Discord, Harmony - and a New Song

The philosopher Heraclitus once wrote, "Opposition brings together, and from discord comes perfect harmony." For me, those words speak about our experience together over the past few months at St. Mary's.

I believe that the true character of an individual or a community is revealed in the way opposition and discord - conflict - is addressed. We've experienced conflict here for the past year. We could have simply denied the difficulties and the pain we shared. Instead, we chose to face and acknowledge them. It speaks volumes about our community that we openly and honestly spoke about our concerns with one another.

"From discord comes perfect harmony." Can you imagine the energy and concentration it would take to maintain perfect harmony? In my imagination, that perfect harmony equates to absolutely no conflict when it comes to communities.

Several years ago, I attended an Alban Institute course on Parish Conflict. The leader said that, for years, the Institute had rated conflict on a scale of one to five. In time, they realized they had made a grave mistake. Communities can indeed have a conflict level of zero. So this was added to the scale, with this caveat: A parish with a conflict level of zero is a dead parish.

Our instructor also warned that being at the high end of the scale isn't a great idea either. For a parish to be vital and alive there needs to be some level of conflict-the kind of conflict that equates with Hericlitus's statement, "Opposition brings together."

Can we share our different points of view with one another without flying off into denial or egregious conflict? In my experience of St. Mary's over the past few months, the answer is a resounding "Yes!"

The Vestry and I have worked diligently on exploring our differences and the problems that have faced us in the past. Out of that work, we came up with a theme for this year that you have probably noticed on the front of our bulletin: "Sing to the Lord a new song!" As we worked through the discord, we discovered that there was a wonderful harmony at our parish. That harmony has welled up in our various ministries.

During the recent Mutual Ministry Review, we listed all our ministries and programs on newsprint and put them on the wall. I think we were all surprised by the amount of work we do together for our community of faith as well as for the community at large. (Some of us even wondered whether we might be doing too much.) The leader of the Mutual Ministry Review was impressed that we had endured a high level of conflict and yet maintained such a powerful witness of ministry.

The Youth Service last spring was such a harmonious event that many of you still comment to me about how powerful an experience it was for you. It was for me, too. As I explained in my recent letter to the parish, it was the weekend of the Youth Service that marked the end of any serious search for a job in another parish on my part. At that service, I recognized that, in spite of whatever difficulties we experienced in the past, when we at St. Mary's work together, great things happen.

What more great things await our attention in the future? Sing to the Lord a new song! Think about your life as if it were a song. Each day we are singing a new song to our gracious God. When we gather as a community, be it at Sunday School or in worship, in Commission meetings, or on Outreach projects, we are composing new songs as a community.

I am so grateful to God and to you that I am a part of that song!

Joel t