The Cluster Dance

Do the cluster dance!
Do the cluster dance!

Even if you take a stance
It’s a game of chance.
Still,
we are forced
To do the cluster dance.


Liz danced with Helena
The pair danced well and good.
A very short relationship
But they danced as best they could.

Then, Helena forced to dance with Stan:
Pastoral musical chairs.
Then, Good and Saintly Helena
was simply kicked down the stairs.

The music stopped for Helena.
The song was all askance.
Helen’s doors were locked.
No more cluster dance.

Now, Stan dances with Carmel.
Between them, hopefully, some romance.
For Stan and Carmel now
find themselves in the Cluster Dance.

So, Liz dances on with Francis.
In fact, Liz dances with two.
For Liz dances with Lourdes.
But now, she finds out Patrick stands in queue.


At least,
that’s what the vicar said.
Is the dance step changing,
or is this all in the vicar’s head?

For Patrick danced with Joseph.
But, apparently, that relationship was scarred.
And now Patrick and Joseph
Rearranging their dance card.

Or is the dance now being changed
by some unseen force?
Rumors abound
about who will dance with whom
and who wants a dance divorce.

But rumors come and go.
For the fact is, cluster is no romance.
Still, we are forced
To do this illogical
energy draining
time wasting
clergy killing
Cluster Dance.

Meetings, meetings, meetings.
Then, phone calls not returned.
Some behave like jello.
This all has me concerned.

Put your right foot in.
Take your right foot out.
Do the cluster dance
and turn your parish inside out.

And through it all avoid the topic
That gave this dance her start;
The declining clergy numbers.
Rather, let’s just tear parishes apart.

Will we cluster and cluster again
until all clergy are gone?
Is there not a way
to change this morbid song?

And what of all the women
with their M.Div. Degree?
Could they not, somehow,
A parish shepherd be?

I’m not talkin’ ordination,
‘Cuz that’s another song.
I’m just talkin’ pastoral leadership.
Bishop Untener, how I miss your songs!

And what of all the married men
with a Master of Divinity?
Does having a wife
Make then unfit for ministry?

"Priest, Prophet and King."
That’s how all the faithful are baptized.
And yet, in this crazy cluster dance
The priesthood, in all forms, is compromised.

The body is just one
Many members there may be.
But I never knew that to be Christ’s Body
Church members must have a dance degree.


Hoc Est Enim Corpus Meum
". . .my body given up for you," he said.,
I don’t think he meant to keep changing, adding partners
Until the clergy all are dead.

In fact, we commit a sarcedotal genocide
If we continue in this fashion.
Giving clergy 2, 3 parishes
Will kill them and/or kill their ministerial passion.

Archbishop! Archbishop!
I know you’re new and all.
But can you, will you wave your magic wand
And get some logic at this dance hall?

Oops! I mean your crosier.
But, seriously, and with all due respect,
Let me say that I am tired
And this cluster dance is wrecked.

I’m tired of semantics.
For if you look through my eyes
You will see that "cluster" means
Nothing more than an Ecclesial Downsize.

Mother, can you hear my cry?
Send us your flower song!
Create creative ministry!
Create a place where all can belong!

Ruah! Ruah! Ruah!
Come, O Great and Holy Spirit!
Let Your music play!
And may the faithful hear it!

May we dance the dance of Ruah!
And dance and dance again!
May we dance the dance of Ruah!
Amen and Amen!


(c) 2009, Rubi Martinez-Bernat.
About Rubi:
Rubi owns several blogs and websites, including LiturgyHouse.org. Permission is given to post "The Cluster Dance" to your blog your website. It must be published in its entirety without edit and include copyright and the full contents of this "about" paragraph, including clickable link. All other use in all other media prohibited.

The Mission

I don’t go to the movies much these days.
I only have basic cable
and I can tell you that I watch more
Little House on the Prairie,
Seventh Heaven, and Touched by an Angel
than anything else.

OK,
I do manage to watch Beverly Hillbillies
and I Love Lucy reruns.
(Ricky Ricardo was a Latino before his time,
but that’s another blog entry!)

When my sons were younger,
we’d be at the theater every other week.
My eldest sons are now in their twenties.
But,
I can tell you
that when my sons were training to become altar servers
they were top notch,
remembering all of the special names of things liturgical.

I’ll never forget when Fr. Kelly
asked the group of young folks in front of him
what the name of the this was,
as he pointed to the ambo.
My boys were the only ones to raise their hands.
When called upon,
they answered correctly.
"How did you remember that,"
asked the priest.
My sons responded in the only way
a moving going youngster could,
"Because it’s like Rambo,
only without the ‘r.’"

Yes, the Rambo movies
were quite popular in the mid 80's.
But there was another movie
that went almost unnoticed
around the same time.
In fact,
I think it was more popular South of the Border
than in the United States.
It starred a very young Robert De Niro.
So young, in fact,
that when I watched the movie last night,
I barely recognized him.
It was his voice that gave him away. . .

Anyway, thinking of this film for a few days recently,
I went to my local video renting place
to see if I could find a copy.
Sadly, they didn’t carry it.
Couldn’t find it at the library either.
I did the only thing I could do:
I bought it online over at Amazon.com

It’s a true story about a Jesuit mission
and the wonderful gift of music
God has graced an indigenous community with.

It’s a story that begins
with a missionary
gaining the trust and confidence of the indigenous
through music.
It’s a story that ends
with music that survives
when not much else does.
(And this reminds of the woman
who works at the archdiocese
who told me music isn’t evangelization,
but that’s another blog entry as well!)

It’s a movie about brave and daring missionaries,
and dare I say,
very hard working men,
who brought Christ
to those the world said
where nothing more than animals without souls.

It’s a story about men
who trap other men and use them for slaves.
It’s also a story about men
who are slaves to wealth and power.

It’s a story about a bishop
who knew what was right, just and moral
but deciding to side
with those of earthly power and greed.

It’s a story about murder,
conversion and penance.
And a story about forgiveness.

It’s a story about one man’s
journey of faith
as he answers the call to priesthood.

It’s a story about the horrors experienced
by a community
and the Jesuits who risked their very lives,
indeed, risked excommunication
to protect and guard the sacred
when the church, herself, would not.

Buy it.
Rent it.
Just watch it.
The name of the movie is,
"The Mission."
It starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons.
It will tug and your heart strings.

And then make you all the more hungry and thirsty for justice.
What’s scary,
is that it also opens your eyes
to where many of the injustices lie.

. . . .The thing is,
justice cannot be lukewarm.
Yes,
that’s a very scary thought. . . .