Getting Settled

A message from the Rev. Ms. Sheila Ennis
Executive Director
The Educational Center
St. Louis Missouri

On Friday the 1st of May I got into my car that was packed with a few of my clothes, about a dozen books, some linens, my bed pillow and my laptop—the barest essentials. I pulled out of my driveway in Charlotte, North Carolina and headed west, and on the evening of May 2nd I crossed the bridge over the Mississippi River into St. Louis, Missouri, a city I had never even visited until the previous February. In every sense of the word I left home: I left my husband who cannot join me here until our house sells in Charlotte; I left a house we had literally rebuilt after a fire in 2006; I left friends; I left my church family.  All the permanence in my life was suddenly, unmistakably, in my rearview mirror, and I moved into a furnished condo, which I rent on a month-to-month, that is to say impermanent, basis. Six days before I left Charlotte I had graduated seminary, and five days earlier I had been ordained by Myers Park Baptist Church.  So many goodbyes, so many doors closing, or so it seemed. So many chapters coming to an end. To say that I was overwhelmed by the intensity of my feelings is to utter an understatement along the lines of “Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

And then on Monday the 4th of May I walked through the back door of 6357 Clayton Road and began my work as Executive Director of The Educational Center, a pioneering institution that for more than 160 years has situated itself at “the intersection of religion, analytical psychology and contemporary culture” and courageously called people into wholeness. Although I have known about The Educational Center since the mid-1980s, (I was part of a Centerpoint group for many years)* I had not kept up with their work. It was during my tenure as Minister of Education at Myers Park Baptist that I would associate again with The Center, largely because of Bible Workbench.

During these past three weeks I have been reading the archival materials at the Center, discovering all the wonderful courses and opportunities the Center has offered in the past, learning about the Executive Directors who preceded me, asking Sara McDonald a million questions (and receiving a million answers), talking with current board members and past board members, with BWB editor Andy Kille,  and at least once a day to my enthusiastically optimistic husband whose mantra is “you can do this!” It has also been three weeks of deep introspection, of owning my staggering feelings, of realizing that I am in the process of forging new beginnings, and that beginnings rarely take place without endings. Always, honor the process. This time of gathering information, analyzing the situation, identifying what we need to hold onto and what we need to let go of…this is an absolutely vital part of envisioning where the Center might be headed. This work does not produce “product” as such; this work does, however, produce results. Eventually.

If you have never seen the Ed Harris movie, Pollock, you might want to rent it. One particular scene in that film is an amazing portrayal of this evaluative work. Pollock (played by Harris) has been commissioned by Peggy Guggenheim (played by Amy Madigan) to paint a mural for the entry hall of her Upper East Side home. For Pollock there is much at stake both artistically and financially. He accepts the commission, stretches a 9-foot by 20-foot canvas (he had to tear down a wall in his apartment to accommodate it), and then spends months and months sitting in front of the blank canvas, just staring. Guggenheim gets upset because there’s no painting, and she’s already set the date for its unveiling. Pollock’s wife, Lee Krasner (played by Marcia Gay Harden), worries about his physical and mental health.

Pollock stretched this canvas in the spring, and we watch as the seasons change outside his window. Spring turns into summer, summer into fall, fall into winter. And then quite suddenly Pollock springs from his chair and begins to paint. He works maniacally and non-stop until the painting is finished. And the painting was magnificent. But bear in mind that nearly seven months elapsed before he ever put down the first stroke.

We—all of us who are invested in The Educational Center—must honor this part of the process. The analyzing, note-taking, evaluating, dreaming, hoping, and pruning are vital steps in plotting our future. We begin our work together at a very significant time in the history of religious education. My children’s generation is so “connected” via phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, Internet and all the other roads in cyberspace. But many tell me that with all of the “communication,” they still feel disconnected. Becoming truly connected, becoming whole, becoming a part of real community…these are essential in becoming a working member of the community of God. This becoming has been the focus of The Educational Center for many many years. That is, after all, what maieutic education is. It is creating the environment, developing the resources, carving out the opportunities, and committing to the process that allows people to birth for themselves their deepest spiritual truths. Educating for transformation.

It is my own strong commitment to this kind of religious education that compelled me to load up my car and cross over the Mississippi River. My own strong commitment to personal, psychological, mythological and biblical narrative as they reside in all of us, like our DNA. My own strong commitment to using the gifts I have, the education I am always receiving, and my own story to promote the work of The Educational Center.

A brilliant friend of mine, the Reverend Dr. Nancy Ellett Allison, preached at my ordination. Her text was Matthew 7:15-29 wherein Jesus is described as “one with authority”.  Nancy said to those gathered:

Never did Jesus stop and sift his mind
for the right rule; always
he followed a heart set toward God,
and such right behavior
flowed from his life
that we still stand in awe of Jesus the Christ!
Jesus lived a life settled in God.

Nancy reminded us Jesus’ authority grew out of his obedience to God and his willingness to be visible to those around him. Nancy, then, charged me to do the same. To see any authority I was given--in being ordained or in taking a job as Executive Director— as the challenge to be visible.**

I need to remember (and to be reminded) that being “settled” in St. Louis is not my goal here. On those days when I feel like the whining, wandering Israelites who want to go back to Egypt because Egypt was, at least, something they knew, I need to remember that while the journey right now feels in many ways like a trek through the wilderness, I am all the while getting manna and water, quails and direction.

On a final note, I ask for your prayers and support as I take on the work of this fine institution.  I want to hear from you. Phone, email, however you wish to contact me. I want to hear your ideas. I want to hear your assessments. I want to hear your dreams for the future of The Educational Center.

*Centerpoint recently established a non-profit separate from The Educational Center.

** Nancy was quoting from Barbara Brown’s ordination story as found in Awakened to a Calling, edited by Ann M. Svennungsen and Melissa Wiginton, Abingdon Press.

Education
at the intersection of Religion, Analytical Psychology and Contemporary Culture