The Creative Institution

Undated (File under 1980)
Unspecified Location (Probably Lakeland or Port Charlotte)

The Creative Institution

There are many who would assert that the creative institution is a contradiction in terms. Institutions suggest all the jokes we have heard about committees and bureaucracies. Others, more seriously, believe that the Christian religious doctrine of original sin is an appraisal of institutions. What persons would not do as individuals they readily share or acquiesce in if an institution is involved. Furthermore, many institutions begin to decay soon after the need or cause that led to organization. Institutional perpetuation become[s] the priority rather than the goals and ideals that prompted organization in the first place. Simon’s Law is that “everything put together falls apart sooner or later.”

We have celebrated the renovating and refurbishing of this chapel. We have noted those who did much in the planning and work to achieve the result we all admire and appreciate. Individuals have labored for an institution. An institution is the gathering of people and resources for the accomplishing of shared goals. [CJW note: An institution can be fellowship, family, corporation, government]

When I spoke of the creative person, I mentioned certain qualities – encounter with a vision, intensity, hard work, challenging fixed assumptions, discerning new patterns. Thus, when preparing these remarks, I had to face up to the reality that institutions as such do not have these qualities. The courageous, creative, motivated persons in an institution represent the inspiration and perspiration. The crucial matter is whether or not the institutional framework, rules, and prevailing attitudes encourages or discourages the innovators, the creators.

So, the creative institution may not exist. But an institution is the dimension in which the creative persons function. To remember some of the creative persons named a couple weeks ago – Michelangelo created the paintings in the Sistine Chapel because of the institution of the Church. Beethoven was subsidized by the institutional, wealthy aristocracy. Shakespeare created his masterpieces for the institution of the Elizabethan theatre.

What keeps the fiddler on the roof? Tradition! The institution carries the tradition. It is through the institution we remember. Because of the institutions of education, religion, government, family, we are taught the follies and glories of the human adventure.

Institutions can be rigid and confining. Institutions are also the memory and provide the rules which stimulate and support creative effort.

Our institutional memory of the traditions and rules of Unitarian Universalism are certainly not the only example but the one I wish to single out today. Conrad Wright in a study paper done for Unitarian Universalist Advance - “Individualism in Historical Perspective” points out some of the inconsistencies with which he perceives our institutional tradition.

“If we had saints, we would, without doubt, include Jefferson and Emerson. Yet these two didn’t believe in religious institutions. “If there ever was a person who insisted that religion is a private matter, it was Jefferson. He did so, not simply because his views were unorthodox and so would have exposed him to political attack, of which there was enough anyway, but because he held to a view of religion that was individualistic in the extreme. ‘I inquire after no man’s religious opinions, and trouble none with mine.’” [CJW note: Isn’t that the very process we cherish? The speaker – Talkback – we value dialogue highly.]

Wright observes about Jefferson, “for him religion remains a private possession, because there is nothing in his understanding of it that suggests that religious fellowship has any value, or that there is anything in human nature that needs religious community.”

Ralph W. Emerson, too, had a privatized religion. He left the organized church early in his career. [CJW note: Religion necessary – church superfluous 30-35% in country today]

It is an odd quirk in our religious movement that we name churches and fellowships for Jefferson and Emerson, who did not believe in religious institutions. We hardly know the names of those who believed in the institution and worked to institute and enlarge churches and fellowships, to maintain an institutional framework for the free market in ideas, for free persons’ worship, for free persons to make voices (and social problems) heard.

In studying the early history of the European settlement of this continent, Conrad Wright points out the possibility that individualism was connected with the unlimited resources and opportunity of the rich lands and almost unlimited frontier. But that is a disappearing phase. [CJW note: read p. 12 – 14]

Wright asks what is required of us if we are to play an important role in the shaping of a new age. [CJW note: p. 17; not sure totally agree – but the argument is formidable.]

I would add that if we are to be an institution that supports and encourages creativity, we must take risks. That is, take a critical stance. Every act of creation is an act of destruction.

An Episcopal bishop, John S. Spong, illustrates the risk in writing of the probable new shape of the church, wrote “The Episcopal Church gave a $40,000 grant to a Mexican-American group – one diocese immediately cut off its $80,000 contribution.”

That resonates with those of us who remember our Black caucus and appropriations. [CJW note: lost many friends – not too many years and migrant ministry]

Miller’s Law - “You can’t tell how deep a puddle is until you step in it.”

We have a covenant. It is not a doctrinal [covenant] but a governmental covenant. But whenever we vote in the minority, we have given up some portion of our individuality. [CJW note: can we accept that for the sake of the religious community?]

George Wald – Harvard biologist – the bees lecture “source of human nature” supporting his belief that human behavior has evolved from those of animals – described the social behavior of bees – “By certain dance routines, [a] bee can tell other bees where it has found a rich store of nectar... dances are also used in searching for a new hive. Worker bees fan out in the hunt. When they find a likely place they return and dance before the swarm. The better the spot, the more prolonged and intense the dance.”

Human social behavior has the advantage of speech – this parallel more important and controversial. The issue – more prolonged and intense the discussion. Essential is persistent communication. There is risk – persons in an institution make their gathering effective when the risk of differing communication plainly told is accepted/embraced.

I do not know how many, of if any here ever attended Summer Experience – Star Is. off Isles of Shoals. If you have, you probably have the same enduring memory that I have. The evening service in the old, granite Fishermen’s Chapel is a profoundly moving occasion and an authentic symbol of how our movement functions at its institutional best.

At 10 pm, each person, carrying a lighted candle lantern, climbs the stone steps single file toward the chapel on the hill. The chapel is dark; it has no lights. As each worshiper enters with his/her light, the interior becomes progressively lighter. When everyone is present for evening worship, the chapel is lighted warmly and brightly. When the service ends, each departs, carrying his own light. When the last worshiper has left, the chapel is dark again.

This symbolizes our societies. The dispelling of darkness depends upon the light each brings to worship and work. But it takes all the lights to fully brighten the chapel. The individual alone would hold but a tiny flame flickering in a great dark. But when all bring their lighted tapers, the gathered common, shared light dispels the darkness.