Anxiety, erosion of trust pervade denomination, moderator says By Craig M. Kibler The Layman Online Monday, July 10, 2006 MONTREAT, N.C. – Anxiety and an erosion of trust pervades the Presbyterian Church (USA) today, the moderator of the 217th General Assembly says. In her first extensive comments on the state of the denomination since her election in Birmingham, Joan Gray told about 275 people during the "Hope of the Church" conference July 5-8 at Montreat Conference Center that the rebuilding of trust is "absolutely crucial work at this time because trust is what the system runs on. We are a voluntary organization. If we don't have trust, we don't have anything." Gray reminded the audience that, before becoming moderator, she served as an interim pastor. "I started being an interim pastor in 1999 when I left Columbia Church after nine years as head of staff. And as I was coming into my ninth year, I knew that God was calling me to something different, but I had no idea what it was. I celebrated my 20th anniversary of being an installed pastor and I knew my spirit was hungry for a change, but I had no idea what it would be. So, I took a sabbatical, I gave myself a year. After nine months, I was invited to pastor a small country church going through a major, suburbs-swallowing-them transition as their interim and it was through that experience, and the next one and the next one, that God showed me my new ministry." "I think of being moderator of the PCUSA at this time as an interim position. You have called me to be your interim and so I'm bringing my interim gifts and skills to play," she said. "I was trained in family systems, therapy work, and in family systems the first thing you learn is that change is the energy that drives everything – changes and anxiety. And we are in a time in the church when the anxiety is very, very high. People are acting out, people are blaming each other, people are getting into the posture of, 'If only so and so would stop such and such, we would all be fine.' And that's normal stuff that happens in families and churches when anxiety is high." Gray said that the other thing that's happening in the church right now, "and it seems to me we all need to name and look at, is the whole issue of trust. We live in a culture that is cynical. We live in a culture where the questions – nobody ever takes anything at face value any more. You know, we listen to the news and we think, 'OK, what's underneath this?' 'Who's interests are being served by this?' 'Who is pushing this?' Why did they do this?' It's not just 'what' any more. People want to know why and who and how did this happen? And they suspect that something is going on that shouldn't be going on. It's like a fog and it is totally pervasive in our culture and it has come to the church." Citing studies showing how much respect people have for the church and for clergy, she said that "clergy have fallen way below pharmacists in terms of the respect that people have for us. We need to pay attention to the level of trust in our church. The research coming out of the business world says that if you do not intentionally build trust within an organization, it will erode. It won't stay the same." "Because of the culture that we live in," Gray said, "trust erodes, and I think that's what's happened in the PCUSA. We had a big bank of trust that was built up through the '30s, the '40s, the '50s, and we took it for granted, we took it for granted after reunion. One of my analyses of what's going on in our church today is that we did not do the hard work of bringing two cultures together back in 1983. We joined ourselves, it was sort of like an arranged marriage in a sense. We joined ourselves together, but we never talked about these two very distinct, valuable cultures that were the UPCUSA and the PCUSA. And we never intentionally – at least, I was not aware of it and I was serving on the PJC and the ACC – we never stepped back and said, 'What are the precious things that people are losing in this union?' 'Where's the grief in our system?' 'Where are the resentments that people are holding onto?' "If these things are not dealt with," Gray said, "they go underground. You pastors and elders know this from your churches. If you don't deal with these things, they fester and the climate of trust erodes. One of the things I want to do as moderator, and one of the things I encourage you to do, is to be very intentional about building trust with others, between individuals in your presbytery. Be aware of these questions that people are asking, get out in front of the questions." She reminded the audience to be "aware that not everybody thinks the way that you think and there are people out there who are asking different questions. And to build trust we need to be aware of those people, value them as our Christian brothers and sisters, and ask the simple question, 'How can we communicate in such a way that we bring people on board and that we let them know that this process is transparent and open. We have to do this. This is absolutely crucial work at this time because trust is what the system runs on. We are a voluntary organization. If we don't have trust, we don't have anything." Gray also described two pressure points, pastors and presbytery executives, as needing attention. "These are the people who know what's going on. One of the most hopeful things I've heard lately is that the GAC is going to start meeting at least once a year with the presbytery executives. When I heard that, I wanted to jump up and shout. We have to start communicating, and one of the things I'd like to do in the next two years is use whatever influence I might have to help the power people, the pastors and the presbytery executives, to become more closely in communion, in communication, with the folks – the dedicated hardworking people who are in the OGA, on the GAC, on all the committees – so that we can have conversations about what the church needs and what it means to be a denomination. All of this is for the sake of our mission." She then described how, on the Fourth of July while at home, her air conditioning system had plugged up and was leaking. "We have got some plugged-up places in our church," Gray said, "and the information, the communication, and finally – wake-up call – the money, has gotten clogged. We need to clean all that out."

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