Open Door Policy

An excerpt from a Time magazine article "There's More Than One Way to Relieve Stress":

"This is probably the toughest lesson to internalize because when stess overwhelms the system, your choices often seem more limited than they are. Behavioral scientists have a name for this psychological reaction. They call it 'learned helplessness', and they have studied the phenomenon closely in laboratory rodents, whose nervous systems bear striking similarity to that of humans.

If you provide mice with an escape route, they typically learn very quickly how to avoid a mild electrical shock that occurs a few seconds after they hear a tone. But if the escape route is blocked whenever the tone is sounded, and new shocks occur, the mice will eventually stop trying to run away. Later, even after the escape route is cleared, the animals simply freeze at the sound of the tone--despite the fact that they once knew how to avoid the associated shock.


"Learned helplessness" is an interesting concept. Have the 'rules changed' in our parishes? Do some people feel as if doors are closed to them? Do they no longer see any open doors because they have absorbed to many shocks?

The first obvious major shocks would have been the clustering of the parishes, then the recommended closings, and then the actual closing of our local three parishes. I think that everyone kept looking for the open door during these times that would have saved the effectiveness of the communities. Many watched that open door close as staff made it clear that everything would be consolidated and made "one". Anyone who kept looking for that open door, was chastized for being "afraid of change", and not being able to "let go of the past". Mr. Wasserman, in his talk with Dan in Toledo, said that there was no reason that each community could not continue their programs in their original location. That was why the Bishop left St.Mary's as a Chapel, to serve those in a huge zone without a Catholic church. It would be conterproductive to move everything to Upper.

But, attempts at reasoning fell on deaf ears and many parishioners "gave up" so to speak. Perhaps they felt as if they had no escape routes? Has a type of 'learned helplessness' become the norm?

In talking with other members of the parish, I thought it might be helpful to get some of these 'shocks' out in the open. What were the things that happened that made people 'give up" and physically leave the church? What happened that made people leave organizations and ministries that used to excite them?

Let's make a list of those shocks? What happened that hurt? Maybe making a list of 'shocks' will help many find the open door?