As I am writing this reflection I am currently sitting in the Halifax airport awaiting my flight home. I’ve been at a conference for Diaconal Ministers of The United Church of Canada for the last 4 days. There were 49 of us who were able to gather in person for this our bi-annual national conference. We also had a few joining on zoom. It was a wonderful time of learning, being in community and catching up as we haven’t been able to meet in person since 2018 when we met in Winnipeg. As always when I get together with my colleagues there is laughter as we share the joys of our lives with each other. There is also tears as we lament the hurt and pain of the world, and share our personal pain.
We participated in workshops around racial justice, looking at the Indigenous communities calls to the church in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We had a session on the experience of Black ministers in The United Church of Canada, as well as some business from our organization and updates on projects and events that had been happening. It was however not in these workshops or sessions that I learned the most at this national gathering. Where I learned the most was in the process, and planning.
We arrived in Halifax less than a week after the province was devastated by the hurricane. We weren’t given the ok that the event was happening for sure until 4 days before my plane left. For many that would be very stress inducing, myself included. Then one day before I left we got a notice that the location we were supposed to be going to, Tatamagouche, still didn’t have power, so we were going to stay somewhere else.
Usually when I have attended a conference of any kind there is a detailed agenda and we know where we are going to be at all times. That was not the case this round…..and it felt…..freeing. So much of our lives are scheduled and scripted, we have to be here at this time, go to this place next. It felt in a weird way liberating to place my trust in the organizers that I didn’t have to know what we were doing on Tuesday at 2pm….they would tell me when I needed to know. And they did. They always waited until the info was as accurate and complete as they could make it……and then they shared it with us. There was no “we think this will happen” it was always “when we know we will tell you”.
This allowed me to be in the moment so much more than I would have otherwise. Normally I would have been thinking….in two days this is going to happen and be thinking about that instead of being able to participate fully in the here and now.
It turned out the Tatamagouche Center got power back on Monday afternoon, so we were able to go and spend sometime there Wednesday, which was lovely. I really really appreciate the leadership team, who not only had to plan and organize a gathering in the first place, but then had to change so many of those plans and continually change them as new info arrived. But what I appreciate the most was their decision to only tell us what we needed to know when we needed to know it. In some ways I hope my next conference only sends out a minimalistic agenda and I can just trust that those in charge know what they are doing, and will give me the info I need when I need it, and otherwise I can just be.
Submitted by Mark Laird,
DM Drayton United Church