Boy, did we mess up!
We had this challenging and provocative quotation from an interview we did for the March cover story. We used the quotation in the editorial. It paints a portrait of some churches in the city, which I think is a fair one. That they have somehow lost touch with their communities. Reading all of the interviews and preparing last month’s issue, that quotation stayed with me.
I can think of examples where that quotation is an accurate portrayal.
One place where it is not is St. Andrew’s King Street, Toronto. It is a vibrant downtown church, with a long history and tradition of being engaged in its community and neighbourhood. (See Brian Stewart’s article from the December 2005 issue of the Record.)
So, how did we end up pairing this vibrant institution with this provocative quotation? The embarrassing truth is, it was process myopia. We did this without realizing we did this.
My colleagues and I are not incompetents. We may be a small team, but we are highly focused, dedicated and professional. We spend a lot of time and care on the final details of each month’s issue. We drop a few balls each month—a comma here, a misplaced quotation mark there—but we manage to successfully juggle a myriad of others. But this wasn’t a mere dropped-ball error; this was a full-on failure.
We found a fantastic Toronto photograph in a stock image database. The original image is larger (landscape format) than the one printed (in a portrait format) of ‘red rocket’ streetcars on a city street. None of us on the team noticed St. Andrew’s in the image. None of us.
I realize it is hard to believe we wouldn’t see it, once it has been pointed out. But we didn’t. So, why didn’t we?
We were so focused on other tasks we didn’t catch the details within that image. It was a collective myopia brought on by the intense focus on process. We failed to see an obvious thing because we were focused on our own checklists.
Which brings us back to the quotation, worded as a question. Do you agree that churches can lose touch with their neighbourhoods? The quotation paints a portrait of people so focused on what is happening within the walls of their church building that they fail to keep pace with what is happening outside those walls. It suggests a form of myopia.
Within the context of the March issue, which paints several portraits of churches in the city (including St. Andrew’s, presented as a church actively involved in its community) the quotation challenges us to consider the church’s relationship with the city at its doorstep and beyond. The use of the quotation was meant to provoke; our failure to recognize the details of the matching photograph instead provoked an insult.
I am sorry and apologize to St. Andrew’s for the March issue’s back cover. I also extend the regret and apologies from my colleagues. We messed up. Big Time.
This is, in many ways, one of the hardest lessons to learn. (And, again, this is why we chose that quotation.) To understand that we can unintentionally hurt, insult or alienate our neighbours and friends. But, more to understand we did it because we were so focused on other tasks. Pride gets in the way; we claim the innocence of our intention without claiming the pain generated by our myopia.
With a different image—a generic city scene—and that quotation, we intended to be provocative. It backfired because of our failure. It’s a hard way to learn a lesson. But, I’m not sure there has ever been an easy way.
