I love Jim’s probing questions in response to Jack’s pronouncements about all the places “we failed.”
And I appreciate Dick’s gentle defense, based on his experience in the trenches of each.
I also appreciate Jack’s subsequent expansive philosophical commentary that, as only Jack can, enlarged the context such that none of us really disagree.
But I do.
I believe we DID win in renewing the historic church as it existed in the latter part of the 20th century (via RSI and our comprehensive curriculum -the Academy), in large part by expanding Religious Houses (via initiating the LCX and Parish Outreach Projects), and globalizing our work via HDP Replication (via Town Meetings, HDTS and Global Collegia such as the IERD.). And then the “we” had become the “us” — so many people of myriad cultures, languages and faiths, working “as local people, to build the earth, the planet earth."
I measure our “win” versus “failure” in the words of human beings whose lives were “utterly changed/transformed” by their interaction with us, the OE, the ICA, the “blue shirts”, etc…….Joe and I have heard those words, over and over again. These need not be documented in polls or quantitative research. I trust these voices are echoed in our archives and can contradict themes of “failure.”
Grace and peace, Marilyn (and Joe)