Organisations put their names on lots of different things, such as buildings, policies, websites and annual reports.
If we think about it, physical things like this are probably not where people learn most about “who” an organisation really is. They learn it through the habits and repeated actions of the organisation. We shape a view of a place based on who receives attention, what gets funded, what is overlooked, how people are treated when something goes wrong and what the community makes time for.
Identity may be less something we announce and more something we leave an imprint on.
The story of the month
This month Uniting Church communities will hear a rather clever exchange from the Gospel according to the community of Matthew.
Jesus is asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. It is intended as a trap. Supporting the tax risks appearing to support Roman occupation; opposing it risks trouble with Rome. Jesus asks to see the coin being used.
Then comes an easily overlooked question: “Whose image is this, and whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” reply Jesus’ inquisitors.
The coin itself makes a claim. It carries the emperor’s image and an inscription associated with his authority and even “divinity.” Jesus’ response about giving Caesar what belongs to Caesar and God what belongs to God has generated arguments ever since, partly because it doesn’t clearly explain where one type of belonging ends and the other begins.
But maybe the image on the coin gives us another way to explore the story. Coins reveal the authority under which they were made. People and communities also leave their imprint on the things they create.
The interesting question then becomes: What demonstrates our imprint?
This idea somewhere else
There is something surprisingly similar in the Confucian idea of li. The word is often translated as ritual or propriety but reaches well beyond formal ceremony into ordinary patterns of behaviour and relationship.
In this tradition, qualities such as respect are formed and made visible through practice: how we greet someone, fulfil a responsibility, conduct a meeting or behave towards others. Repeated practices don’t simply express character; over time they help create it.
That is worth thinking about in school contexts. Culture is carried through ceremonies and special occasions, but also through hundreds of ordinary things that happen on an unremarkable Tuesday.
Back to school governance
One of the Uniting Church characteristics concerns Spiritual Development and Wellbeing. The accompanying resource describes a Church seeking to “walk its talk”, with faith finding expression through worship, education, pastoral care, community service, justice and participation in the wider community.
For a school board, perhaps the interesting part is the distance between identity stated and identity practised.
A strategic plan can say wellbeing matters- but the timetable and workload can leave a different imprint of their own.
A school can describe justice as important – but its budget reveals where resources actually go.
Religious education and worship can speak about compassion – but the experience of a student in trouble may say something much louder.
While none of those things produces an easy judgment about whether a school is getting it right, they do suggest that the character of a school is being formed and communicated all the time, including in places where nobody has thought to put the logo.
As we begin today’s meeting it may be worth carrying three questions with us:
– Where would somebody encounter the clearest imprint of what this school says it stands for?
– Which of our ordinary practices say more about us than our formal statements do?
– What might the decisions we make today quietly teach people about who we are?
