The man that started it all...
Meet Rev. Michael Pergola MA, MBA J.D.
An ordained interfaith minister and a long time student of regenerative ecology, behavioral science, organizational dynamics and the world’s wisdom traditions, I have pursued personal mastery, creativity, an ecological understanding of human life as a component of the natural world, and a direct experience of consciousness in individuals and collectives for over 40 years.
In the midst of experiencing my own shadow and the difficulties that arise when we come together on teams, I have learned valuable lessons on “being in the world but not of the world”. Simultaneously, I have come to sink more deeply into an ecology of place. By opening in curiosity to what arises in the personal and collective shadow and in the nature of the place, we take hold of the evolutionary opportunities that arise from both the challenges and opportunities of a human life lived in a kosmos that weaves us together in a single thread.
In more conventional terms I served six years as Chief Knowledge Officer for Risk at one of the five largest banks in the United States, and practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering in Washington D.C. for nine years. I have a JD and MBA from Cornell University and a Masters in Organizational Dynamics and Individual Development from the University of Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate I studied religion, philosophy and social science.
I have provided consulting and coaching in leadership, regenerative design, systems thinking, communication, and organizational development in a wide variety of enterprises. I taught high school, founded two software companies, began two nonprofits, served as a community organizer, ran a small energy company and designed and built houses. I was a member of the Society for Organizational Learning and the National Commission to End Domestic Violence. I spent six weeks in an Ecological Literacy Immersion Experience and have completed a Permaculture Design Certificate.
I am versed in integral theory, educated in permaculture and regenerative design, a teacher of the Enneagram and Spiral Dynamics, a trained facilitator, a certified mediator, and a meditation teacher. My primary capacity is as a design shaman who synthesizes different areas of knowledge and expresses that understanding in a clear and useful manner. As a designer, teacher, facilitator and leader I seek to apply an ecological understanding to support teams and individuals in developing personal mastery and regenerative approaches to the cry of the earth, integrating economics, spirituality, and business in an organic ecology that honors the spirit of the place.
My personal history and a number of pieces that contain my thinking over the past decade or two follow.
I have learned valuable lessons on “being in the world but not of the world”
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York and spent the summers in a small house my father built with his own hands after World War II. The house was in the Hudson River Valley, in what was then a rural area. As a young boy I helped tend the garden and later helped construct the second story. In the summers we lived at the lake, turned brown in the sun and walked down the hill to purchase fresh chickens and eggs.
In Brooklyn we lived in a small building with twelve apartments surrounding a common courtyard. People in the 12 units where true neighbors, and I remember being in and out of each other’s’ homes regularly. The cloths dried on lines between the kitchens of two homes, regardless of the season. The block I lived on was lined with majestic old trees, many large chestnuts, and we would string the chestnuts on shoe laces and have mock battles to see whose chestnut was king that week. People sat on the “stoop” when the weather was right, and the kids played stoop ball, or stick ball in the street. I can still recall scores of people who lived on the block, many of whom often served as surrogate parents.
The neighborhood was much like a European village. There were 3 greengrocers, a fruit vendor who came through the neighborhood with his truck, a butcher, tailor, pharmacist, dentist and 2 chicken markets in walking distance. I rarely, if ever, had a chicken that we had not seen alive or an egg that had not been warm before it came into our home until I was 13. My mother would send me to Benny’s for parsley and to Gordon’s for broccoli. The food was local, although we never called it that, and my mother knew who offered the best products in different categories. The backyards to all the houses had gardens and the street was lively late into the night, yet always safe. There was a natural and human ecology and a rich culture that connected us to each other and to the earth. Everyone knew each other's business, which at times became oppressive.I have lived in many places since leaving for college and spent time in many more. While my youth in Brooklyn and the Hudson River Valley was less than perfect, what is? Despite those shortcomings, the benefits were far greater than the liabilities. There was a richness of experience and a sense of connection to the social surround that seems rare in American Society today. I think the Immigrant Brooklyn of earlier days has become the Urban Brooklyn Village of today’s creative youth. It seems the nature of the place is an incubator of creativity and community. So many of us seek a deeper sense of connection to ourselves, to each other, and to the earth as we travel through life in the 21st century.
In my prior life I found it easy to forget that truth as I responded to the demands of mainstream society. In my life now I continually seek to live into that truth.
Further Reflections Follow
I participated in the initial 6 week Ecological Literacy Immersion Program at the Omega Institute, in order to deepen my connection to the earth and to others with a concern for our natural and human ecologies. I am intrigued and inspired by the notion of "Mindful Agriculture". It seems a necessity for our times. I have had a long interest in the work of Wendell Berry, Thomas Berry, Rudolf Steiner, Otto Scharmer and the Auroville community, among others. I was lucky to visit Auroville a few years back on the Mother’s birthday. As an ordained integral/interfaith minister I have had the good fortune to study a variety of wisdom traditions with some wonderful teachers. As the influence of Thomas Berry, and my curiosity about soil life, healthy food and delicious flavor grew more intense over the last decade my attention naturally was drawn to study all of this more deeply.
Having been a member of the Society of Organizational Learning in the 90's, and a member of a small monthly dialogue group for a few years that included Peter Senge and Otto Scharmer, I was a participant observer as the U-Theory research unfolded around the turn of the millennium. I am well acquainted with the Presencing and Emergent Leadership work.
During these last five years, as I stepped back from the "carousel of conventional life", I accessed my banking background to work on alternative Financial Vehicles that could support initiatives that foster life far into the future.
One World Many Voices: Ministering to a World Gone Slightly Mad
The spiritual life does not remove us from the world, but takes us more deeply into it.
-Henri Nouen
We are in the midst of a great evolutionary shift. If I go back to the Catholicism of my childhood; it was very hierarchic, absolutistic and rules oriented. There was only one right way. You were benefited if you happened to be a Catholic and you were seriously disadvantaged, (i.e. you burned in hell for all eternity) if you were not. Many cultures and religions throughout history have had a similar orientation.
Then something happened in the world I grew up in. Someone unusual became Pope. Why was he unusual? Angelo Ronacalli (later Pope John XXIII) had a wider perspective then his contemporaries because he did not spend his entire career in Rome. He was papal nuncio in Paris, Bulgaria, and Turkey. When he was in Turkey during World War II he was one of the few officials (government or religious) to respond effectively to the Nazi terror. His independent action saved the lives of a large number of Jewish children. He issued them baptismal certificates, allowing them access to Palestine. He was very much a Catholic bishop, but he also had a larger identity as a universal human being.
When he became Pope, he called a Council and, for a brief time, the whole nature of Roman Catholicism was cast in a new light. A light that has returned with the Papacy of the very first Pope Francis. I went to a wonderful Catholic high school that basked in that light. We were taught to ask questions, to think for ourselves. The spirit of the Buddha was embodied, “don’t believe what I say, test it out for yourself and see if it is true.” The school’s motto was “To grow in wisdom, age and grace”. We studied all of the religious traditions and learned about Mahatma Gandhi, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Beatitudes and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
These qualities, and the example of John XXXIII, embody an understanding of what it means to be fully human, and are at the heart of all the great teachings, ancient or modern. Each of us is called to find a more inclusive identity, a sense of our self that is rooted in our personal history, but at the same time embraces a universal sense of purpose and includes all of life and the entire kosmos in its embrace.
It is vital for each of us to develop depth and presence at the core of our inner life and as the foundation for active engagement in the transformation of the world. We recognize that we live in one world, but that within that one world are many voices that express the great truth of our common heritage and our shared future. It is up to each of us to play our part in creating that future and in preserving that heritage for our children and our grandchildren.
The challenge we face today is to develop our consciousness to ever-deeper levels of love and wisdom. It will be a great day when our inner state of consciousness is as developed as our ability to influence the outer world. The call that goes out to each of us is to “be in the world but not of the world”, to be the Presence of light in a world too often gone dark.
It was a different kind of religious expression because it:
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was open;
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took into account other teachings
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no longer made claims to being absolutely right or having the only answers;
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was aware that “One Size Does Not Fit All”; and, most central of all,
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it allowed each individual to evolve according to the unique trajectory of their own soul.
