Presbytery Detox Project Team
This project team was formed as a response to a growing sense among many of us that the rancorous spirit and contentious environment within our Presbytery is not sustainable and, frankly, toxic. With each passing meeting, we seem to find ourselves
- Talking past one another;
- Engaging in debate with deep suspicion of one another’s motives and agendas; and
- Leaving the meeting feeling exhausted, angry, disrespected and discouraged.
Some questions we are asking:
- What is the next right thing for SF Presbytery to do unto detox?
- Who are the conversation partners we need to do this work well?
- What kind of experiments can the Detox Team try that can then serve as a model that includes the rest of us?
These questions make it clear that the Detox Team does not live under the illusion that we can “fix the problem” on our own. Instead, the team wants to create a context in which each of us can own our contribution to the breakdown, and then work as a whole toward reconciliation and ultimately, renewal.
The Detox team believes that God is up to something, such that we in the San Francisco Presbytery may—for the first time in a long time—reflect an authentic witness of Christian unity in the Bay Area that declares: “We are one in Christ. I stand for my Presbyterian brothers and sisters, even if I do not stand for everything they stand for. We have seen the differences, we are mending fences. For the sake of Jesus and his glory, we will pour ourselves out in love for each other.”
