Time Matters
Welcome to the page which supports our Clergy Summer Gathering 2009 - Time Matters.
In the light of the Clergy Summer Gathering 2009, this page will continue to be updated with interesting items of information on the general theme of "Time".
Following the conference, I have prepared a booklet, Time Wisdom for Ministry. Click here for a pdf of the first section. If you would like a copy of this resource, please contact joyce.parker@durham.anglican.org The cost is £5 (for Durham clergy the cost is paid for from the CMD budget).
A review of some books on the theme of "Time" can be found below. The books are:
- The Myths of Time by Hugh Rayment-Picard, DLT 2004
- The Time Paradox by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd, Rider 2008
- Time Management for Unmageable People by Ann McGee, Cooper
Click here to hear a sermon by Stephen Cherry on Passing through Time preached at the Cathedral just after the Summer Gathering.
Click here to read David Kennedy's talk Worship and Time Then and Now.
Click here to see Paul Witt's presentation on Navigating Nostalgia.
See also the article on the Summer Gathering under News and Events.
Other material to follow shortly.
Stephen Cherry
30th July 2009
Some Books on Time
The Myths of Time, Hugh Rayment-Pickard, DLT 2004
This is the book that confirmed my hunch that time was both theologically and practically central in ministry. The five key chapters first ‘deconstruct’ time, and then present four different types of time. The deconstruction is important, and begins with St Augustine’s famous and honest expression of bewilderment in Confessions book 7. But I want to focus on his four types. Not everyone will enjoy getting their heads around these distinctions, and I found the descriptions a bit over theologised – which is why I have offered an alternative vocabulary to explain each type at the end of each summary.
C-type Time ‘Catastrophic’
This is the sort of time that eats up life. It is time that in its passing causes (negative) change and decay. Its symbol is the Grim Reaper with his scythe. The other types of time can all be alternatives to this gloomy view of time. Alternative type: ‘Change and Decay Time - CD-type time’.
A-type Time ‘Apocalyptic’
Rayment-Pickard explains that he means ‘apocalyptic’ not in the sense of disaster but revelation. The ethic of A-type time is hopeful waiting. Those who inhabit time in this way do not plan for the future, they remain open to it. This is time moving forward towards a positive future.
Alternative type: ‘Waiting Time - W-type time’.
K-type Time ‘Kairic’
Rayment-Pickard uses the word ‘kairic’ in a wider sense than the New Testament’s which is of the ‘right time’. For him K-type time is all about the nowness of now, the density and depth, as it were of the present tense. This sense of time is vital in most Christian spirituality, whether serious or sentimental – it includes the ‘magic moments’ of Perry Como’s famous song as well as De Caussade’s ‘sacrament of the present moment’.
Alternative type: ‘Present Moment Time - PM-type time.’
P-type Time ‘Prophetic’
P-type time is ordered by a project or other form of meaningful process. Indeed some might find this easier if they think of it as ‘Project time’. For many, the concept of the Kingdom of God is one that can transform our experience of time to purposeful - P-type time. Purpose or mission statements have the same impact on businesses or charities. “To be in P-type time is to feel part of a plan.” p110 It is time in which we make progress. Alternative type: ‘Project time - P-type time’
Comment
This was a really helpful book for me to read, as it gave some shape and form to my wandering thoughts about time. It does not address the physics of time but focuses on the philosophical, theological and cultural construction of time. I am not sure that it does justice to non-linear expressions and experiences of time, such as we encounter with the seasons of the year and the rhythms of liturgical life. It did however convince me that to begin to shift our understanding of time from the commonsensical and taken-for-granted to the mysterious and to-be-explored is to embark on a spiritual journey.
My experience of reading it involved touching on all four types of time: I was patient in the difficult bits (A-type/W-type), lost in wonder at the profound bits (K-type/PM-type) and given shape and form by the analysis as a whole (P-type). I guess I did age, change and decay in the time it took to read it (C-type/CD type). Nonetheless it was time well spent.
The Time Paradox, Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd, Rider 2008
This book introduces what the authors call ‘The New Psychology of Time’. It offers an accessible and engaging way into their theory that each person’s perspective on time is a massively important part of their personal psychology and therefore wellbeing and happiness. It also gives the reader the opportunity to discover their own ‘time perspective’ by completing a questionnaire.
One of the most engaging aspects of the book is the way it encourages the reader to think of the different perspectives on time that people would have had in different historical eras. Thus we are introduced to ‘Tag’ one of the first human beings to evolve. Tag’s life expectancy is about 25 years, but for most of his life he is alert to life-threatening danger. As a result he is almost completely oriented to the present moment. A second historic character is ‘Abdul’ who lived 2,500 years ago. For Abdul it makes sense to organize the working day, and he does so according to shadows cast by the sun and with the Egyptian calendar based on 12, 30-day months and five extra days at the end of the year.
A third character is ‘Edward’, who lived 150 years ago and saw the establishment of Greenwich Mean Time in 1884. However Edward also moved from a village to a city and began working in a factory where his time was organized very precisely by the clock. During his life, natural cycles became less important, industrialized clock time began to dominate and efficiency became a primary goal. It was not long after this that before Benjamin Franklin would say, in a phrase that would make no sense before the clock, ‘time is money’.
Today time is the most commonly used English noun (‘year’ is the third and ‘day’ the fifth most common word). It is very commonly Googled and if you search for it on Yahoo.com you get 7 billion hits (far, far more than ‘money’ or ‘sex’).
Such is the background to the book’s claim that the psychology of time is of supreme importance to people today. There is no doubt that working through the book can help people discover more about the ways in which time perspectives impact on people’s minds and lives and thence on whole cultures.
The book is not however all about theory. It is in essence a kind of self-help book and there are lots of exercises towards the end to help people ‘reset’ their psychological clock in order to live happier, healthier lives. The key to wholesome happiness is to strengthen the three positive dimensions of your time perspective: past positive, future and present hedonistic. The negative dimensions, ‘past negative’ and ‘future fatalistic’ are not addressed but left to wither on the vine. All this sounds good sense to me. There must be something wholesome about having a good, strong, positive attitude not to either the past, or the present or the future but to all three. Great sadness can erupt or evolve, however, when people prefer one over the others or get negative about the past or fatalistic about the future. Avoiding the opportunity to be fully present in the now is not good either but I suspect it is impossible to measure by questionnaire.
Comment
You might not swallow the theory here in full but this book has the capacity to make the reader reflect deeply on their attitude to time. The absence of any theological perspective means that it has a light and accessible feel. It also leaves the Christian reader with lots of interesting work to do in finding pastoral, spiritual and theological connections. So while the book might not quite equip you to ‘Reclaim Yesterday, Enjoy Today and Master Tomorrow’, as the subtitle suggests, you might have a bit more confidence in navigating the many snares of modern life which are created by our being so unreflective and un-theological in our acceptance of the assumptions about time which people happen to make today.
Time Management for Unmanageable People, Ann McGee, Cooper
There are two types of clergy who have problems with time management. Those who have never given the subject any thought or received any training. And those for whom the standard ideas just don’t seem to work. So, if you are the kind of person who knows what to do in theory but who just does not get on with the typical time management ideas – which tend to boil down to “plan, prioritise, schedule, follow your plan” – then this book might just help.
The author believes that there is a lot to be said against trying to be as efficient as possible and everything to be said against ‘hurry sickness’. Many forces in our culture are causing us to speed up. The answer is not to learn how to drive faster but to slow down, understand yourself more fully and work at a higher level of quality. Central to this is to discover the importance not only of balancing work with play but also getting better at ‘playing’. However, the key idea is not balance or time off for refreshment and renewal but self-awareness. In particular, you need to become aware that you do not think or work like the people who give time management advice.
The big idea in this book is that some people actually thrive on all the things that time management gurus say are bad: having a messy desk, handling the same piece of paper several times, failing to plan things a long way in advance. Rather, it might be that bad habits are good habits in disguise. Such people are the divergent, right brain thinkers who love to be creative, to network, to engage in the flow of life, not trying to sort it all out, but to make the real difference that only they can make.
How do you know if you are such a person? The book contains a questionnaire to help you find out. However I think that one question will do it. Are you the kind of person who, if asked to produce a ‘to do’ list will a) find it difficult and then b) once you get going add lots and lots of things and c) probably not bother putting on the list the obvious priorities or duties? If you are that kind of person, then this book might just help; which could be a great relief because you will probably have not been very impressed by traditional time management books or training.
I have emphasised the basis on which the book is written because it is so important for ‘unmanageable’ people to recognise that the traditional methods were not devised by people like them and often will simply not work. However the bulk of the book is given over to ideas and thoughts that can help creative, multi-tasking, right brained, messy people develop their stewardship of time and as a result both get more done and have more fun.
Conclusion
The puzzle of time management for clergy is not entirely resolved by this book. (The reality is that there is not a book written which does this because, in my view, no-one has adequately analysed the nature of time pressures that parish clergy face.) However, there is a lot in this book to help people whom the traditional approaches just leave feeling cold and guilty. So, if you are a chaotic but creative sort of person with a messy desk, a muddled diary and a tendency to miss deadlines this book might just be the one you are looking for. Whether you will ever get round to buying and reading it, however, is another matter. Clearly you can’t add ‘buy that book’ to your to do list as you don’t have one. So why not try another method – maybe email yourself ‘I am creative – so let’s get creative about time and look at that book’. Meanwhile there is a spare copy at Carter House for the first 3 people to ask for one.
Stephen Cherry
September 2009