“You Are Still Here!” Say Sociologists
Drs. Ewick and Steinberg have been attending affiliate meetings and interviewing VOTF members from the Winchester affiliate since June 2007. They described their process as collaborative ethnography—a method whereby sociologists enter into a dialogue with those they are studying.
At the affiliate’s regular weekly meeting on November 10, they presented some initial comments on this “dialogue.” One fact striking them most forcefully, said Dr. Ewick, is “the fact that you stuck around for six years in the face of some quite considerable opposition.” Added Dr. Steinberg, “Six years is a remarkably long period of time for a challenging group to survive. And sociologically, the more you can simply endure, the more recognized you become—the more the institution makes note of your presence.”
Also interesting is the composition of VOTF as a “challenger group.” The norm is for challenger groups to come from outside the institution they seek to change. These groups often see themselves as in opposition to the main group within the institution or that run the institution. Most such challengers are defined as and are seen as marginal.
But Dr. Ewick and Dr. Steinberg said that VOTF members, in contrast, were the most active and most faithful of Catholics. This is one of the several anomalies they noted during their months of attending the Winchester meetings, traveling to VOTF conferences, and interviewing members.
Another was their observation that while VOTF has achieved some change within the Church, the greatest change may be among VOTF members themselves. For many, they said, VOTF appears to have changed what it means to be an adult Catholic in the Church. “It may be that change in yourself IS the way you change your Church,” said Dr. Ewick.
They also looked at the factors that have kept Winchester members, in particular, coming week after week to the meetings, where other affiliates have had less success at meeting so frequently. One possible factor in this success, they noted, was developing a sense of “we-ness” or shared identity that extended beyond the general “we are the People of God” characteristic of VOTF members in general. Another was development of a way to resolve conflicts that maintained respect for others in the group who held different views.
Dr. Ewick finished their presentation by comparing the work VOTF members are undertaking to rebuilding a ship at sea—using the existing planks, but not dismantling the structure in order to keep the ship afloat “It’s obvious that none of you want to capsize this boat or put it in dry-dock. You want to change it, but you want it to keep sailing at the same time,” she concluded.
