The first evening was replete with surprises.
CPSP serves good Irish whiskey.
CPSP folk are from all over, and even though there is a venerable white male contingent with whom I fit uncomfortably well there is some significant diversity of skin tone, language to a limited extent, gender, and experience.
It rains CPE supervisors. I remember those folks being less accessible. Or maybe I was, out of intimidation, oh so many years ago.
I sat down with a circle of elder statesmen on a patio and sipped Jamesons. A Ken, a Dave who is Co-President-Elect, a George who turned out to be from Ireland and proved it with a disarming unself-conscious way of storytelling. An Al, who asked me to remember him to Kevin Henne and said something about palliative care.
A young man who is a "Community Chaplain" in urban New York. Still want his stories.
The day proved rich and it started at breakfast. Ate with a couple of exuberant personalities, a sophisticated multi-lingual tall man from Quebec named Orville and a delightfully gregarious woman named Paula and I spoke first about their work. Both supervisors, they told of the joy upon seeing both new ministry dawn in their own lives as well as seeing realization and insight and integration dawn in their students' lives.
Something clicked inside of me. I thought of how I had assumed that, at age 57, I was on the downward slope of my active years, that my present job was my last gig, and that if I made it to 65 tops with my health intact I would be hanging things up, doing a little dabbling here and there.
I resonated with their description of bringing something to birth inside of seekers, as that has been my greatest joy lo these many years, whether with youth or with parishioners earnest about deepening their lives with Christ or with those seeking a more explicit and public ministry or with Academy students in the Diocese. I spoke aloud the word "midwife" and both of my companions stirred, reacting. I spoke also of the dual role of midwife and hospice worker in the context of leading a congregation, the slow death and new life visible there, and they understood. Orville remarked on how the Plenary process begins early.
And so it did.
The speaker, Richard, is quietly compelling. Near as I can ascertain this early in, the "Tavistock approach" he represents invites the unacknowledged and unintegrated experience of individuals and groups. The starting point is the body, somatic experience. Tavistock explores how the experience of the body, intersecting with the mind, engages one's role, which is an expectation or charge within an organization. One "embodies" an organizational role, and there is a dynamism between the individual impacting organization and the organization shaping (or contorting) the individual, often in suppressive ways.
If that is all wrong, I shall be interested, or should I say "curious", to be further enlightened.
Didactic sessions alternate with group work, for the essence of change, according to this understanding, happens in relation to individuals.
The day was long and exhausting, but very rich, and after dinner with a pair of Mormon CPE students, who patiently answered my questions about the Mormon epic historical narrative of the 19th century, I dove into solitude, grateful for my private room. I intended to 'blog last night but found myself exhausted and instead gazed glassy-eyed at an impenetrable sci-fi movie then tried to sleep.
In spite of my exhaustion sleep proved harder to come by than I had hoped. I had my journal at hand, intending to catch a dream, as there is a dream-workshop built into the morning. I think my unconscious decided to be mischievous and petulant, irritated at my intent to violate its privacy. But I did catch a dream in the wee hours of the morning, suitably bizarre to be grist for the mill, and so type sleepy but satisfied, sipping the cup of hotel-room coffee that the little machine obligingly chugged and huffed for me.
I did not know what to expect coming here--a gathering of good old boys/girls and walking about politely among a lot of back-slapping, insider-talk about the inner politics of an organization that I have joined without knowing much about beyond the life of our Chapter, some speaker speaking. There have been elements of all of these, but frankly there has been so much more. I did not expect the almost-audible "click" of shared call, insight and inner exploration, and new possibilities. I like this group of people, the geographic and ecumenical mix, the variety of ministerial and professional experience, the graybeards (among which I get beginner seating due to my own hoary hairs), at least some diversity of faiths and skin-tone and language.
I like the openness and frankness of many of the conversations, the commonality amidst diversity. It's already worth the journey.
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