In a landmark study published in 1960, Isabel E. P. Menzies looked at the symbiotic relationship between nurses and their patients in a hospital. Here A Case-Study in the Functioning of Social Systems as a Defence against Anxiety: A Report on a Study of the Nursing Service of a General Hospital drew on Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Eliot Jaques and Wilfrid Bion, amongst others.  These writers shared broadly similar social and psychological worldviews. Namely, institutions are structures and bodies of containment, there to manage anxieties and (hopefully) prevent chaos.

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Luke 22: 71a – And they said, “What further need do we have of testimony?”

Matthew 24: 27 – Now when Pilate saw that he was accomplishing nothing, but rather that a riot was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this Man’s blood; you yourselves shall see.”

A good friend summed up the apparent hopelessness of our position.  She said, “…sometimes, they won’t let you be clergy, much as Bonhoeffer was not allowed be a Lutheran Pastor or the theologian he was called to be”.  She added, “sometimes, all there is to do is stand and face what is coming. You did not choose this path: it is a vocation, and we just cannot imagine the cost.  What is asked of you is not necessarily to fight back, but simply to stand. They will keep attacking. Thank you for not running away….”.

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