From the emaillist, autumn '12:
Dear All,
tomorrow Sunday the Austrian disobedient priests will meet for their general assembly. We'll be working with them to hold, for the first time, a very different type of general assembly... to connect them with themselves and with others. Please be with us tomorrow!
These priests (over 420 have now signed the "petition for disobedience" - in English available at www.pfarrer-initiative.ata href="http://www.pfarrer-initiative.at">http://www.pfarrer-initiative.at>) come from a very authentic place of hosting their parishes - and are stuck in a system which restrains them from living their vocation as they feel called to do, in service of humanity and not in service of a church hierarchy. Through connecting them and through building on what works, we hope to support them in making the spark a heartwarming fire.
the core questions will be (only rough translation):
- where do I already follow my call and live disobedience?
- where do I find this difficult and what do I need?
- what do I/we need to focus on now?
Thanks in advance for your support.
Warm regards from the Austrian countryside,
Holger, Rainer, Martin, Marlene, Wal
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Dear all,
many many thanks from the heart for your space holding, your backing and strong thoughts. We really felt your presence there! And your presence was needed as about 100 members of the initiative (This is nearly one forth of all members) followed the invitation.
What was the essence of that day:
- Starting in a circle of 100, the participants dived directly into the strengths of aoh practices. There was not much to explain, they seemed to know these (no surprise, the early christians must have practiced a lot of those…). - art of hosting might be their operating system (in contrast to the roman hierarchy, bit without going into destructive confrontation with this hierarchy…)
- within 4 hours the vision, mission and key actions developed with the board during the last months were clarified together and woven together with the needs, hopes and concrete ideas of the members. One consequence: an unanimous vote for the board, for the vision, mission and key actions
- empowered people, "recharged" in their trust, belief and hope for change.
- A board that does not have to carry the entire burden alone anymore - it is the opposite: the mission is inhaled by the members. The initiative is the members. It was the start for the board to redefine its role.
And last but not least: the common understanding, that the core mission of this priest initiative is "for" and not against (the hierarchy). For the people, for humanity, the communities, the parishes and therefor FOR the church and its core (in the double meaning of this word) purpose. One priest concluded: "(Dear hierarchy) we want to be good priests in this church - let us just do our work for the people."
We have hope that this may have be even a shift towards an even more powerful (from the inner) movement for the people, for the priests and for the church (in the best sense of the word)
It was a ride on a narrow wave that has become broader and broader during that afternoon and carried us all to these results. This wave arrived in a circle of again nearly all 100 (near to all of them stayed all 4 hours!) , each of them articulating one strong word what they take home.
This is said in humbleness, touched by that what happened, and marveled at the power of the practices….
Wal will provide you with a photo story of the priests gathering . This hopefully will help you to feel what has happened there.
Hugs to all of you,
Holger
