husband and the other members of our household, my mother and brother. I've cooked some meals, done some laundry, and even picked some cherry plums from the yard. I know from past experience that such re-grounding doesn't happen without intentionality and follow-through.

Corin and Ashley with Jameson.

There was the overnight trip to North Platte, Nebraska, to celebrate the late Rev. Hiram Hisanori Kano, who is revered as a saint in Nebraska and Colorado. Province VI's General Convention resolution to add Fr. Kano to Holy Women, Holy Men has been referred to the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music for further attention. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori preached a wonderful sermon about Fr. Kano's extraordinary response to his call to serve the church. Herb and I were joined by my Executive Council colleague from Seattle, Hisako Beasley, on the four hour drive to North Platte, and we saw many Coloradoans there as well as friends from the wider church. The only glitch was my lack of realization that there was a change in time zones from Colorado to North Platte, although much of Western Nebraska is in the Mountain Time Zone. We were consequently a bit late getting to the Eucharist.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori greets
the people after the festive Eucharist.

North Platte's Episcopal Church of Our Savior hosted a gala
banquet after a 4:00 PM festive Eucharist. Their members
folded Japanese origami cranes as symbols of peace and
honor to display along with proclamations from the governor
and other community dignataries.

My Episcopal Asiamerican Ministry colleagues, (L) Hisako Beasley
and (R) Irene Tanabe, both from Seattle.

Province VI colleague Bill Graham from Nebraska and me.

(L to R) Me, John Andrews from Nebraska, Herb, and Hisako.

Some of the Colorado contingent who traveled to
North Platte for the celebration, including
Adeline Kano (Center), daughter of Fr. Kano.

The assurance that the church year, in terms of church attendance which tends to coincide with the academic September to June year, is beginning again, came with the end of the August Standing Committee meeting at which we finalized a 2013 budget for the Diocese of Colorado to be presented to the Diocesan Convention the first weekend in October. There have also been several General Convention briefing meetings at local churches with a more comprehensive briefing scheduled for September 15 at Saint John's Cathedral from 9:00 to 11:00 AM, to which all are invited.

I am always grateful for Herb's consulting work, which provides our family's livelihood, and he had several assignments late this summer. My job is to handle the back office, from editing and formatting reports and bibliographies to time sheets and billings. This summer there was a job that included reviewing corporate financial reports, which definitely meant that I was more engaged and falling back on my financial spreadsheet analysis background. Depending on the job, I have more or less to do, but Herb is always immersed, traveling to sites and writing reports in our home office.

I've spent this week working on Stewardship, the General Convention briefing, and Executive Council committee work. I am delighted to have been appointed by the Presiding Officers to be chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking for Mission. Our committee's work encompasses social justice and public policy issues, and we are eager to get started. Executive Council's first meeting of the triennium will be held in Newark, New Jersey, from October 15 to 18, one of two four-day meetings, the first organizing meeting and the budget meeting in October, 2014. I'll be blogging regularly again and Tweeting Executive Council meetings @LelandaLee #ExCoun soon! See you then.

I Wish Heaven Had Skype

I came across several active Facebook accounts of deceased friends and relations in the last couple of days. I suspect I've always known that those Facebook accounts were still there and not deactivated. However, after the Aurora theater shootings here in Colorado this past weekend, I'm perhaps more attuned to loss due to death right now. 

Out of curiosity, I browsed through some of the posts since the deaths of the accountholders.

I was surprised there were recent posts and that some of them are frequent and current. Most of the posts express missing the deceased person a whole lot. Many were posted on the deceased person's birthday, probably prompted by the Facebook birthday reminder app. Similarly, some posts were written to share a life event, like a new tattoo, a new boyfriend, or a photo wearing a shirt the deceased person had made. 

Imagine that, posting photos to share with a deceased person. I guess it's not that different than we Chinese burning paper money and furniture for our dead so that they are well equipped in their death journeys. The tangible loss of a loved one due to death doesn't decrease our need for the love, support, and companionship of the deceased loved one. We still have those needs; we just no longer have the particular person who plugged some of those holes in our lives.

The writers talked about how the deceased person was someone they could share deep feelings and secrets with and that no one else had come along since their death to fill that gap. Especially poignant were the comments that said, "I dialed your phone number and then remembered that you're not here anymore," or, "I know you would understand, and you wouldn't judge me."

I also read posts that I would characterize as prayers of intercession. They said things like, 'Watch over me,' or 'I know you're watching over me.' In some ways, it's almost as if holding on to the memory of the deceased person is an amulet against feeling alone and being afraid. It definitely sounded like the posters did not have a belief in God or a faith community to which they could turn in life's tough moments. 

I don't know whether or not the posters have a family in whom they could confide or upon whom they could rely for support. Certainly the statistics and anecdotal evidence point to the loss of strong families and familial support systems for many people in our country. I hear from my mother, who lives with us, about her friends at the senior center that she visits three times a week for social activities. Mom says there are seniors in assisted living facilities, who feel essentially abandoned by their families, with little regular social contact that would affirm, 'You are an interesting person, and we like being around you.' Consider also, all those people in prisons and detention centers. Who is staying in touch with them to remind them of their humanity and that they haven't been forgotten?

One poster on a deceased person's Facebook wall said, "I wish Heaven had Skype," and another poster answered, "It does." A lot of pastoral care happens in the social media in small, daily exchanges like this one. Some of us purposefully are on the alert for opportunities on Facebook and other social media to respond with kindness and friendship when we come across these expressions of longing for hope and affirmation.

My prayer as a person of faith who belongs to a strong faith community, is that we, the faith communities, be the operators on the line who answer the Skype calls to Heaven. Those callers may not be calling our names or calling our churches, synagogues, mosques, temples, or prayer houses, but I am convinced that they are calling us as the members of communities of faith and purveyors of hope. 

I have been convinced for a long time that what many of the lost and the lonely in our country need is someone to be family to them. That's what Herb and I have tried to do in the way we've formed our hanai ohana, a Hawaiian expression that means an intentional, extended family of choice. That is what churches that are following an accompaniment model of ministry understand is needed for building relationships and transforming communities.

Reimagine GC: Eight or Ten Days?

How about Ten or Twelve Days? Because, let’s be factual, accurate . . . and honest. The time required to be at General Convention (GC) if you’re a legislative committee chair, secretary, or aide is two days more than the number of legislative days, and it’s one day more if you’re a member of a legislative committee but not an officer or aide. And if you’re a dutiful bishop or deputy and/or new to GC, then you’re also likely to show up in time to hear the opening comments of the presiding officers and to participate in the orientation sessions for each house on the day before GC officially begins. (Reminder: at GC 2012, 44% of deputies were new.)

GC 2012 officially ran from July 5-12, a total of eight days when the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops were organized and in legislative session. However, legislative officers and aides met for three hours on the afternoon of July 3, and July 4 was even more fully scheduled with two legislative committee sessions (8:00-12:00 and 5:00-7:00), a Program, Budget, and Finance (PB&F) Hearing on Budget Priorities (12:30-1:30), presentations by the Presiding Bishop and President of the House of Deputies to the entire GC (2:00-2:45), and orientation sessions for the bishops and deputies in their own houses (3:00-4:30). (See GC schedule here.) Seriously, did anyone associated with GC want to miss the PB&F priorities hearing even though it occurred on the day before GC officially started?

The first Program, Budget, and Finance hearing on mission
priorities on July 4 was standing room only with people seated
on the floor all around the room. [Photo by Pamela Kandt]

Being accurate about the facts of what we are actually talking about will result in better collective decision-making than having each of us starting from a different understanding of the issue. I'm not arguing in this post about whether eight legislative days are sufficient or whether ten legislative days are better, in order to accomplish what we think is the work we are called to do at GC. We have not as a church yet figured out and agreed upon what we think that work is. I would remind us that God gives us everything that we need, and it is our duty to be good stewards of God's blessings.