The Rector's Sabbatical

Chill'n at the Cape

2006-07-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

Well - I wish I was chill'n at the Cape! Instead, I and many others are sweathing at the Cape this summer in unseasnonable weather. This last week has seen temperatures in the high 70s and mid 80s! - and, without air conditioning.

Of course, my Tanzanian readers, may say, "so what?"

Like all good conversations, it is safe to start with the weather before moving onto other, deeper items of interest. So, consider the weather covered.

I have just finished the first of three workshops sponsored by the Cape Cod Institute. The workshop was titled "Organizational Therapy" and was led by Dr. Ed Schein, a national and international expert on organizational amd proces consultancy.

Over 80 folk attended the workshop, coming from diverse organziations and countries: heads of departments, hospitals, state education systems, governments sectors - including a rocket scientist! I was the only priest present.

In general I have been using Ed Schein's work for nearly a decade, and in particular, in my disseration, where I extend his theory of consultancy to develop a theory of pastoral consultancy

Ed presented his current thinking on consulting with particulare reference to the concept of "corporatate culture" and its relevance to planned organizational change.

Ed was clear in his presentation that the primary context in which he consults is the "for profit" sector. My task is to take away his concepts and apply them to the "non-profit" sector in general, and the Anglican Church - the parish and diocese in particular.

To use one example about culture. As the week progressed I felt very much the outsider sitting in my discussion group: they in the for profit, big corporations, and heads of departments with budgets in the multi-millions. One chap's consulting company has the British Police force as a client.

Yet, as we talked each day about what we were learning, it forced me to work a little bit harder(it seemed to me) to link the seminar material to my context and my ministry: as a parish priest, a consultant, and a teacher. This work will bear much fruit.

Ed Schein has written a couple of books on the concept of culture in the business world - I think culture is the new buz word - so I have some more reading to do. If you are interested, go to www.amazon.com and see Edwin Schein's books, especially Process Consultancy Revisited.

My second and upcoming workshop this week is on the theory and practice of group facilitation.

Searching for God on the Cape

2006-07-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

This morning I went searching for God on the Cape - well acutally I went to find the local Episcopal Church in Orleans.

It was pretty easy, because on Thursday I got lost looking for the local laundrymat, and found the Episcopal church instead! Yes - there is a sermon is that "lost and found" & and "getting clothes clean".

Oh - I will digress and share a little about the laundry mat episode.

After I found a machine to do my washing I looked in vain to find a change machine to get quarters to feed the washing machine, and, when needed, the spin dryer.

I walk around the laundy mat looking, looking, looking. Nope - no change machine in sight.

Now that seems a little short sighted from a managerial view point, and from the view point of a customer. I need quarters to buy plastic laundry bags, buy laundry detergent, run the washing machine and dryer. I am in despair and in need of help.

But wait, there is hope.

Another customer points me to the coke machine. She walks over and feeds a dollar note into the coke machine, and ignoring the drink selection buttons hits the change button.

Hey presto - four quarters drop. Houston - we have solved the problem! Redemption via a Coke machine no less!

So - back to searching for God. When I was lost, I checked the service times on the Church notice board: 7:30, 9:00 and 11:15 am on Sundays - so the last service looked good.

Today I arrived at the church a little before 11:15 am, parked and asked for directions to the sanctuary - they have sprawling campus. I was told today's service was cancelled. They were hosting a visiting English choir - Exeter - I think the lady said, and so they only had two services. She said if I came on any other Sunday they had an 11:15 am service.

Such is life. I found my way to the sanctuary and sat and said my prayers. I was dissappointed to miss worship two Sundays in a row. Last week my plane flight from Atlanta left at 9:00 am, (on Sunday) so I missed worship, especially the eucharist. I picked up a parish flyer and they have a weekly Thursday service at 5:30 pm, so I will attend it.

Maybe I did met God at the laundymat, because laundymats are where pilgrims meet in Cape Cod.

Part Three of Sabbatical Begins

2006-07-24T17:33:00.000-07:00

Well, part three of the summer sabbatical has begun. On Sunday morning Bev drove me to the airport at 6:30 am. I then caught a 9:00 am flight to Boston, which arrived at just before noon. Then I caught the shuttel bus to Enterprise Rent a Car and picked up my rental - a very small saturn vehicle.

The drive to Cape Cod took about two hours - the traffic was light, and weather slightly overcast.

Today I attended the first of five daily sessions on "organiztional therapy" being sponsored by the Cape Cod Institute. There are over 80 folk doing this course - lots of consultants, department heads, i.e. "movers and shakers." I am the only priest in the room.

The course is being taught by Edgar Schein, the leading theoriest and practictioner of process consultancy in the United States, if not, the world. He has taught at several prestigious universities, and consulted with many national and international organizations.

I have been familiar with his work, through his books, for several years, and used his work in my dissertation.

I am staying at a bed and breakfast at Nauset, which is on historical register. It is old - but very comfortable. The weather is fine, clear skys and hot, for this time of year.

My only exciting event so far has been my hair shampoo leaked in my plastic travel bag, and this morning, when I opened it to shave, the shampoo was on and in every thing, it was a mess!

So - in the order of existential despair - it was a minor occassion.

The Other Soccer

2006-07-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

The Other Soccer Match

You may have heard or seen something of the various world cup soccer matches, especially the final game with some rather un-sportsman like behavior.

Unfortunately, I was on the Holy Island of Iona, Scotland for the final game, and there was not a TV set in sight. My wife Beverly would dispute this and see it as fortunate!

Nevertheless, there was another soccer match a few weeks ago at Msalato Theological College. It was the annual student/staff game.

The student team was made up of graduating students: an opportunity to students to say goodbye to their beloved teachers, role models, and markers of term papers.

All male staff are automatically on the team, but, we were still short a few players. The daughter of teaching staff joined our team, as did Marty McCann, and the Rev. Sandy.

We were fashionably dressed in some very nice lawn bowls shirts – they look very much like soccer shirts – donations to the college from an Anglican parish in New South Wales, Australia. (I wonder what they were thinking when they sent them?)

Our dangerous players (in terms of scoring) were the Dean, Dr. Dickson and Rev. George Oketh. Those of us who had never player soccer before were of most danger to ourselves.

That would be me.

Early in the first half I was vigorously defending against an attacking player. As an ex-rugby player I have always relished the excitement of attack and defense in sport, and I have always “thrown” myself into the action.

Which is exactly what I did: During a tackle on an opposing player, we both went down, and I went down the hardest.

Unfortunately, the referee did not see my passion for the game as sportsmanlike, and I was given a red card for my over-vigourous play. I disputed the call, but, I abided by the referees decision (no head buts).

I felt okay the next day, but, several days later the pain began: the source - two cracked ribs! The irony for me is that I played rugby union for 17 years, plus competition karate, and several seasons of water polo, all without a broken bone. Such is life!

I must say the game was played in good spirit and the final score was 3-3.

Do You Have a Kitchen?

2006-07-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Some Final Thoughts on Tanzania
Last month, lots of people were getting ready to leave Msalato Theological College, including some teaching staff and students.

All students are packing up to leave college on Monday June 26 for the end of year (academic that is) and get home as quickly as possible. The majority of students return July 28 for the beginning of the new academic year. For those who graduated on Sunday, June 25 their immediate future is unclear.

Students already ordained wait anxiously for word from their Bishops on where they will be sent. Appointments in the Anglican Church in Tanzania and other places in Africa are made by the Bishop about the middle of each year.

Each year the list comes out, and clergy are eager, but not always favourably to hear where they are to serve the church. Some students fear they will be placed in a remote village with no power – and thus no TV, no running water, no public transport, and no shops.

A computer center with internet access is a recent addition to Msalato Theological College, and for some students the thought of no access to the net is simply depressing.

For the single students they have the added concern of how they will survive, especially in a culture where women shop, cook, clean, get water, gather fuel, and grow the vegetables: All of which is extremely labour intensive and time consuming.

For single male students the deadly question is, “Do you have a kitchen?”

In Tanzania, this is the way of asking, “Do you have a wife?” Social role and status is defined in traditional African culture and in parish life. A single male clergy in a village can be decidedly unattractive, to the congregation to say the least, and, terrifying at the most for the cleric for a variety of reasons.

Being single and being appointed to a village means the student will need some chairs, and a table (one chair costs between one and two months income), dishes and bowls to cook and serve food, and clothes, (plus a bicycle would be really handy). So the question becomes, “how will the priest do his job and keep house?”

Of course, there is the challenge of getting you stuff to the village. There are no package stores to buy boxes, so even boxing you stuff is problematic, let alone getting it on the bus (dala dala), and then to the village. Having a “kitchen” is handy.

And, of course, every mother in the village will see the single cleric as the ticket to get their single daughter out of the village, and begin to ascend the social hierarchy of the church. In African culture, being the wife of a pastor carries a lot of social clout, and is a highly favoured position.

So if he doesn’t have kitchen when a priest goes to a village, then the odds are, he will have one when he leaves.

Half Way at Finhorn in Bonnie Scotland

2006-07-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

We are half way on the Scottish leg of our pilgrimage. We have been staying in B&Bs, which unfortunately do not have internet access.

Bev and I are travelling with our good friends Clem and Jane, and we are staying with their friends, Angus and Ann in Findhorn. Today we drive west to Oban in Scotland where we will leave the car, and then bus, ferry and bus to Iona where we will stay for three nights.

So far we have visited the parish church of Dame Julian and visited her cell, in Norwich, then we stayed overnight at Durham and visited the catedral and the castle. Durham cathedral has the tomb of The Venerable Bede - the first church historian and the remains of St. Cuthbert.

Next we travelled to the Holy Island at Lindisfarne where we stayed overnight. We attended evening prayer and then morning eucharist in the parish church. Lindisfarn is an important site for early christianity in England - it is where the Lindisfarne Gosopels were writtten, the originals are in the British Museum (they date to the 7th Century).

We walked to the Castle before leaving for Crail, Scotland our next overnight stop. Crail is a small fishing village in nth Scotland, about 2 hrs from St. Andrews - know for its famous university and golf.

Clem and I visited the British museum of Golf while Jane and spent some time is Starbucks meditating.

We continued the drive north and visited the bendictine monastery at Pluscarden. It was a brief stop - I was here 12 years ago for a week's retreat.

We then drove on Findhorn - we arrived on Friday. On Friday I became ill and spent all Saturday in Bed. I have fever and sweats - I feel better today but not completely well.

Lost Blogs and Photos
I have copies of all the photos I have taken and used in blogs, and most of the blog texts as well. When I return to Atlanta I will attempt to re-post my old blogs.

The Journey Continues

2006-07-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

After being on the road for almost a week and being off-line, today I discovered some major problems with my blog address - it is gone! As are my stories and photos - so I start again.

I have some stories post on my last week in Msalato, our trip (Rev. Bev has arrived) to Dar es Salaam and the exotic island of Zanzabar, and our trip yesterday to Norwich Cathedral and the cell of Dame Julian of Nowich.