9. On Founding Fathers

Dearly Beloved,

Forty years ago I was working abroad when after a leisurely seven year courtship Josephine and I decided to marry. As I was not attached to any Parish. that meant that it was necessary to conform to a law of 1533 and obtain a special marriage licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury's Faculty Office. It turned out to be a relict mediaeval document written in beautiful script, the first page was dominated by the promising greeting “Health” in enormous letters. We were married by Cannon Dick Herrick. He was introduced as a family friend but there were more profound reasons for his role. The Cannon had founded the Chelmsford Cathedral Centre for Research and Training in 1969, and Josephine's father, Pierre Turquet, was the first consultant to the Centre and they worked together on Church Leadership. Pierre was head of the adult department at the Tavistock Clinic and specialised in the psychology of groups, especially large groups. The work of the two of them became influential within the Church. In the US the Jesuit Joseph Novak, having experienced the work of the Chelmsford centre, set up his own groups back home, emphasising the experience of the individual in the group, especially those concerning hierarchy, power and authority, how people deal with feelings of insignificance in such groups and how religious language may be misused, not to generate its actual religious meaning but in an attempt to resolve group conflicts to the individual’s advantage and overcome negative feelings.

Another intimately involved with Herrick's center was the late Wesley Carr (later Dean of Westminster) who was inspired to write two influential books, The Priestlike Task (1983) and Brief Encounters (1985). Wesley Carr became influential in the training of ordinands and the evaluation of training institutions. Yesterday I read to my wife the following comment by a diocesan Bishop: the books were “so refreshing because of the sharpness of the observations and the sense that pastoral theology was an intellectual discipline of high importance, rather than simply all about getting on with everybody, smoothing ruffled feathers, and avoiding conflict”. My wife immediately responded “that sounds like my father’s influence!”

Pierre held a meeting in Ireland incorporating competing religious factions and the main political parties, and used his experience to challenge them to solve the problems of getting different political groups to work together – the problems that South Africa had failed to solve. As stated in Pierre’s obituary: “It became clear in subsequent conversations, that he was viewing the world as a massive group, and as such, subject to irrational and unconscious social and psychological forces, but, nevertheless, able, albeit unconsciously, to give authority to particular nations.” 

Today, this is very relevant to problems in the USA which are essentially the result of profound differences between different groups which have magnified distrust and become so extreme that it has led to totally different interpretations of reality by the different groups. We all need to be aware of our relationships to the groups of which we are part and those from which we feel distanced, and how it influences our feelings and actions towards others. Those in the Christian community always have a built in advantage if they can only follow the compassionate attitude of Christ to us, and not become engrossed in inter-personnel bickering.

Peace,

Paul.

Script Completed 7 January 2021


My father-in-law Pierre Turquet (highest hat) at the celebration of his last day at Westminster School circa 1930. 



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