Mao's Great Famine - the redundancy of courage or the arbitrary banality of evil?

On the last day of our holiday I read in almost a single sitting Frank Dikötter's brilliant account of Mao's so-called "great leap forward" between 1958-1961. Mao's Great Famine makes for fairly desperate reading and I am still shell-shocked from what I have learned from Dikötter's scholarship. The scale of the sheer wanton destruction of human beings and of the natural environment is beyond comprehension. Scholars disagree how many "additional" deaths occurred because of the famine and the violent terror that accompanied it, but it seems to be between 30 and 45 million people.
Part of me was fascinated to read Dikötter's disection of how power, politics and decision-making took place as the great leap forwards was implemented across the party. Part of me simply felt deeply, deeply sick.
Very occasionally individuals try to act against the system, to hide grain for their villages or their family, to question the irrationality of planting in a way that will kill the seed, to say no. Nearly always they encounter a brutal end. Towards the end of the book we hear about the speech of the one highly placed party official, Liu Shaoqui who actually questions and condemns the leadership - having seen the impact of famine on his home province. "History will judge you and me, even cannibalism will go into the books." We are told that Mao is present for the speech. We are made to understand that the leader will bide his time to have his revenge and this comrade will be purged in the cultural revolution. The famine proved to Mao that the party, and he as its leader, exercised almost total control over the most populous nation on earth. His detached political pleasure at the destruction is frightening.
Reading it I was reminded of the title of Timothy Mo's novel about East Timor "the Redundancy of Courage". The hopelessness of resistance in such a system - the hopelessness of even being able to find out what forms resistance might have taken when destruction is so massive and access to information is managed - the only photos of the time of the great famine are propaganda photos. Sometimes even the story cannot survive yet Dikötter uses the detailed information he finds in the archives he has been allowed access to, to try and tell the story of individuals and communities. He gives people, and the tiny shards of information he finds out about them, a story and a name. It is very moving.
However, you cannot read history like this as a theologian without feeling deeply challenged. There is a passing reference to hope about two-thirds into the book. How destructive hope was for people, giving them energy to struggle on. People hoped that "if only the great leader knew" then things could change for the better, for a more rational future. In the face of this level of destruction of human beings and of humanity how do you preach about God's care for each individual, counting the hairs on each of our heads?
After reading a book like this - I have no answers just questions.

Moving Christian unity ...

Last night the local churches in Geneva organized the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service. It took place in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre this year, there were far more people than in the previous few years so we felt it was successful - and for the most part it was. We began with moving words from Father Megally the priest of Geneva's Coptic Orthodox Church, who thanked the local churches for their solidarity and prayers following the recent tragic attack on the Coptic Church in Alexandria.
The focus of the prayers this year is Jerusalem, the churches there prepared the material for the octave of prayer which is marked by Christians throughout the world. We had Middle Eastern as well as French music at last night's service.
The WCC's general secretary picked up on the theme of Jerusalem and of the table in his sermon
"The table is also a place and space that demands that we think about justice and the way food and access to power are shared in the world, especially at a time when speculation with food prices will mean that the poorest will become poorer, and go hungry."
"Perhaps the image of the table can help us with this, it is around the table that not only bread is broken but that the word is shared; the table is a place of fellowship, of joy, a place for learning and forging reconciliation. The table is also a place and space that demands that we think about justice and the way food and access to power are shared in the world, especially at a time when speculation with food prices will mean that the poorest will become poorer, and go hungry. Of course there is still sadly one table where we as Christians do not yet eat together. We live with the painful reality of our own divisions."

So last night, all went well, people were happy, the chapel was full, more than 30 different confessions were represented including several of the migration churches ... and yet as I look back on it I think that somehow we need to become more missional in our approach to Christian unity. I made a joke about how next year in order to change the age profile of those attending we should do a skateboard service for unity. I think of a friend who is a trained youth pastor and who is finding it hard to find a parish to go to as there are so few young people in the church. So I wonder will we dare next year to invite the church youth movements in Geneva to lead the service and do things a bit differently. It is difficult after something has seemingly worked and been a success to think like this. I'm concerned that we think we have found the formula for something that has worked and that we don't see what isn't working as a result.

So I suppose what I am saying is - things went well and that is good and to be celebrated, but a big challenge remains.

Pondering corruption in the churches

"Corruption in religious instituions is specifically disturbing because these institutions and their representatives are worldwide seen as moral authorities, even in secualr societies. If even pastors and bishops are corrupt, who else can set benchmarks of truth and transparency?"

Christophe Stückelberger of Globethics.net

One of the privileges of being a proof reader is that you get to read books before they are published sometimes. Currently I'm going through an interesting upcoming publication called "Corruption free Churches are possible". It's going to be an excellent resource on issues of transparency, governance and corruption and I'll post a link once it's published.

It has set me thinking though. As a pastor, as an ordained minister, I am keen never to pretend that I am any different from others - neither holier, nor less prone to sin, nor closer to God, nor less vain ... of course we should be shocked when Christians and bishops and pastors lie, or line their pockets ... but I wonder about setting up the religious as supposed paragons of rectitude. Like other Christians I'm just a human being trying imperfectly to follow Jesus. As a pastor I've never felt myself to be a "moral authority" (even tho' I know I can be moralistic on oaccasions) though I have often keenly felt moral responsibility.
Perhaps that's the way forwards - Stückelberger's previous publications have been on responsible leadership - a corruption free church is possible if we all take our moral responsibilities more seriously. One of the things I find particularly heartening in the line that is set out in the book is the multi-disciplinary, systemic and networked approach to tackling corruption that is proposed - linking gender issues (the more women organizations have in leadership the less corruption there tends to be - churches take note!) with structural issues (obsession with hierarchy can encourage corruption).
A friend who recently retired as a church leader with responsibility for congregations and clergy said that one thing he had learned was how bad at managing finance many clergy were. How "responsible" is it of the churches to pay clergy low wages and expect long hours alongside moral rectitude?
Then I think of the time I lived through in the GDR after the fall of the wall and how everyone was obsessed with which pastor or church official had been an (IM) unofficial worker for the Stasi (secret police). A person who knew the GDR churches well remarked at the time that there was actually a much bigger scandal around how money, Western money and state money, had been used by the churches in the GDR yet no one was very committed to writing that story - interstingly noone seems to have done much research in that area.
So I suppose I am left with the thought that although I am not perfect I am still called to exercise leadership both responsibly and accountably.

Poetic, Prophetic and empowering leadership traits for a time of transition and systems failure

Regular readers of this blog know how much Paul Fromont's writing and round ups of theological and spiritual reflections at Prodigal Kiwis contribute to making up for the huge gaps in my own knowledge. About ten days ago Paul posted about the changing leadership challenges and competencies for today's church and world.
Paul points first of all to this post on Next Reformation which is a very stimulating essay by Leonard Hjalmarson looking at complexity in systems and the need for changed models - for revitalising the Ephesians 4 models - in the way we exercise leadership (see APEST on theforgottenway.org). Over the centuries the church has concentrated on developing the shepherd and teacher roles and has found less and less place for apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic gifts. There's also a good reflection on what happens in organisations when systems fail.

The loss of those roles is attributed in part to the Christendom context – a stable and state religion did not know what to do with apostles and prophets and evangelists. I’m also convinced that Alan Roxburgh is right: in times of transition we need the poetic leader type. The poet, like Adam, helps us make sense of our experience. The word in the prologue of John tells how Jesus “became flesh and lived among us.”

I'm very interested in the idea of poetic leadership and can see lots of possibitlites for it - both within and beyond the church. I will have to revisit and re-read the articles linked to from Leonard's posts.

Meanwhile Paul Fromont has slightly reworked and enlarged upon the elements at the end of Leonard's post when looking at the competencies needed and challenges facing leadership - and not just in the churches. I particularly like the look of the Surfing the Edge of Chaos book he links to here, sounds like my sort of thing. That reminds me I've been doing some reading recently about the ancient goddess chaos ... must tap into some of that energy, could make for some interesting poetry!

• Spirit – corporations are spiritual/material bodies. Health is maintained by unifying the two assets.
• Purpose – The purpose of the organization is to create “social capital” by serving its telos. Leadership guards the ethos and ensures that the team knows its purpose. 

• Creativity – The first and most important act is the creative act. Change, youthfulness and energy are requirements until death. 

• Challenge and response – The task of leaders is to create or recognize the current challenge, respond creatively, and avoid a condition of ease. Reliance on yesterday’s success leads to decline. 

• Disturb the system – The urgency to decide and act promptly leads to expansion and advance. Equilibrium is death [for more on this from a business perspective see the excellent Surfing the Edge of Chaos – church leaders could read it equally profitably]
• Unity and diversity – Advancing cultures are socially unifying and become diverse in character. Leaders resist the tendency to homogeneity in personalities and skills. 

• Specialized competence – Specialized knowledge and skills and the integration of those competencies must be pursued vigorously.
• Efficient administration – is required to achieve integration as differentiation increases. Unchecked administration leads to bureaucracy and self-protection. 

• End Command and Control – Decisions should be made by those on-the-spot.

Dreaming dreams ...

This morning walking to the bus and then sitting in the chapel I had, not exactly an epiphany, but in quiet and from pain I arrived at a moment of perception and groped towards wordless understanding of what my rational mind says is intractable.

Then of course the day took over, but even now at the end of the day I still remember the physical feeling of what that groping glimpse of perception gave me.

Others would call it just a day dream.

Generosity - it's a management concept!

Interesting academic article on generosity as a management strategy here. It's all about counter-intuitive generosity very interesting - here's an extract:
if a manager practices counterintuitive generosity — that is, the worse things get, the better he treats his staff — he gets rewarded with employees who are loyal, engaged, and willing to slog through the mud with him.
It's interesting to see that many of these virtuous terms: forgiveness, generosity, integrity, are prized in good leadership and management. They are also often prized in the new social networks and software developments and social networks.
More on this when I get a chance.

Forgiveness in systems

Recently I found myself talking about how for trust to be developed people need to face up to what has happened in the past, learn to say sorry and also try to explain. I thought about this again as I watched a programme about Desmond Tutu on truth and reconciliation. So I eneded up looking at things that have been written on forgiveness in systems. I was fascinated to discover that forgiveness in systems is a concept in social system design and computing. I think I rather like the idea of a forgiving computer system!
Without forgiveness it is hard for individuals groups or systems to more forwards, hard to work for the future without being disproportionately weighed down by the past. I've seen this at work in local churches, families, workplaces and communities. It is never easy to say sorry, yet without it things get stuck and forgiveness cannot even begin. It is long term hard work, yet without it community cannot be built on decent foundations.
Anyway below are some quotes I found helpful and thought-provoking from one of the other things I came across in my internet browsing on forgiveness in systems from "On the Systems Intelligence of Forgiveness" by Laila Seppä. The article particularly uses the South African truth and reconciliation commission as an example but also looks at individuals like Corrie ten Boom and Coretta Scott King who have come to and then worked at deep understanding of forgiveness. A reminder that for systems to change and become more just it is important for individuals to find prophetic voice.

Miraculously, even when confronted with extreme oppression, there are those very special
individuals who do not submit to it. They have the vision of something better and the willpower to go against the current, which often demands courage. Usually they have to work inside the system, but fortunately they are strong enough to resist.

Systems intelligence is based on a principle of humbleness and optimism for change, which
acknowledges that one’s perspective of others might be drastically mistaken (Hämäläinen and
Saarinen 2006). Beliefs regarding structures produce behaviour and people’s behaviour often
reflects their best guesses of rational behaviour. They can get caught in systems that serve
nobody’s interest and feel helpless regarding their possibilities of changing the system, in this
case apartheid (Saarinen and Hämäläinen 2004). They can even conceal their real thoughts
because they are part of the system of holding back, which means that many of the core beliefs of people do not show up in their action (Hämäläinen and Saarinen
2006). People can feel insecure and as heretics and dissidents are despised by the system they are too frightened to speak up (Tutu 1999, Nouwen 2005, Varto 2005)

To forgive does not mean that you have to forget. It is not hypocrisy and turning your blind eye to the wrong. True reconciliation exposes the awfulness, the abuse, the pain, the truth (Tutu 1999). It means telling what happened, talking about it. Trying to forget by sweeping the past under the carpet means you get trapped with your past. A much better way is to express your hurt: “I will carry the memory of what you have done with me. I will not forget but I refuse to let what you have done stand between us. I refuse to allow it to create a permanent barrier between us. I still want you in my life.” (Carpenter 1998).

Mind the gap ...

When I read Steve Taylor's post defining what leadership is for him today I knew I would have to repost it and of course I knew I knew I wouldn't be able to resist giving this post the title "mind the gap" title from the London Underground. This is how Steve - who teaches mission - currently defines leadership:

"Leadership is being deeply aware of the gap between what is, and what is not yet, and having the courage to attend to the gap."

Minding the gap as a theological and leadership task spoke to me and challenged me. I've been thinking about my own inability to live with emptiness, with the void. As Easter approaches I know that I shall find that challenge there again - the empty tomb at the end of Mark's gospel which causes the women to flee away in fear ... yet perhaps it is only by having the courage to attend to the gap, to the space between, that we can bear witness to the resurrection.

Jealousy and good and evil while finding meaning for life in Genesis 4:6-7

Today I have been teaching catechism (KT) and we tried to address issues of good and evil, as well as issues of commitment and engagement. I'll blog later about our reading of the whole of the passion narrative from Luke's gospel but we began by reading the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. Where does evil come from, is it within us, beyond us? Verses 6 and 7 particularly struck me, full of profound theological insight. Here are two English translations for you to get a feel for:

The Lord said to Cain, ‘Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.’

The LORD said to Cain:What's wrong with you? Why do you have such an angry look on your face?

If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling. But you did the wrong thing, and now sin is waiting to attack you like a lion. Sin wants to destroy you, but don't let it!

This part of the story spoke powerfully to me today about the anger vortex, how we can let ourselves be eaten up by it, how it can eat away at us and at our relationships. The French version we were working with today has sin spread like a carpet at the door ... interesting the different images used to get the message across.
Really though the question is how do we deal with our feelings of anger, of being mistreated. Will we let the feelings destroy us and others or will we try to take responsibility and address ourselves to a different kind of goal?

What do we wish upon our enemies? And what do we do when bad things happen to them?

Jesus is unequivocal "love your enemies".

I am not Jesus, and quite often and quite sinfully I hate my enemies. I suppose I take the rather elemental approach of the Psalms of imprecation. On the positive side I suppose if I have strong feelings it's better that I don't try to pretend they're not there ... that is a pretty lame excuse isn't it? How do we move, how do I move, from hatred to love of enemies? Acknowledging the strong feelings and trying to find their root is one step, but changing behaviour, changing feelings is quite another.
Years ago a person I had strong negative feelings about - perhaps not quite hatred but not so far off - had something terrible happen to them. That event brought me up sharp. Did I really think that this person was in some way evil and deserved to have horrible things happen to them? Rediscovering compassion for that person all those years ago, being able to pray for them helped transform my hatred into something more positive.
Since that time I have also realised that my feelings of hatred harm me, eat me up sometimes. So the call to love the enemy is also a call back into relationship not just with the other but also with oneself - myself - and I do suffer from self hatred too. I am my own hated enemy on many occasions.
I am a person with elemental and powerful feelings, but the call to love the enemy is about practical relationship building. Sometimes we are not strong enough to do that on our own. It is hard to listen to Christ's call and know how far I am from it. The Bible exhorts us time and again to see that every individual is equally loved by a loving God.

Sometimes we hate for personal reasons, sometimes we hate because we have a need to personifiy evil; sometimes we hate because systems and organisations aren't working properly, because integrity is not longer part of the processes we're involved in. This can happen in churches, schools, prisons, families and private companies ...

As a result of other reading - more about that in later posts - I've come across Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect, which charts how good people can take the path of evil. The preface to the book charts his involvement in part of the Abu Ghraib investigations. What are the situational forces at work that lead individuals to choose to torture, to bomb, to lie, to abuse power, to kill?

Every time I do not manage to overcome with love my hatred of an individual, I too am more of a fallen angel than a follower of Christ.

"Be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good" Romans 12.21

Leadership, responsibility, transparency ...

“Value the work of others, the dignity of your own work is not diminished by this.”

It's been a while since I quoted anything from an all staff meeting but our new general secretary offered us this quote on Monday. It moved me quite deeply, because I know that it is intended for me just as much as it is intended for others. Relationships in the workplace are of such key importance, yet they can never always be easy.
I also liked the story that this phrase had been found by him and his cousins in one of his aunt's cookbooks when they were sorting through her things after her death.
In many ways this short sentence almost represents a spiritual exercise - what is it that I can value in work done by others, even when relationships are strained? It really does almost sound like something my spiritual director might ask me do ...
Quite a challenge in the workplace.

Ten marks of leadership - more from Prodigal Kiwis

I have lots and lots I want to actually write and blog about - hypermobilitiy, the improbability of the good Christmas sermon, the role of design in building up community and relationships, lots of books and more thoughts about Venice - but for the moment I'm just using my blog as a way to keep track of some of the things I've been reading on leadership. Below is yet more from Paul Fromont at Prodigal Kiwis on the book pictured here. I find it partiuclarly interesting that much of the thinking around leadership in the churches is coming from those thinking about mission.
Developing Change Leaders: The principles and practices of change leadership development ~ Paul Aitken (Author), Malcolm Higgs

Here's what Paul Fromont wrote:

Mike Crowl, writing from “the mainland”, recently pointed me to what sounds like a fascinating "leadership" read – Developing Change Leaders (US: Nov. 2009 / 318 pages / pb.) written by Paul Aitken and Malcolm Higgs.

Mike writes:

“...In the latest NZ Institute of Management newsletter there's a short piece on some master classes held by visiting speaker, Paul Aitken (the author of Developing Change Leaders). Aitken calls the following ten points the 'dynamic capabilities' needed by change leaders.

1. Dealing with ambivalence – having the capacities to “wait and see”, keep an open mind and be comfortable with contradiction;
   
2. Accessing the diverse range of capabilities across the leadership team;
   
3. Creating a learning environment;
   
4. Future sense-making combined with strategic thinking which requires a strong external focus;
   
5. “Total” or authentic leadership – i.e., an ability to continually walk the talk;
   
6. Trans-cultural competence – an awareness that one size doesn’t fit all;
   
7. Relational skills – the ability to coach;
   
8. Dialogue skills – or process consulting;
   
9. Emotional intelligence;
   
10. The ability to manage the high quality performance challenge, culture and dialogue.

Aitken says, “If people can’t relate well or have quality conversations with people, then they’re not going to be leading anyone.” Church leaders, take note!”

Thanks Mike; that was a useful distillation of some key themes in relation to leadership at this point of time and on into the future.

You can find a 15 minute radio interview (can be listened to online or downloaded as an Mp3) here. Gill South offered a few thoughts on Aitken’s understanding of leadership here in a NZ Herald story (14/12/09).

Leadership, diversity and Hauerwas

As ever I benefit from the reading and erudition of others as I continue thinking and writing about leadership. Prodigal Kiwis are a great read and a good reality check for clergy like myself. There are many, many people out there who love God, are fascinated by theology but really cannot hack the church at all ... a real challenge for those like me who work for the institution.
Anyway more on that another time for now here are some of Stanley Hauerwas' quotes on leadership that Paul Fromont has put on the Kiwis blog. I was surprised to read this - not quite what I expected Hauerwas to be saying which just shows I need to read more! In the model of leadership that Hauerwas encourages here there is a spiritual discipline which makes for an interesting challenge for church leaders.

Part of your responsibility as an administrator and leader is to help members of the community own them as contributing to the overall good of the community. To be in a position of power means that you recognize how fragile the power is. You wouldn’t have it otherwise. And you have enough confidence that you don’t have to win all the time. That’s a real ascetic discipline, a discipline of the ego, which is absolutely crucial for being an administrator and to allow the institution to go on once you’re no longer there...
... For any person that wants to be in leadership, if they try to lead in a way that means they don’t have to deal with people, they automatically defeat community. It is everyday interactions that make it possible for there to be people who tell the truth to us one at a time in the hopes that in that process we will be a truthful community...”

The loneliness of conscience

Last week I posted a quote from some editing I was doing to my facbook page. Written by Alison Phipps who is a member of the Iona community, you'll be able to find the quote in the new year in a book called "telling Peace" linked to the Advent resources which the WCC has put online. The book is about story-telling as a way of encouraging peace-building, story telling as a way of overcoming the violence inherent in our lives.
The quote I put on my facebook status was "I worry for the colleague I found in tears at his desk, overwhelmed, just utterly overwhelmed by the unrelenting slaveries of unmeetable deadlines, inflexible colleagues, the loneliness of conscience."
That phrase "the loneliness of conscience" really struck a chord with me as I know that it did with another friend who has gone through a very difficult time. In terms of leadership and of organisational systems the loneliness of conscience is quite a challenge. How do you encourage "conscience" in and among colleagues? If an organisation relies upon "lonely conscience" is this actually a way of scapegoating people, pushing work downwards onto those already doing too much? I have also been thinking about Social Darwinist ideas and how it is very easy for work place structures to passively fall back on social darwinist ways of operating when there is not sufficient relational trust in the systems. Making life for the lonely conscientious individual even more difficult.
So how do we tell our stories of the workplace in ways that build peace, increase trust and create healthier non social-darwinist organisational strucutures?
The workplace is a professional environment but it is also a social and emotional environment which can end up making individuals very lonely. Telling the stories of the complex places we work in is challenging, it's not just a leadership and management task, it's also a theological task.
"Blessed are those whose conscience is lonely, for the dawn shall rise warmly upon them."

The Quest for responsibility - update and read more

Dr B is doing some editing work at the moment and came across this book on the Quest for responsibility by Mark Boyens which looks very interesting. "Famous names have over the last few years became tarnished and venerable institutions have been brought into discredit ..."
I've been thinking alot about responsibility recently - taking responsibility is quite a Calvinist thing. What is interesting about this book are the links it tries to make between citizenship, organisations and accountability in complex systems. Simply the contents page looks fascinating. The epilogue at the end of chapter 12 modestly states "the quest for resposnibility never ends". That made me smile. It also seems to build in places on some of the ideas from Exit, Voice and Loyalty. Lots more thoughts for the leadership reflexion - so much to read so little time ...

The modern world is dominated by complex organizations. In this book Mark Bovens analyzes the questions associated with the search for responsiblity within such organizations. In organizations with many people contributing in many different ways, how can we determine who is accountable for organizational behavior? How do we define responsible behavior within organizations? Can different notions of responsibility prevent abuses? His analysis is multidisciplinary, combining law, social science, ethics, and organizational design, and provides a number of suggestions for institutional reform.

A walk to the edge of organisational chaos - even in a tidy office

So one of the problems with the internet is the opportunity for almost endless (perhaps that should be eternal?) distraction.
I should be writing my diploma - instead I keep on researching and finding new books which could really help me understand organisations and leadership - this is my own personal walk to edge of organisational chaos - yes even after I have tidied my office! The other problem is that Dr B gets almost as interested in my research as I do and adds to the level of distraction by saying from behind his computer screen "ooh that's interesting I'll send you the link."
So last night this led in the direction of a small publishing house called Triarchy press which seems to have a series of fascinating titles on trying to improve understanding of organisations.

The name 'triarchy' refers to the three fundamental ways of getting things done in organizations: hierarchy, heterarchy and responsible autonomy.
All organizations use a mixture of these three ways, but the proportions can differ widely. At present, hierarchy is usually considered essential for all organizations. Heterarchy and responsible autonomy are often misunderstood or neglected. Here is an outline;Triarchy theory suggests that our "addiction to hierarchy" drains the energy from collaborative projects and sometimes fails to recognise the input of able individuals whose contributions can be overlooked in a formal reporting structure.

Pictured here is Adventures in complexity, for organisations near the edge of chaos by Lesley Kuhn.

A complexity approach removes simplistic hopes of an ordered and controllable existence where, if only we had the right ‘keys’ or ‘tools’, we would be able to fashion a successful organisation. Instead, it offers a way to identify underlying patterns of order and indicators for influencing future sustainable practice; it shows how simple recurrent rules result in complex behaviour and that ‘influential interventions’ do not take a neat cause-and-effect path but may generate unexpected outcomes.
The focus of Adventures in Complexity is not so much organisations as the ‘life of organisations’. Author Lesley Kuhn sees organisations as ‘collectives of human activity’ and here describes how complexity theory can be applied in and to organisations.
Complexity theory acknowledges that people are self-organising, dynamic and emergent beings who are capable of discerning thoughtfulness and innovative responses to change both within and between organisations. It argues that sustainability is best served by tapping into this entire pool of potential.
It embraces uncertainty and change. It uses terms like non-equilibrium and turbulence to show that, when systems reach ‘the edge of chaos’, they are most likely to exhibit creative, innovative responses and new patterns and structures are most likely to emerge. In the current unpredictable climate many organisations may consider themselves 'near the edge of chaos'. Yet most will not realise that this is where the greatest potential for success lies.

Luke 21 and the theme of resistance

Tonight we sang Holden Evening Prayer for the last time before Christmas. Quite apart from the wonderful music and times of silence and breathing that this simple order of evening prayer offers, the thing that strikes me time and again is how powerfully the Bible texts speak when they are not going to be commented on but simply meditated in silence.
This evening we heard from Isaiah 25.1-5 and then a long reading from Luke 21 beginning with the widow's mite and ending "You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish."
Listening to this text this evening - wonderfully and powerfully read by my colleague Theodore Gill - I was struck once more by how enriching it is to listen to longer passages from the gospels than are often read at public worship. I was also thinking about difficult issues in my own life, broken relationships, things that have gone wrong, times when I have felt if not persecuted then certainly harrassed ... this passage gave me great succour thinking about all of that. I realised too that any who in turn felt harrassed by me would also gain succour from this text.
So in the silence while feeling upheld by God I also felt deeply challenged by the text. All of us can be victims - life is like that. Victims of illness, of accidents, of war, of ideological conflict, of depression, of doubt, of violence. With the Advent candles glowing and prayers still waiting to be sung I pondered the ambiguity of life, my own potential to be an oppressor as well as a resister. Sometimes it's too easy to think of oneself as a victim. This evening listening to the the very strong words towards the end of the passage I thought about how much we all so want to believe that God is on our side, that we are right. Stig Dagerman would say that our need for consolation is insatiable, yet the image of God that comes across is that in both extreme and more minor suffering we will be endlessly and continually upheld. A God who believes in resistance and knows all about endurance. In the silence I found this not only consoling but comforting and reassuring.
I gave thanks also for a beautiful and reassuring day.

Here's the text that led to these rambling candlelit thoughts:

He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; ²he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. ³He said, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; ⁴for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.'

The Destruction of the Temple Foretold

Signs and Persecutions

5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶‘As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.’
7 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ ⁸And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.
9 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’ ¹⁰Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; ¹⁵for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Can women ever be authentic? Must we always have the role of being "alibi" women, mere tokens? Or is ambiguity really where it is at?

I have just come back from another wonderful evening at the feminist theology group which was led this evening by my friend Karin Achtelstetter, director of the office for communication services at the Lutheran World Federation.
Karin encouraged the group to read the story of Huldah and work on various hypotheses about Huldah and her almost forgotten role as the prophetess who is consulted to confirm the scriptural canon and determine its interpretation. What might the text tell us about the complex roles women assume in leadership? You can see some of the background to our evening in an earlier post I made about Karin's work on Huldah.
Tonight we were intrigued at all the male envoys sent to consult Huldah - why on earth did the chief of priests not know how to evaluate or interpret the scroll of scripture found in the temple? Did they consult a woman to have her as an "alibi" (femme alibi is a bit like token woman), "hey we can destroy all of these objects in the temple that venerate Ashara (Yahweh's female companion) if a woman says we can". Is Huldah's voice a compromised one? After all it is a delegation of men who get sent to see her by the king - they are the ones telling the story, can we trust them? Not surprisingly they almost bury Huldah's role in determining the canon by being so insistent about naming themselves and writing precise minutes of their roles in King Josias' great reform! Some critics claim Huldah compromised herself, siding with power - but did she ever get the chance to tell her own story?
Tonight Karin put words into Huldah's mouth, explaining what she was trying to do.
We had very thoughtful and passionate discussions about women having the right to speak, to study, be listened to - and to get it wrong.
What moved me particularly this evening was listening to an ordination prayer for deaconesses from the 4th century which mentions Huldah. Yet today she is almost forgotten - though the director of Faith and Order assures me that some modern liturgies do remember her name and role.
As we ended our evening Karin explained that the reason she as a woman who exercises leadership was interested by Huldah was because of the ambiguities around her story - interpretation, speaking out, compromise, being a woman who plays the men's game. As she worked on the text she realised that despite justified criticism of being the "alibi" woman, Huldah nevertheless speaks with an authentic voice. It may even be the ambiguities that give her story and witness authenticity. I found that enormously reassuring and quite energising.

Using literature to understand organisations and selling experience

The two most important things I learnt on my course in Rome were: that poetry may contribute more to understanding organisations than scientific description can and that organisations have emotional lives - they can be depressed, harrassing, passive, aggressive, well-balanced, manic, joyful, laid back etc.
Over the weekend I've been reading a fascinating essay in The Expressive Organisation by Barbara Czarniawska "Identity lost or identity found? Celebration and Lamentation over the Postmodern view of identity in social science and fiction". It really encourages people who are thinking about organisations to use new models, expecially those from literature and the social sciences.
She ends by supporting the ironic view of understanding organisations (or perhaps life?). Irony as an interpretational tool for understanding organisaitons is actually even more liberating than poetry for me!

I stand by the ironists and shall draw support from Anthony Giddens who says 'in general, whether in personal life or in broader social milieu, processes of reappropriation and empowerment intertwine with expropriation and loss.' It is not up to us to make the final count, but to depict and interpret the phenomena of the postmodern era. In order to be able to do that, we have to abandon time-honoured frames of reference and look for new ones, not out of disrespect, but out of curiosity, to better catch up with the times.

She also cites the work in the book picutred here, saying that today it is all about selling experience and memory - fascinating ...The Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage

Passing thoughts about thorns, humility and leadership

<sup>I first heard the passage below being read aloud in the chapel in the Predigerseminar in 1989. In the midst of the huge political upheavalof the GDR's peaceful revolution, Gabriele who led that morning's "Andacht" simply let the text speak for itself.
I was surprised and pleased to find it again the other day at the beginning to Stephen Cottrell's splendid little book "Hit the Ground Kneeling". I'm not sure I've come across it in any of our Sunday lectionaries, which is a shame. I have used it in some youth work and training sessions with elders though.
Reading it through again now I wonder about whether bramble or thorn bush would be my favoured translation and I must go and check whether the Hebrew word is the same as the bush which burned and was not consumed in Exodus and whether the Septuagint translation for thornbush is then picked up in the gospel term for crown of thorns. This is how linguists think I suppose - even when they have a bus to catch and must write fast!
None of the other trees wanted to give anything up in order to sway over the other trees - not the olive its oil, not the fig its sweet fruit, not the vine its glorious juice and wine. So the thorn bush, the bramble, accepts. The thornbush is an uncomfortable symbol of humility in the Bible, it is about a different kind of leadership. Today reading this text I was struck rather by the way the supposedly greater trees don't want to take up office, they want to hold onto their current roles and riches and place in the scheme of things and not chance the risk or humility of leadership. Them holding on to their power and riches and roles makes the leadership role of the brambly thorn bush yet more difficult. Easier to be a celebrity than a leader? Easier to hold on to riches than follow vocation?
A fascinating and powerful parable which is deeply prophetic.

The parable and prophecy of the trees in Judges 9</sup>
The trees once went out
to anoint a king over themselves.
So they said to the olive tree,
“Reign over us.”
The olive tree answered them,
“Shall I stop producing my rich oil
by which gods and mortals are honoured,
and go to sway over the trees?”
Then the trees said to the fig tree,
“You come and reign over us.”
But the fig tree answered them,
“Shall I stop producing my sweetness
and my delicious fruit,
and go to sway over the trees?”
Then the trees said to the vine,
“You come and reign over us.”
But the vine said to them,
“Shall I stop producing my wine
that cheers gods and mortals,
and go to sway over the trees?”
So all the trees said to the bramble,
“You come and reign over us.”
And the bramble said to the trees,
“If in good faith you are anointing me king over you,
then come and take refuge in my shade;
but if not, let fire come out of the bramble
and devour the cedars of Lebanon.”