The TMC as a resource center

In the process of increasing our membership and visibility over the past couple of years, the Thomas Merton Center has undergone major changes. Yet change is never easy for an organization with as long and proud a history as the Merton Center. As a result of the increased exposure to the work and people of the TMC, we are often asked what it means to be a peace and justice resource and organizing center. This article represents my own feeble attempt to answer this question from the privileged vantage point of executive director.

In terms of resources, each and every member and supporter of the center is our most valuable resource. Members are the basis of all our actions and successes by the free offering of their money, gifts, passions, and talents. If we are to build power to effect social change by acting in concert for a common goal, then the building of a healthy web of relationships is most important. This, I believe is the key function of the TMC. How does this happen?

On a regular basis, individuals and/or small groups of people concerned about a particular injustice contact us at the Merton Center wanting to "do something." Staff and interns schedule a meeting with them and together we identify the group’s strengths and priorities, set goals and strategies to build power to effect change. If not already members of the TMC, the group is encouraged to join. If interested in organizing, the resources of the Center are made available. These include:

• A broad and diverse membership base dedicated to justice and peace and often willing to lend a helping hand once they become aware of what is happening.
• An ever-expanding list of networks and organizations, media contacts, etc.
• Available computers and technology to help disseminate the group’s message and appeals for help. This includes website space, inclusion in email alerts, up-to-date software for making flyers or storing databases and a new electronic filing cabinet/server to store information that can be made accessible to other members of the group.
• Use of copy and fax machines.
• Volunteer receptionists to answer phone requests for information about the project or upcoming events.
• Meeting space.

Some may think that having all these projects and campaigns on a myriad of issues (and there are now over thirty) dilutes our message or causes us to lose focus. This is an understandable concern; without a sound analysis of the root causes of social problems, we would get lost in a daze of "special interests." Yet, here at the TMC, we always strive to keep our eyes on the larger realities of corporate globalization, war and militarism in places like Iraq or Colombia, and global environmental devastation. We try to live out the motto, "Think Globally, Act Locally." Rather than taking away from the larger vision for world peace based on justice, all these movements emanating from the Center give us new windows out of which to see other problems. They also challenge us to organize from the point of impact and build leadership among those most directly impacted by injustice, as with Save Our Transit under the leadership of daily users of public transit. This point hit home to me a few days ago when a homeless man called the Merton Center for assistance organizing on the issues he must confront on a daily basis by our consumerist, classist society. It allows us as an organization to practice what liberation theologians refer to as "accompaniment" i.e., being with people in their own struggle for liberation, a struggle that ultimately liberates us all. We discover the answers together in shared struggle rather than preaching answers from a pulpit or ivory tower. And we can ensure that the web of relationships so essential to building a mass movement includes people who do not look or act like us, moving us beyond "our own kind" in a real embrace of diversity.

I was once asked in an interview, "Is the Thomas Merton Center an institution or a movement?" My initial impulse was to say "both," but then as I thought of it, my answer was "an institution." Yes, we own a building, have structure (however loose it may appear), defined roles as member, staff, intern, volunteer or board. What makes us unique, or even "prophetic," is that as an institution we do not exist to serve ourselves, but to serve a broader movement for peace and justice. Rather than drawing power to ourselves, when at our best, the Thomas Merton Center empowers others and never uses our position in the community to stifle any actions for justice, whether within or outside of our ranks. We become an empowering institution that spends less time defining who is in and who is out and more time casting a wide net to embrace all on the edges and margins of society. And especially those on the edges are invited to help transform the TMC institution into one that is all-inclusive and models the kind of world we seek to create. It is my hope that Mike May is correct in the January issue of Pittsburgh Magazine, when he writes, "The Thomas Merton Center is not part of the establishment but firmly established" -- firmly established on that network of relationships that bind us together in a common destiny, one that points toward freedom, liberation and peace.

We invite your input as to what being a peace and justice resource and organizing center means to you. All members have received or will soon be receiving a membership survey included in the 2003 Annual Report. Please complete the survey either online or mail it in to the center. If you do not receive the survey, it is not too late to become a member and share your ideas and help set the direction of the Thomas Merton Center. And of course, you are invited to get involved in any of our many projects. Plant your feet in a particular struggle, one that is most meaningful to you. As Kathy Kelly so eloquently reminded us at the Merton Award Dinner in November, "where we stand determines what we see."

- Tim Vining