Finding our Church in Transition by Arlene Dorischild, MA, LUT

Comments and Summary of our first two classes, Finding Yourself in Transition.

“The Chinese word for crisis is, in Western popular culture, frequently but incorrectly said to be composed of two Chinese characters signifying "danger" (wēi, 危) and "opportunity" (jī, 机; 機). The second character is a component of the Chinese word for "opportunity" (jīhuì, 機會; 机会), but has multiple meanings, and in isolation means something more like "change point". The mistaken etymology became a trope after it was used by John F. Kennedy in his presidential campaign speeches and is widely repeated in business, education, politics and the press in the United States.”….Wikipedia

Well, change point works for me! We are certainly at a point of change in our church life. In Finding Yourself in Transition, Rev Robert Brumet tells us in Chapter one that, “change is inevitable.”

He makes the point that, “deep and radical changes are occurring around us and within us.”

And so, our deep change of the loss of our spiritual leader is most being felt around us as we manage the challenge of doing church without her and within us as we are suddenly cut off from even communication with her. How are we to move forward through this period of time to our greater good?

In chapter two, Rev Brumet shows us that living in a mechanized world causes us suffering when we attempt to move through our transitions in a mechanical way. He further tells us that “to work with a process, we must trust the divine order within it. To force our own personal will upon a natural process is often damaging.”

“But I just want it to be over,” my mind yells at me, “I want to be comfortable again.”

And my second (higher self) thought, “you have to go through it, to be it, Arlene”. Ah, yes!