Another Pentecost.  Article by Peter Clinch, St Patrick’s Province Melbourne.

At Russell Peter’s recent missioning ceremony I was talking with Marie Mangan who had seven sons attend St Leo’s College Box Hill. Her youngest son, Luke, is a celebrity chef, who owns a number of restaurants in Sydney, appears on TV and was the chief chef for a banquet held in Denmark for Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik. Marie was obviously proud of her son’s achievements and mentioned how in his early days he worked at a top London restaurant for three months without pay to gain experience. Russell was Principal of St Leo’s during Luke’s time and has kept contact. Luke told Russell he gives most young people a go in the restaurant business if they are passionate about what they do. Luke has shown that passion, determination, focus and good will make a powerful mix to achieve at a high level in life.

People who are religious / Christian Brothers also need to be passionate about their life if they are to be radical followers of Jesus and Edmund who make a difference in today’s world. Religious are called to be passionate about their spiritual life, ministry and reaching out and supporting people on the margins. While Luke Mangan is a passionate chef and many other people want to be chefs, there are very few Australians wanting to be religious and no one wanting to be a Christian Brother. Australian culture and milieu at the moment is not conducive to the life style advocated by religious life and priesthood. Young people are detached from institutional Church and the vow of celibacy and a life commitment without a partner is unattractive.

The chapter direction Seeking New Brothers is difficult to comprehend and make sense of in Australia. The Province has established a committee to try and unravel this direction and assist the Province in making appropriate responses. The committee in recent times has placed a focus upon Edmund’s charism and story. Edmund Rice and his response to the gospel is attractive to many young people and they have responded by becoming Edmund Rice Camp leaders, volunteering to go overseas and work with the Christian Brothers and be with the desperately poor of Africa, committing to membership of an Edmund Rice Young Adult Community, and to being involved with the Amberley Retreat Team. Hundreds of young people generously give of their time and gifts in the name of Edmund Rice within the Province network.

The Province has responded well to this positive energy by sponsoring the salaries of Paul Huggett and Anthony Chapman as Executive Officers of Edmund Rice Camps in Victoria and Tasmania, by requesting the Christian Brothers’ Foundation to raise funds for Edmund Rice Camps, by sponsoring Edmund Rice Young Adult Communities, by appointing Gerard Brady as Province Youth Coordinator, by renovating Amberley as a place for young people to gather and explore life and by appointing Brian Bond as Province Volunteers Coordinator. Where there is energy the Province has responded generously.

At the other end of the spectrum is vocation coordination — there seems little interest and energy for it. Last year the Melbourne Archdiocese sponsored a vocation congress called Hearts On Fire at the Exhibition Building in Carlton. At the Christian Brothers stall a number of young adults assisted with the handing out of pamphlets. One young man who is a faithful and energetic ERC leader helped at the stall. He was uncomfortable with his role but is respectful of the brothers and wanted to support the day. He was set back when a religious sister, who knew one of the brothers at the stall, approached and said looking at the young leader “great to see a young brother!” After she left, the leader said he was dreading that someone would say that he was a brother. From the hundreds of brochures we distributed at the Congress, there have been no requests for a follow-up by individuals. At a brothers’ meeting last year discussing the chapter direction Seeking New Brothers some young people spoke how they admire the work of the brothers but they never consider being a religious and would not encourage a friend to be a priest or religious. Tony Hackett was a hard working, organised and energetic Vocations Coordinator in the Holy Spirit Province for six years and yet there was not one postulant or novice during his time. A young adult male visitor to the Edmund Rice Community House at Lower Plenty mentioned how difficult it was when a brother asked him if he ever thought of being a brother. He claims that he became the butt of jokes from his peers and avoided the brother from then on. Another time I walked into the kitchen at the young adult community house and all became silent. At a later time I found out people were telling Christian Brother jokes — centred around child abuse issues. These stories are snap shots of my experience that have influenced my thinking regarding Seeking New Brothers in Australia. Do I ignore this experience and fight on regardless? Or can I believe that God is part of this experience and is calling me to respond to where the energy is and continue to fan the sparks of life into flames of action in the name of Jesus and his gospel? Further, many of the people attracted to the story of Edmund Rice are women — where do women fit when seeking new brothers? I believe the Church and many religious orders are attempting to squeeze the present realities into an old model — it is simply not fitting and yet we continue to push and tug and hope that “something” will give and the old ways will be resurrected or resuscitated into a new expression of religious life.

It is a comforting thought to think that there will be younger brothers after me to continue the work of the Congregation and to support and accompany me as I move towards senior years.  But the gospel is not about being comfortable. God in the now is calling Christian Brothers to respond in a new way. Where there is energy and response there is life. To say that by promoting a recruitment programme for new members will renew our congregation and make us to look at identity questions reform community life and push us to the margins is a flawed way of thinking.  To me it is looking inwards and being taken up by self-preservation.  It is natural to want to keep alive and prolong the good works of the past.   But it does not sit easily with the crucifixion and resurrection narratives of the gospels.  The paschal mystery is about death and then resurrection.  The Christian Brothers need to be passionate about commitment to the gospel and the charism of Edmund Rice as they discern the signs of the times and be courageous in stepping out in faith to be with the varied expressions of Edmund’s charism found within the Province.  If we do this the issue of seeking new members will be secondary to and connected with a faithful and passionate living of life.  I believe the Christian Brothers need to let go of their power and wealth and experience more dying before a new flowering of the charism will occur.  Dare I say the direction Seeking New Brothers in how it is being interpreted is giving us false hope and blocking the Congregation in reading the signs of our time and entering a new phase that will burst present boundaries beyond our imagination?

To find a pathway forward is to discuss and reflect upon the tension between Seeking New Brothers and developing the charism within the Edmund Rice Network.  At the Discipleship 2000 Conference in Dublin in the late 90s the conference membership split into two groups, one strongly promoting the need to seek vocations to the Congregation and the other group just as strongly wanting to develop formation processes for the Edmund Rice Network.   The facilitator was unable to hold the tension creatively and the two groups went their own ways. At the Roman Congregation Chapter in 2002 a group, who had participated at a vocations workshop at the Benedictine Sisters Monastery in Ferdinand Indiana USA, was strong in promoting membership to the Congregation that resulted in the  Chapter direction Seeking New Brothers.  There was limited time in the rush of the last week of the Chapter to reflect upon and discuss the dimensions of this direction. Supporters of this direction believed seeking new members was an appropriate vehicle for renewing the Congregation and improve morale after the torment of child abuse allegations. Again a way of holding the tension creatively was not achieved. It is by allowing differences and tension to be aired and discussed within a discerning and prayerful process that a new creative response can emerge.

I have no doubt that the Congregation needs renewal. In Australia the Christian Brothers, in general, have become immersed in being middle class with its myth that money and worldly goods will bring happiness. We have become old and soft. If religious life is to reform itself, the laity will take a prominent role. The Christian Brothers need to humbly seek help and ask others to companion them. If the brothers can mutually walk the Emmaus journey with other people fired by Edmund’s story and open their hearts to the spirit of God something new and marvellous will emerge. It is a faith journey that will test us and take us further into our own vulnerability as we listen for God in the world of our day. To hark back to a model that worked 25 years ago of Vocation Coordinators and promoting a way of life that is dying is pointless and ignores the energy and life that is here to be cultivated. Twenty or more years ago the environment was suitable for boys and young men to be attracted to Religious Life. Vocation Coordinators facilitated the process for the young men to enter the Juniorate or the Novitiate. How the times have changed!

The reasons why young men do not join the Christian Brothers are complex and immersed within Australia’s changing culture. Some of the areas that could be discussed (at a later time) include: intimacy needs and the vow of celibacy, Christian Brothers losing their identity as religious teachers, the fracturing of community life, Christian Brothers not being radical followers of the gospel and opting for middle class life style and values, the Christian Brothers being part of official Church and young people distancing themselves from institutions, wealth of the Congregation and the inability to stand in solidarity with the poor of Australia, child abuse issues, the Christian Brothers not having a common and tangible spirituality and the lack of prophecy etc. Wider issues would include; individualism, changing place of religion in society, rise of feminism, first world wealth, changing family values and structures etc. Simply the new wine of today is not suited to the old wine skins of last century. We are entering a new epoch.

The Christian Brothers are in a privileged place of opportunity having many people to accompany them in ministry embracing Edmund Rice’s vision. Are we waiting for a miracle when God will reward us with young men wanting to be Christian Brothers? I don’t think this will happen. The Miracle is already happening that Edmund Rice’s story and vision are still appealing to people both young and old and they want to embrace Edmund’s charism and spirit as lay people. We need animators of the charism who are passionate about the gospel rather than vocation coordinators. Our challenge is to cooperate with this grace from God or ignore the grace of the present moment and hanker for a time that is gone.

Dorothy McRae-McMahon wrote in Saturday’s Age faith reflection on 29/5/04 titled In Search of the Creator of galaxies near and far:

…if we look more widely for the signs of God in our life on Earth, we may see a God who is far grander than we have ever imagined. This God may never be captured by our narrow understandings of reality.., every sign of God similar to that which some of us recognise in Jesus simply confirms what we have seen and believed. Truth is always truth, wherever it arises, and can be celebrated as an expansion of the great Creator, rather than a threat to what we hold dear.

This is the greatest challenge for me to let go of what I hold dear and to be attentive to the signs of the times that allows God to transform us beyond our wildest dreams. And at the same time keep passionate and joy-filled about life.

To further this discussion, I recommend people read Beyond the Comfort Zone A consultation with young adults involved in the Edmund Rice Network throughout Australia by Peter Nicholson.

So it is our task to remain open to and humble before the signs of the times and ready to follow the creative Spirit of God going before us and working to transform the world.

(From Where the River Runs: The Catholic Church in Australia by Veronica Brady IBVM)

 Br. Peter Clinch

Pentecost Sunday 2004