As the ministry of Worshipful-Work has taken a direction in response to welcome, invitation, and openness, we often stand in awe when we see the little seed of teaching around spiritual discernment take root and grow. What seems like such a little effort surely a small mustard seed grows into a tree that impacts religious communities and church systems from local deliberative church committees to the way major denominational assemblies do business. We have become aware that our societal and church deliberative processes are so western, male dominated, control oriented, and rational, linear leaning.
People do what they know how to do.
And we know how to discuss, debate and conclude. That suits many of us just fine at the expense of denying access to a broader and deeper wealth of wisdom. The new global village greased by instant communication calls for a more inclusive process of accessing wisdom from all cultures. Five years ago the Uniting Church of Australia set forth a decision-making process that is more consensus seeking and less debate oriented. The World Council of Churches is now looking with a great deal of interest at that process, for the Council, birthed in western ways of organizing and deciding, is searching for a way to access the wisdom and ways of Third World Christians.