Crazy Freedom

A Burst of Crazy Freedom

Re-structuring models and documents being developed across the Congregation could well leave one with the impression that the dynamic of ‘power-over’ and ‘control-of’ is creeping back into the lives of those who have opted to live in radical-liberation for the sake of the kingdom of brother and sisterhood. Timothy Radcliffe puts this radical-liberation this way - ‘religious life should explode into this culture of control as a burst of crazy freedom’ (Congress of Religious Life, 2004). How do we as the new Edmund Rice brothers and sisters for tomorrow ensure we explode the potentially debilitating corporate-culture of regulation and control? Is Radcliffe naming what the 2002 Chapter described as ‘the transformation of hearts and minds’?

There seems to be some genuine unease with the evolution of hierarchical structures that seem to be taking shape in a number of new provinces. There is a perception that resources are being poured into bureaucracy with a multiplication of managers, policy makers, financiers, personal assistants, councils and boards. All undoubtedly deemed by our advisors, very necessary to ensure that the new structures work. But do these new structural models explode the corporate structure with a ‘crazy freedom’ that is so integral to religious life?

The indigenous people of Australia knew intimately every contour, colour, water way, animal, plant and tree that made up their sacred land. When their artists depicted this landscape using natural resins and clay, they created a flat, yet startling image of this territory using symbols to represent physical features, relationships and key players in the story they were telling. They could only depict stories from their particular skin group so each painting captured only one dimension of the journey of their community.

An approach that may be helpful in averting the present felt sense of being drowned under the weight of a new bureaucracy, is to imagine the current structures in the pattern of an indigenous painting of a clan’s terrain. It would mean depicting leadership functioning as ‘circles of trust’ with each of the major areas of the re-structure connected through shared decision-making leading to transparency and perhaps that ‘crazy freedom’ that marks the heart-beat of religious life.

Responsibilities are then distributed to members in ‘the circles of trust’ that have a clear mandate for fostering ‘transformation of hearts and minds’ of all in their domain. It is comprised of those who participate in the small circles who, in turn, make up the large Circle. All ‘major’ decisions come to this large Circle, while other decisions are made in their respective smaller circles clearly articulated in a ‘charter of delegation’ that sets out rights and responsibilities. The large Circle sets direction, makes final decisions and agreements for the new model, and discerns who participates and how. These circles function under a very different set of values from those prevalent in the traditional hierarchical model. Values such as freedom, mutuality, reciprocity, transparency, honesty, justice, simplicity and care of the earth community all come to the fore as honesty and trust builds and heat spirituality takes root. These are often missing from the top down model that has dominated the Church’s religious practice and mode of operating over many years and was often reflected in religious communities and institutions.

This circular model of leadership encourages the greatest commitment to mutuality and reciprocity between members and leaders. Here is the opportunity and the challenge for Congregation leadership in the next 6 years. Will we dare to be disciple in the way we share power?

Why not learn from those who have 60 000 years of experience and wisdom; we may just find the new wine for the recently re-structured wine skins…

I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptised, and what stress I am under until it is completed!
(Luke 12: 49 -50)

Perhaps Jesus was speaking here of the ‘crazy freedom’ that was to mark his re-structured community of disciples that was the incarnate, earthy-image of his personal God.

(Further Reflection: Ted Dunn Circular Models of Leadership: Birthing a new Way of Being in ‘Human Development’ Vol 27: No 4: Winer 2006)

Peter Harney on behalf of the Congregation Renewal Team

(For further information about Renewal Programs www.edmundrice.org.au/crt