Page 59 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 21

Alan is a Canadian/Bri�sh ci�zen. He has worked in the UK, Belgium and
Canada as a Pastor. He was Member of the Senior Management Team
at a Theological College in London. He has more recently been a Well-
being Advisor, Faculty Member of our Hospital's Postgraduate Medical
Educa�on Program, Lecturer in Psychology and Mental Health; Adjunct
Professor at Ambrose University in Calgary, Associate Lecturer in Advan-
ced Ethics for ERMC based at Westminster College, Cambridge.

He was also a Lead Chaplain for the NHS for eight years. He is now semi-
re�red. With his wife Val he live on the East Coast in the UK. Educated:
London School of Theology, Regent College Graduate School, Vancou-
Alan G. Palmer (UK) ver; Oxford University, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, Wesley
House, Cambridge and the University of Greenwich.

The journey con�nues with “Togetherness in Love”

In reflec�ng on Werner’s piece, I find that I re- others because we aren’t consciously aware of
sonate with his journey of intricate discovery. them. And there are parts of ourselves, our in-
Human beings are o�en an enigma and com- ner lives, our ‘shadow selves’ (5) that we hold
munica�on between them is typically complex. back from interpersonal communica�on. We
The Psalmist, thanks God for making him so employ what German speakers call Masken-
‘wonderfully complex’. (1) Some�mes, I am not freiheit (6), the “safety of the mask”. Apparent-
that thankful for this intense complexity. You ly, the American author John Updike used this
can sense a similar ‘bafflement’ in technique. He hid behind the words of his wri-
Shakespeare’s words in Hamlet, “What a piece �ng. Updike grew up extremely self-conscious
of work is man! How noble in reason! How infi- about the ‘acne scars’ le� on his face from tee-
nite in faculty! ... And yet, to me what is this nage years. He found safety in sheltering from
quintessence of dust? (2) Borrowing Churchill’s public scru�ny by projec�ng his desired self
words about the former USSR, we humans through his novels.
seem to be a “contradic�on wrapped up in an Having grown up in strict evangelical churches,
enigma”, especially when it comes to commu- I too have prac�ced Maskenfreiheit. I have hid-
nica�on with each other. den behind ‘orthodox’ words, and outwardly
conformed to the ‘expected norms’ of conser-
Becoming more fully Self-Aware. va�ve Protestan�sm. I have been a hypocrite in
the Greek sense of a ‘play actor’. I have worn
The Johari Window (3) is helpful here, in that it the mask that covers up my true thoughts and
can help us in in terms our self-awareness of feelings, unwilling to be transparent or vulne-
just how transparent we are with others. There rable because of the fear of being judged, sha-
are parts of ourselves that are ‘unknown un- med and rejected. I have not believed that
knowns’, (4) we simply don’t reveal them to church is a Psychologically Safe Organiza�on,

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