Spirituality of Head-hunting...

Dayak headhunter in Borneo

More Stories from the Edge....

On my way to Antarctica back in 2010, I was in New Zealand and taken around the city of Christ Church by a Roman Catholic priest who had been to Antarctica as the chaplain at McMurdo Station many times.  No longer able to go down there due to health issues, he still enjoyed being part of the activities.  

He drove me around site seeing and he gave me the lowdown on the basics of doing ministry in McMurdo Station. 

As we ate lunch, I asked him about his life.  He told me he started out in ministry many years ago as a missionary.  His first gig as a new priest was serving with the native people in New Guinea.  He worked with headhunters and cannibals! 

Wow. 

I started feeling around my neck and asked him, "My gosh, weren't you just a little bit nervous?"

He replied in his Kiwi accent, "Well, they are actually very ethical people.  They don't just eat anyone, you know".

I did not know! 

I guess my reaction was typical, for I am from a culture and society that does not practice cannibalism or headhunting.   

But a month or so ago I watched an episode of "Secrets of the Dead" on PBS that was called "The Airmen and the Headhunters".  A true and very interesting story of some American airmen who were shot down over Borneo during WWII.  The Americans were found in the jungle and protected by the native people, who by the way were head hunters. 

The memory of the priest I met in New Zealand who ministered to headhunters in New Guinea popped in my memory and soon I was contemplating the spiritual and ethical aspects of headhunting.  

Yes really!

So I did a little research.  Many cultures around the globe have practiced headhunting, not just the natives of Borneo or New Guinea.   And yes, it was done, at least originally for spiritual reasons.  Skulls for many cultures have a special and very powerful spiritual energy about them.   

After a hunt, victims heads were brought to a village with much ceremony by the hunters.  The head or heads were handled with reverence and displayed in a place of honor.  The victims souls were ritually purified and welcomed to their new home.  Thus the souls of the tribes' enemies were recruited and thus became allies. 

A “good head” – that is a skull that was well looked after by an already powerful warrior or his descendants – could save a village from plague, produce rain, ward off evil spirits, or ensure good crops.

It may be easy for many of us from the USA to look at all this as horribly barbaric, and that it is a good thing many of these cannibal head-hunting natives have been converted to Christianity.  

But are we really so civilized?    

Life magazine 1944

Those who might sit smugly behind the idea that these barbaric practices lie far from Western civilized standards may want to think again.  In the 20th century, the two largest and most violent world wars  killed more people than ever in the history of humanity. 

In WWII, Allied troops are known to have collected the skulls of dead Japanese as trophies. (This actually has been a practice in most wars.)  Life magazine even published a photo of a young woman posing with a skull sent to her by her boyfriend in the US Navy.

Hmmm.

Perhaps we are all not that different after all.

Doing ministry "incognito"

The Mobile Oil Pegasus

Yesterday I was out running a few errands and the young man waiting on me at the auto parts store began to talk with me.  He told me he had just gotten out of the Army and had been all over the world including three tours to Iraq.  As he installed the new windshield wipers on my car, he stated that he knew the real reason for the war and us being over there....oil.  It's really all about oil.

Indeed.  When I was deployed to SW Asia a few years ago, many of the young people I served with held a similar sentiment.  His comments triggered a memory that was twenty three or so years old, "It ain't noble to die for Mobile".

Becoming an officer,  commissioning ceremony, July 1990

Twenty three or so years ago I was a brand new officer just two or three weeks out of Officer Candidate School (OCS), when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.   Operation Desert Shield began and a few months later, Desert Storm.

Many of my friends in the Army and Air National Guard were activated fall of 1990 and soon thereafter deployed overseas.  Back then I was working full time for the Army National Guard, and I remember seeing military vehicles go from being green in color to being painted beige, and then they were shipped overseas.

A colonel I worked with told me to get my personal affairs in order and "be ready", my unit was next on the list to be activated and deployed.  I confess, I was terrified.  I was still pretty new to the military, a brand new "butter bar", and now the reality of going to war was no longer just something I read about in a textbook. 

I remember watching TV when the U.S. forces invaded Iraq in 1991.  It was surreal, as it looked like a video game with all the tracers lighting up the night sky of Baghdad.  But very real it was.  As it turned out, the ground war lasted 100 hours and we (my unit) were spared from being activated.  Within 4 to 6 months, many of my friends began coming home from Iraq, Arabia and Kuwait.

One of my friends who served over there told me the battle cry was "It ain't noble to die for Mobil".   

But back to the present.  It has now been twenty two / three years since Desert Shield / Storm.  Many bases we established back in 1990 in Arabia, Iraq, etc. are still there today.    The base I deployed to in 2009, to "an undisclosed location in SW Asia", was established in 1990!

Everyday, unbeknownst to most people here in America, large contracted jetliners called "rotators" fly back and forth from the other side of the world, bringing our people over there, and back here, home.  Everyday. 

And a young man who now works in an auto parts store, fresh out of the Army, like many others, (many, many others!) are home now from their military "adventures".  I did not tell the young man I too have served and deployed.  Or that I am a chaplain, or an officer.   Or that I have been in for twenty three + years.   I did not say anything.  I just listened.

If I had told him any of those things, he most likely would have clammed up.  

He talked, and I listened.

Yes, sometimes you can do more ministry by just being "incognito".  

The Spiritual Essence of Leadership

Julia Chester Emory

In preparing for a homily, I came upon an article about Julia Chester Emory in the Episcopal Café  written some three years ago.  

In this article the author stated that Julia was not the kind of person one would expect to see in a calendar of religious commemorations.  She was not martyred  for her faith, nor does her story involve extraordinary feats of courage.   Julia was an "ordinary laywoman".

Well, I beg to differ.  Julia was no ordinary laywoman. After reading about her life, what came to mind was "leadership".

Leadership.  It has kind of a mysteriousness about it, doesn't it?  For no matter how many studies have been done, or how many books have been written about it, leadership is still somewhat of a mystery.

Ever notice most leadership books tend to be in the business section in bookstores?    Why is this?   What does this say about us?    

Speaking of bookstores, remember those?  I miss bookstores!       So many have closed recently.  Sigh.

Yes leadership is more than running a business, more than having  higher degrees, and more than a title.  It is more than a position in an organization and definitely more than rank.  The rank, title or position may be external "thing" that gives the person authority, but the essence of leadership as we know, comes from within. 

I have served with many commanders over my years in the military.  And the officers, NCOs and commanders I have served with were not great leaders because of the little rank symbol on their collar, sleeve or shoulder.

Leadership includes the spiritual.  This is often an overlooked aspect of leadership.   It takes much spiritual awareness and inner strength to be a good leader.  

Some people just emerge as leaders, in the time, place and circumstances in which they live. 

And so, just who was Julia Chester Emory?    Well, she lived from 1852 to 1922 and served as a missionary.  

She was the daughter of a sea captain and the sister of two Episcopal priests.  Like her father and brothers, she had an adventurous spirit and lots of energy.  Not content to sit around the office and be a paper-pushing bureaucrat, she got out and about and made things happen.  

She served for forty years as the National Secretary of the Episcopal Women’s Auxiliary for the Board of Missions.  This organization is now known as Episcopal Church Women, or the ECW.

During her forty years with the ECW, she visited EVERY Episcopal diocese in the USA (and there are dozens!) encouraging work in the support of missions.  She also visited many countries around the world; England, China, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines and many other countries. 

If that was not enough, Julia also created and founded the "United Thank Offering".  This worked by giving each woman a small box with a little slit at the top.  In recognizing our daily blessings, the box was there to encourage a contribution, a ‘thank offering’.  Then each year, the parish would gather the contributions, and send the money to the National Headquarters to be used for mission development.

It takes extraordinary courage, strength and energy to travel the world like she did.   I have been on global travels and deployments and it was tough enough flying around the world in jetliners and modern conveniences.   Julia did it all before the era of air travel and modern day comforts. 

To do the work she did, the things she created and accomplished, the lives she touched…is leadership in every sense of the word.  She did not rely on titles, or degrees or credentials, she just got out there, and did it!

And yes, Julia may not have been martyred for her faith…BUT, she lived her faith…with her entire life.  A leader, a servant of God and humanity in every sense of the word.

As Jesus said, "… whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ...For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve…."

And that, I dare say, is the essence of leadership.

Amen.

[NOTE:  This was based on a homily I gave on January 9, 2013 the feast day of Julia Chester Emory at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, Phoenix, Arizona.]