Looking toward 2016 and beyond

I confess that I have been greatly influenced by process theology. Process theology comes to terms with the scientific fact and social reality of evolution. Life is not static. History never repeats itself. Life is constantly in motion. This constant change includes God. How could an unchanging God relate to a constantly changing universe, world, nation, city and hamlet?

Process theology does not deny the past and does not ignore the past. Process theology learns from the past but is not a slave to the past. Process theology and an ever moving, changing God throws the searching believer in a forward direction, like it or not.

Our oldest son, Philip Bess, teaches architecture at Notre Dame. During a recent sabbatical leave, he embraced a monumental task. With the help of a large foundation grant he has made a one hundred year projection of the City of Chicago. The occasion is the 100^th anniversary of the Chicago Plan by architect Daniel Burnham. The Burnham Plan made Chicago a truly unique city. The city stretches for 26 miles along Lake Michigan. In accordance with the Burnham Plan no commercial enterprise has been built on the lake front. Rather, the lake front is a very long, beautiful park with abundant recreational opportunities, libraries, museums, sport facilities, and large spaces for public gatherings. Lake Shore Drive runs the entire length of the city. When visiting Chicago, I have often driven the entire length of the Drive in order once again to observe the magnificence of Chicago’s setting. Burnham’s Plan covered the entire city. He envisioned a city of thriving neighborhoods with schools, parks, churches and business enterprises.

Burnham cautioned against anything but big plans. He wanted human diversity to flourish within meaningful and creative community structures. While Burnham’s religious beliefs were not overtly expressed in words, Professor Bess argues that the Burnham Plan reflects a concern for values that come out of a deep religious concern. Burnham envisioned healthy living, an orderly life for all, and beauty presented in landscaping and architecture.

Chicago is today a mixed review. No one can deny the magnificence of the lake shore.

No one can deny the greatness of the city’s architecture, the quality of its museums, theatres, and universities. Burnham’s plan has produced incredible excellence.

But something happened along the way.

Chicago is today known as the murder capital of America. Poverty reigns in its neighborhoods. Charges against corrupt police and politicians are rampant. Is Chicago beyond orderly governance?

Chicago is polluting Lake Michigan. The city is flushing its partially treated garbage and waste down the Illinois River. Middle and upper income populations are fleeing the city neighborhoods for the suburbs. Freeways and tollways have facilitated the suburban flight and have produced one of the worst divisions of the rich from the poor in America. The tax base for the city has moved north, west and south.

Does Chicago have a future?

Professor Bess’s massive study, tentatively entitled “After Burnham,” will be published hopefully sometime in 2016. I have been privileged to read some of his projections. His thinking is always permeated with his Catholic Christian commitments and understandings. He is committed to human flourishing. He treasures the value of human life. He advocates community and the love of neighbor. He takes ecology seriously. He insists on the need for planning. His commitment to New Urbanism is apparent.

What would Chicago be today without Daniel Burnham? True, he did not envision the freeways that decimate city and community living. He certainly did not anticipate the communications age. Burnham worked in an age when the evolving nature of life was not fully recognized. Burnham started a job that cries for constant updating.

My motivation in writing this epistle is my concern for Christian people to become more involved in the planning of the communities in which we all live. Typically ministers and Christian believers do not think of planning as a Christian virtue. I am suggesting that if we take Christ’s command to love our neighbors seriously, we cannot ignore the planning that is needed to make communities a living reality.

2016 is upon us. Do you have a plan for your own well-being. Do you have a plan for your family? Are you playing an active role in the planning of your church and your community? To be kind and loving is very important; but if you are not actively planning, you are in trouble.

God bless everyone in 2016. May your plan be worthy of your efforts.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.