Olive Branch

“An Olive Branch strengthens organizations by helping leaders understand the role of conflict in organizational health.

•To proactively address conflict, we offer dispute resolution training and help organization design ethical governance procedures.
•To respond in the midst of disruptive conflict, we provide organizations with processes for healing and restoring harmony.

An Olive Branch brings the calming influence of a neutral third party, inspired by the tradition of Buddhist teaching that stretches over 2500 years.”

“An Olive Branch was created to help organizations deal with the trauma resulting from sexual misconduct by their leaders. Suffering sexual abuse at the hands of a spiritual leader represents an egregious violation of trust. Such abuse leaves life-long scars on its victims—many of whom suffer depression, anxiety, dissociation, conduct disorders, aggressiveness, loss of self-esteem, self-destructive behavior, and interpersonal problems (Kolko & Moser, 1988). In cases where the abuse occurs in a religious context, victims may also experience profound damage to their spirituality (Heggen, 1993). Unless treated, these consequences can be debilitating for victims and their families.

As if the damage to victims is not enough, sexual abuse by clerics also generates tremendous conflict that can rip spiritual communities apart because different groups within the community respond differently to the news of the abuse. The community often cleaves between a) those members who view the spiritual leader’s behavior reprehensible and an abuse of power and b) those who want to excuse him or her. Rationale for the latter stance may take several forms including blaming the victim, dismissing the relationship as consensual sex (among adults) or extolling the cleric’s positive (often charismatic) qualities which, their followers claim, far outweigh the transgression. While such transgressions clearly represent an ethical violation and an abuse of power (Franz, 2002), the resulting conflict can leave congregations in denial, infuse them with unresolved anger, cause loyal members to disappear, and leave the remaining organizational members in shock and turmoil. Additionally, successors who step in after a disgraced cleric departs often become a lightning rod for displacement of the myriad repressed feelings of the community (Framton, 2004).

When allegations of sexual misconduct are voiced in organizations, what help can be offered to victims and community members to begin a process of healing? First, it is paramount that attention be paid to the victim’s claims of abuse. Frequently, the victims in such cases are women, whose status in religious organizations historically has been one of subservience (Franz, 2002; Poling, 2005). Enabling victims to have a safe and credible hearing should go without saying. Once the allegations are found to be credible, a public acknowledgement of the abuse and of the pain and suffering it has caused for victims needs to be made by organizational leaders (e.g., the elders or governing board). But these steps are far from sufficient to restore a sense of safety and well-being in victims or community members.

Coming to grips with the pain and suffering of all involved, understanding its consequences and embarking upon a deliberate path of healing for victims and all organizational members is also essential. This path requires the creation of several different forums for deep listening and extended compassion at both the individual and organizational levels.
For victims, this forum needs to be a safe haven where the individual can tell their story to a “witness” in a context of caring and anonymity. The witness(es) then serve(s) as conduits to the organization on the victim’s behalf relaying to the organization their requests for restitution. Such requests might include an apology, compensation for treatment, or other forms of healing).

An Olive Branch will be serving in this witness capacity for the Rinzai-ji Buddhist Sangha over the next several months. Another powerful form of healing for victims is the use of rituals, such as anointing, in which groups of victims acknowledge their pain and suffering but also affirm their inherent goodness and fundamental well-being (Heggen, 1993). In some cases, healing may even take the form of “genuine forgiveness” of the abuser (Zeiders, 1999) in which there is acknowledgment of the deep pain and hurt caused by the perpetrator and “the wronged party has the opportunity to release the desire for revenge upon the perpetrator” (Franz, 2002: 8). Finding some way to reconnect to their spiritual life may also be imperative for many victims.

For spiritual communities, forums for compassion are also pivotal to releasing the conflict among members and overcoming the shock and pain the awareness of the abuse has caused. Depending on the denomination, this healing process may take different forms such as prayer services, community meetings or cleansing rituals. One approach An Olive Branch has employed to promote healing at the organizational level is a Listening Circle. In this process, which can be conducted with the whole community, members are given an opportunity to share whatever they are feeling (sadness, anger, fear, powerlessness, etc.) with the community and to have these feelings or concerns publicly heard and acknowledged by other members. Affording the time and space for such deep listening can be extremely informative and cathartic for participants who learn to hear and honor each other’s pain while sharing their own as well. Designing other community processes that encourage members to work through conflicts to collectively reaffirm who they are and what they stand for as an organization and to articulate the ethical principles they want to embrace going forward can also be an important step in promoting healing within the community. An Olive Branch has worked with Zen Studies Society to design and facilitate such processes at both the whole community and the board levels.

In summary, when organizations are shattered by clerical sexual misconduct, it is vital to initiate a healing process based on deep listening and the cultivation of compassion for victims and for the whole community as well as for its new leadership. Healing processes rekindle a sense of safety and restore the organization as a place of spiritual refuge for all. We at An Olive Branch have dedicated ourselves to this work.”
~ Dr. Barbara Gray