Leaders Notice Connections

  Katharine Hendersonrecently visited Louisville and we sat down for a cup of coffee at the corner of Fourth Street and Muhammad Ali Boulevard.  I pointed out to her that in 1958 Catholic monk and author, Thomas Merton, had an epiphany on what was then the corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets and Louisville's center of commerce.  On March 19th of 1958 Merton recorded the moment in his private journal:

"Yesterday, in Louisville, at the corner of 4th and Walnut, suddenly realized that I loved all the people and that none of them were, or, could be totally alien to me. As if waking from a dream — the dream of separateness, of the 'special' vocation to be different."

Muhammad Ali was 16 years then and often training for the 1960 Rome Olympics only a few blocks away at a gym and community center operated by Presbyterians. His name was Cassius Clay then, an AAU and Golden Gloves boxer. Maybe he was one of those people Merton saw moving about that day!

I wonder if it would have mattered or even have been heard if Merton had would have been able to communicate his connection and love to those people that day? I wonder who or what we notice and discount… even as a denomination? Could we put ourselves in a place where we have an epiphany?

In the month leading up to Merton’s trip to Asia and death in Thailand, his journals record that he "spoke the most on prayer." Bonnie Thurston, a Merton scholar and Wheeling, West Virginia "protestant monk", by her own definition, says Merton’s approach to prayer was quite simple: "Start where you are and become aware of connections."

This approach reminds me of Barbara Brown Taylor’s explanation of spiritual practices in her new book, An Alter in the World. The chapter titles name some of those practices: "Wearing Skin," "Walking the Earth," "Carrying Water," and my personal favorite "Getting Lost."

In her chapter on the spiritual practice of paying attention, Taylor writes, "I have a variation of this practice that I do on the subway, at least if I have a pair of sunglasses with me. From behind the veils of my dark lenses, I study the human beings around me…" She goes on to talk about how she will occasionally quietly pray the Lord’s Prayer while she pays attention to these strangers. The practice, she says, "shift(s) her equilibrium. For all (she) knows, one of them is practicing reverence on (her.)"

Reverence, paying attention, noticing others, shifting our equilibrium, praying, engaging spiritual practices: these are all worthy goals for church leaders.

The Committee on Theological Education (COTE) recently initiated a report that begins to help us as a denomination "start where we are and become aware of all the connections."

In April 2009 a COTE initiative established a Joint Committee on Leadership Needs with the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC) and the Committee on the Office of the General Assembly (COGA). Each group was represented on the Joint Committee and the paper will take center stage during a Feb.24 joint GAMC/COGA plenary.　

This Raising Leaders report on PCUSA Leadership Needs is an invitation to a conversation and ideas about future and current leadership in the PCUSA. One good place to join the conversation with others across the PCUSA and beyond is by joining our PCUSA Leadership Needs group on facebook where we can make connections, become aware of where we are, pay attention to each other, shift our equilibrium, pray, and raise new leaders for the mission of God.

May it be.

Lee in Louisville and looking forward to the conversation.