Denver - December 31, 2006

Dear Colleagues:

This has been a tricky Christmas and new year's holiday because the old year was so fraught with tension and collateral damage. In the midst of considerable light, there was also considerable darkness. The trick, it seems, is to be honest about the darkness without ignoring or denying the light.

This was the year that the Board of Directors of the Institute of Cultural Affairs found itself forced by the weight of reality to deal with the prospect of imminent bankruptcy and financial liability. The board chose to lay off or announce the future lay off of virtually all of ICA's senior program staff. While these decisions, per se, are not inherently either light or dark, the implications in organizational and human terms are so immense than no one has yet been willing or able to own and explore them publicly in any meaningful way.

In the face of the most significant shake up of the organization since the "turn to the world," the board's communications have been totally inadequate and comment from present or former staff members has been virtually nonexistent. I have received personal communication from only one board member. The only holiday letter to arrive from former staff colleagues does not even mention layoffs. I do not believe that any holiday greeting from either former staff or ICA board members have been posted on the OE or the Dialogue listservs.

The silence on these momentous developments is deafening. Whatever reflection is taking place is taking place in silent isolation from one another. Silence and isolation are the sad antithesis of corporateness and the future will not be well served by either.

What can one say? Two reflections seem appropriate at Christmas time. First, whatever the necessities of the moment or their constructive intentions, the ICA's board of directors seems to have forgotten that the senior staff of the ICA are all members of a much larger intentional community whose mission is to serve the world rather than to preserve a ineffective status quo. Second, somehow amidst the anxiety and complexity of the past year, the ICA's board, staff and supporters have failed to honestly acknowledge that we have all been asleep at the switch, we have all fallen short of our calling and commission, and we have all contributed, one way or another, to the ICA's financially untenable position.

If the essence of the life of faith is acknowledging reality, embracing reality?s limits and possibilities, and continually choosing the path of evolving service, what is missing in the unfolding drama of the ICA is a way to forgive one another for failing to acknowledge and deal with reality. When we have all been more or less asleep, and when devoted colleagues have dismissed one another?literally and figuratively?in profoundly discounting ways, no matter what role we played in the drama, we are all deeply in need of the healing release of accountability and absolution. Without accountability and absolution there can only be silence and isolation.

While the ICA proclaimed the life stance of unfailing possibility, it has been challenged in practicing the patterns it has preached. The ICA's board of directors is naive if it thinks that dismissing senior professional staff without so much as an exit interview is an adequate way to inaugurate a new era of shared creativity. The board's handling of the dire financial circumstances that faced the ICA this year disregards the spirit of the movement that brought the ICA into being, the operating values on which it was founded, and its own intention to create new partnerships. One has to wonder who would wish to be associated with an organization that has treated its most experienced employees so dismissively.

It is my hope and intention that the profound wounding and estrangement that occurred during this last year will not destroy decades-old collegial relationships and will not inadvertently sabotage the very prospects the board wishes to cultivate. The situation we face, however, has not been set up well to foster collegial trust or a spirit of consultation and creative imagination. No one has pronounced the past approved, board and former staff members alike received, all is good and the future is open. There is still work to be done.

I believe that every one of us must find the courage to act on the basis of long-held convictions: 1) to acknowledge the gifts and limitations of our intentions and actions, 2) to request absolution for our lives and labors, and, 3) to choose to open ourselves to the new assignments and new relationships that will be required in the coming years.

I think that the present board of directors, the remaining staff, and former senior program staff are not well positioned to play this role of proclaiming and mediating grace. I do not know if the interim executive director, Kirk Harris, could play this role successfully or not. The ICA has just experienced a frontal lobotomy and those in charge are acting as if nothing untoward has happened. From this side of the divide, it looks like a third party and fair witness is needed to take on this priesting role.

These challenges lead me to want to speak up more than ever, to pay attention, to discern the whole truth and attempt to open a doorway that can only remain closed until we decide to talk with one another. You'll recognize my indebtedness to Angeles Arrien:

"In cultures like ours where we are alienated from our mythological roots, renewal requires a return to the basic source where all personal and cultural myths are ultimately forged by the human psyche. To guide our renewal we can look to cross-cultural research that reveals how shamanic traditions have consistently accessed four archetypal patterns to maintain connections to the mythic structures that support creative expression, health and adaptation to change. These four archetypal ways are The Way of the Warrior, The Way of the Healer, The Way of the Visionary and The Way of the Teacher. The four Ways reflect a pervasive belief that life will be simple if we practice four basic principles: Show up or choose to be present, pay attention to what has heart and meaning, tell the truth without blame or judgment, and be open, rather than attached to, the outcome."

(Point your browser at http://www.spiritsound.com/arrien.html for more on the four Ways.)

I will add links here as my thinking develops. Please add your own reflections.

Who will share responsibility for facilitating this healing work?

-- DavidDunn - 31 Dec 2006