More on reconciliatory leadership

During one of our sessions at the staff planning days yesterday there was a picture of a herd of elephants to remind us of Bishop Duleep Chickera's wonderful Bible study on reconciliatory leadership

here's a quote from the study:

And finally and perhaps most importantly, grievance, in Christian spirituality is always an invitation to growth in unity, mission and witness. An illustration from the community life of elephants may help us understand this better. (In fact a study of the community life of elephants is a fascinating exercise and may even have some lessons here for the ecumenical movement! For instance the leader of the herd is always a female and when young males become troublesome they are driven out of the herd by the mature females !!) Recent research tells us that elephants communicate through murmuring sounds in their stomach which can be heard only by the herd and for quite a distance too. One of the most common “stomach” communications from the matriarch to the rest of the herd, is “let’s move”. Similarly in Christian spirituality the murmurings of people is God saying “Let’s move “ and wise Reconciliatory Leadership will see this as an invitation to a fresh experience of unity, witness, mission and growth.