Start:Stop - prayer and religion rank high among the best stress busters

Bible reading

… while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it … a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs. (Hebrews 4. 1, 9 – 11)

Meditation

There is a growing body of research which suggests that prayer and religion rank high among the best stress busters. Use of a prayer/quiet room for meditation, reflection or prayer on a regular basis can assist greatly in the management of stress. “It is now widely accepted that those organisations which have a ‘spiritually-friendly’ culture, show universally lower than average rates of absenteeism, workplace stress and staff turnover” (Source: Spiritual Care Matters NHS Scotland, 2009).

This is significant because workers in the UK took an average of 5.3 days off work in 2012, according to the 2013 CBI/Pfizer Fit for Purpose survey, with stress, anxiety and depression given as the main causes of absence. Research undertaken by Roffey Park in the past, has indicated that nearly three-quarters of workers are interested in "learning to live the spiritual side of their values" and 53% are experiencing tensions between "the spiritual side of their values and their work".

By running Start:Stop once a week we are seeking to suggest that even a little rest or short breaks on a regular basis can be a life-saver in a frantic world where our endless tasks can easily consume us 24-7. Those of you who start your day by stopping for ten minutes of quiet reflection once a week tell us that these brief moments of reflection at the beginning of the day set you up for the busyness and business of the rest of your day. We all urgently need to learn to slow down and stop … and breathe. As Isaiah 30:15 says, ‘In return and rest you shall be saved.’ When we do slow down, stop and breathe for a moment, we are practising the fourth commandment in our contemporary age.

So, here, at St Stephen Walbrook, we want to take our experience of providing Start:Stop out of this church building and into the City’s workplaces to make a difference to the way people work here in the City by offering Start:Stop and other provision to businesses locally. For example, we recently hosted ‘Women in the City,’ an event which highlighted women’s involvement in the civic, cultural, charitable and social opportunities in the City of London and argued that gender balance on boards encourages better leadership and governance. We wish to work more fully with a range of organisations in the City to celebrate and encourage greater diversity. We wish to offer the best from our heritage of wisdom and spirituality in a way which can impact businesses through cultural understanding, diversity and openness, workplace spirituality, pastoral care and stress management. The leaflet entitled plus+ that we have given you today explains what we are offering and we would be grateful if you could consider whether it is something that could be shared with your organisation.

Roffey Park’s research indicated that 70% of managers are looking for more meaning in their work. Our lives are not simply about having enough to survive; the meeting of our basic needs. God wants us to see a deeper level of meaning, significance, shape and purpose to our lives. That includes sufficient rest and return. As the letter to the Hebrews reminds us, the promise of entering God’s rest is still open - a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God – so let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest.

Prayers

Lord God, we ask you to be our Pace Setter, enabling us not to rush. Make us stop and rest for quiet intervals and provide us with images of stillness which restore our serenity. Lead us in ways of efficiency, through calmness of mind; for your guidance is peace. Even though we have a great many things to accomplish each day, enable us not to fret for your presence is with us; your timelessness and all-importance will keep us in balance.

O Lord, you know how busy I must be this day. If I forget you, do not forget me.

Prepare refreshment and renewal in the midst of our activity, by anointing our heads with your oils of tranquillity. May our cup of joyous energy overflow, as harmony and effectiveness become the fruit of our hours, as we walk in the pace of our Lord and dwell in your house for ever.

O Lord, you know how busy I must be this day. If I forget you, do not forget me.

Reveal and bring meaning, purpose, shape and significance to our lives. Keep us alert to this deeper level of life and not solely focused on the meeting of our basic needs. Ensure that a focus of getting will not prevent us from seeing and receiving what you are already giving to us. Inspire us to seek meaning and shape within our lives. Help us recognise the significance and purpose that you bring.

O Lord, you know how busy I must be this day. If I forget you, do not forget me.

Blessing

The Spirit of truth lead you into all truth, give you grace to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and strengthen you to proclaim the word and works of God; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Riyad Nicolas - Paganini-Liszt Etude No. 6.

Start:Stop - How the light gets in

Bible reading

“… it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.” (2 Corinthians 4. 6 - 10)

Meditation

‘Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack
In everything
That's how the light gets in,
That's how the light gets in’

I don’t know how the image of a crack letting in light came into the mind of Leonard Cohen, who wrote those lines I've just quoted, but they fit really well with our reading from Corinthians.

St Paul uses this image to assure us that we have the light of God in our lives, despite the fallibility and fraility of our lives. He pictures our lives as being like cracked clay jars. He is suggesting that there are fractures and flaws running through each of our lives but that these imperfections actually enable the light of Christ to be seen more clearly in our lives. If a clay jar were to contain a light but also be perfectly formed then the light inside would not be seen from the outside. The light of Christ would effectively be hidden. People would look at our perfect life and not Christ, because they would only see us.

Instead, Paul says, because we are not perfect and have difficulties and flaws, it is then clear that where we act or speak with love and compassion, this is because of Christ in us, rather than being something which innate to us or simply our decision alone. As Christ says, let your light so shine before others that they might see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5. 16).

These reflections may well have particular relevance in our workplaces, where it may well be difficult to consistently act perfectly as a Christian before of the pressures and issues found there. We may well be among the 53% of managers that Roffey Park identified as experiencing tensions between "the spiritual side of their values and their work". St Paul and Leonard Cohen both encourage us with the thought that perfection in us would actually prevent the light of God from being seen, while it is the lines of stress in our lives which enable that light to be clearly seen for what it is.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, in your face we see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Your light in our lives is like a flame inside a cracked clay jar, with your light seen through the lines of stress and tension that characterise our lives. As flawed people in a fragile world, we recognise that there is a crack in everything. We recognise, too, that it is through the cracks in our existence that your light gets in and shines out. We share in the vulnerability and suffering that was your experience of death in order that your life is also seen as being our strength in weakness. May we not be crushed, driven to despair, forsaken or destroyed, but in the stresses and tensions of our lives know your power loving and sustaining us. May we no longer strive after perfect offerings and pray instead that every heart to love will come, but as a refugee. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Lord Jesus, you are the light of the world and the light in our darkness. May your light be a flame to build warmth in our hearts towards family, neighbours and all those we meet. We place in your care all those we come to remember today. Give us, we pray, comfort in our anxiety and fear, courage and strength in our suffering, patience and compassion in our caring, consolation in our grieving. But above all, give us hope now and always. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Lord, may your light enlighten us in our decisions and be a fire to purify us from all pride and selfishness. Set our hearts on fire with love for you, so that we may love you with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul, and with all our strength, and our neighbours as ourselves. So that by keeping your commandments we may glorify you, the giver of all good gifts. Lord, in your strength and vulnerability, hear our prayer.

Blessing

Enlightenment in our decisions, purification from pride and selfishness, strength in weakness, God’s power loving and sustaining us. May those blessings of almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon you and remain with you always. Amen.

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Leonard Cohen - Anthem.

Start:Stop - Aligning values in the workplace

Start your day by stopping to reflect for 10 minutes. Every Tuesday morning there is a rolling programme of work-based reflections at St Stephen Walbrook (39 Walbrook, London EC4N 8BN). Every 15 minutes between 7.30am and 9.15am, a 10 minute session of reflection begins. These sessions include bible passages, meditations, music, prayers, readings and silence. Drop in on your way into work to start your day by stopping to reflect for 10 minutes.

Bible reading

... a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22. 35 – 40)

Meditation

Research undertaken by Roffey Park in the past, claimed that nearly three-quarters of workers are interested in "learning to live the spiritual side of their values" and 53% are experiencing tensions between "the spiritual side of their values and their work".

Such tension comes when we feel that the values of our faith are not aligned with the values of our organisation. In this situation we feel compromised because we are either not able to be all out for God in our workplace – where we spend a significant majority of our time – or we are not able to give our full commitment to our work and, therefore, are not as fully motivated as we would otherwise be.

It is helpful that, in more recent years, organisations have set out their values and discussed with employees how these are applied in the workplace. That provides the opportunity to consider to what extent our faith values align with the values of our organisation. The closer the fit, the more we will feel able to bring our faith to work by living out our values.

God’s call on our lives is to love him with all that we have; heart, soul and mind. That necessarily means in the whole of our life, including our working lives. Assessing the extent to which our faith values fit with those of our organisation enables us either to give ourselves fully to our work - putting heart and soul and mind into our work because there is a good fit between our faith values and our organisation’s values – or to become aware where the sources of tension in our work and faith are, so we can either seek help in living with those tensions or seek work which provides a better fit and greater motivation.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, who shaped wood as a carpenter, who taught multitudes and who came to serve others, we lift up to you our work and the values which underpin it.

We pray for a good fit between the values of our faith and the values of our organisation. Help us to see where the points of connection of may be and as these are identified, may our motivation to serve you and others through our work increase and grow.

Lord, may we love you with heart, soul and mind as we put our heart, soul and mind into our work.

We pray for any who are experiencing tension between the spiritual side of their values and their work. We ask for confidantes to whom they can talk honestly and openly about those tensions and that ways to lessen those tensions will be found.

Lord, may we love you with heart, soul and mind as we put our heart, soul and mind into our work.

We ask for guidance as we seek to bring our faith to work by living out our values in the way we approach our work and relate to our colleagues and customers. May compassion and service characterise our dealings with others.

Lord, may we love you with heart, soul and mind as we put our heart, soul and mind into our work.

We pray that the way our organisations do business will benefit others, through the products or services we provide, the way these are delivered and their broader impact on society. Enable us to be a positive influence within our organisations by seeking to live out its values to the best of our ability.

Lord, may we love you with heart, soul and mind as we put our heart, soul and mind into our work.

May we love you, Lord God, with all our heart, and soul, and mind this week as we put heart and soul and mind into our work. May your values inform all we do, say and think within our workplace and in the rest of our lives. May that blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rest upon us and remain with us always. Amen.

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Ēriks Ešenvalds - O Salutaris Hostia.

Faith-based leadership models (2)

The Management Agenda 2003, produced by Roffey Park, claimed that nearly three-quarters of workers are interested in "learning to live the spiritual side of their values". The report also claimed that more than 40% of UK managers would value the opportunity to discuss workplace spirituality with their colleagues and that 53% were experiencing tensions between "the spiritual side of their values and their work."

George Starcher, in a paper entitled ‘Towards a New Paradigm of Management’ available from the European Bahá'í Business Forum, argues that a new paradigm of management is emerging from the current context. A paradigm involving:

• the formulation and communication of purpose, vision, and process (leadership);
• the balancing of economic and material goals with spiritual and human values; and
• the recognition by growing numbers of organisations of a social responsibility as well as an economic mission.

Starcher suggests that Bahá’ís feel that this new paradigm must inevitably reflect the new spiritual values and teachings inspired by Bahá'u'lláh. But each of the faith communities contains resources for leadership. Sometimes these come through the teaching of these communities and sometimes through the examples of past or current leaders within the communities. In recent years such teaching and examples have been increasingly applied to the realm of work with the result that a broadly-based Spirituality at Work movement has emerged in this country to provide additional resources relating to leadership.

This series of posts tries to summarise and signpost people to some of the resources for leadership that the faith communities and the Spirituality at Work movement contain. The range of resources now available for aspects of management and leadership from these sources is vast and this section can do no more than dip a toe into the ocean. The fact that each heading in subsequent posts does not contain resources from each faith group is not an indication that those faith groups not mentioned have no resources in that area.

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After The Fire - One Rule For You.

Faith-based leadership models (1)

Through Faiths in London's Economy I am working on ideas for a seminar exploring the place of faith in the development of leadership. The target audience being HR professionals, interfaith practitioners, and people of faith in (or with an interest in) employment. This would be the second in an ongoing series of seminars that began with the 'Ethics in a Global Economy' seminar.
This, together with hearing Brian Draper speak on Spiritual Intelligence at the Everyday Icons event this past weekend, reminded me of a paper (which I shall post in this series) that I wrote on faith-based leadership models for Faith Regen Foundation as part of the Faith Communities Toolkit that we prepared for the Centre for Excellence in Leadership to make available to the Learning & Skills Sector nationally. This Toolkit remains available online and can be found by clicking here.

Lynne Sedgemore, then Chief Executive of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership, who commissioned Faith Regen to develop a Faith Communities Toolkit for the learning and skills sector said, “I believe that faith issues should have more of a high profile within leadership dialogue in the 21st Century.”

“In the current global, national and local contexts,” Sedgemore said, “I feel that our sector’s leaders need support, advice and information on dealing with faith especially since the recent Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 came into force.” Recent events across the world linked to religions and faith issues, she thought, supported this view which involves looking at faith from a diversity perspective as well as a legal one.

She is not alone. In 2003 the Roffey Park Institute published research which claimed that nearly three-quarters of workers are interested in "learning to live the spiritual side of their values." An increasing number of books, consultancies and websites are emerging which deal with spiritual leadership within the workplace. The Bahá'í business writer, George Starcher, has argued that a new spiritual paradigm of management is emerging from the current context. He sees this paradigm as involving communicating vision, balancing economics and ethics and developing social responsibility.

My paper sought to summarises strands of teaching from each of the major world religions that could contribute to this new paradigm.

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The Clash - Clampdown.