"Network" is the language of our time

Reflections on 10 years of ARCAN

by:  Margie Gillis, sc

ARCAN owes some measure of gratitude to its founders, Sister Alma MacLellan, cnd and Associate Peg Madigan, cnd.     Ten years ago when they came up with this idea it was new, it was a risk.   As with most things of this sort one usually doesn’t realize it’s significance, its future value, until much later.

But look how things have changed in a mere ten years.   We knew congregations would diminish in size and influence over time.   For this we’ve been somewhat prepared.   But I don’t think we realized how quickly the church would change……...some would say “disintegrate”.    

In this historic time of fast-paced and wide spread change and disintegration there is increasing need to develop new ways, new structures, to fill the gap created by crumbling old structures.

That brings me to ARCAN.  On the grand scale of things it is a rather small and unexceptional organization.   But it is not insignificant.  I have a different appreciation of its stature after reading a most interesting book entitled Network Logic: Who Governs In An Interconnected World?  (edited by Helen McCarthy, Paul Miller and Paul Skidmore, published online by Demos.  See www.demos.co.uk/files/networklogic.pdf?1240939425).     

It’s rather interesting, perhaps even prophetic, that the original committee members chose the word “network” to describe this new Atlantic wide accumulation of sisters and their associates.   Alma and Peg, of the Congregation of Notre Dame, knew other congregations had similar efforts and they instinctively felt the need to gather everyone together in some way to learn and connect – to network.   Based on Network Logic’s logic, perhaps the choice to establish the ARCAN “network” was quite futuristic.

One of the contributors to Network Logic, sociologist Manuel Castells, says that the proliferation of computerization and the recent explosion of information and communication technologies has us paying more attention to the nature of networks.   “We live in a network society, he says, not an information society or a knowledge society.”

Networks are clearly having a huge impact on the way we live.  Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, have changed the way we organize, meet, and the speed in which we congregate (Occupy, Arab Spring, Quebec Student Movement).   Network Logic points out that, unlike traditional institutions, networks have no obvious leader, no clear structure, no definitive org chart; networks self-organize, morph and change.  

Castells further makes the case that, in the modern world with exploding communication technology, networks have new and important power and significance.  "Power does not reside in institutions, not even the state or large corporations".  He says, "It is located in the networks that structure our society.”  My!  How times have changed !    

There is a recognizable shift in our world.  New social, political and religious landscapes are emerging.  The associate movement and, in Atlantic Canada, the ARCAN Network, is a part of this shift.    In the face of declining traditional institutions people want to come together in some new ways to explore, talk, deliberate and act.   Where once there were boundaries and walls (between religious congregations, between denominations, between sacred and secular) today there are doorways and bridges.

On two occasions over the past 10 years ARCAN has convened its general membership to talk about "the network".    The first was 2007 and the second conference took place last year, 2011.   The energy grows.   And the ARCAN Committee grows increasingly enthusiastic about its potential. 

Network is the language of our time.  Network is the structure of our time.  Thanks Alma & Peg !