One example of what the embodied and incarnational organisation may look like is the United Church of Christ where the model of embodiment is strongest ‘within those congregations historically linked to… German Reformed roots.’[10] There is in particular one word, the German word pastorenkirchen in this context meaning ‘where the pastor is, there the Church is’. This term is helpful in understanding what an embodied incarnational organisation may look like because it assumes a relationship of individual and whole so that the embodied experience of one is the experience of the whole organisation, and vice versa thus forming an embodied socialisation of the organisation. To put this in stark terms if one employee is pregnant then the whole organisation whilst not living that life event in their individuals bodies must live it in the corporate body, there would be adequate maternity leave, crèche facilities, health care and so on because the women’s embodied experience is not separate from the lived experience in the organisation. The United Church of Christ claims that:
‘A demand is made upon us. And so we were the first historically white denomination to ordain an African-American, the first to ordain a woman, the first to ordain an openly gay man, and the first Christian church to affirm the right of same-gender couples to marry. We were in the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and the Civil Rights movement.’[11]
The notion of pastorenkirchen expresses embodiment which speaks into incarnation; where our bodies are there God’s body is. In the United Church of Christ this has implications for understandings of ordination and presbyteral ministry but also for how the whole organisation functions in the light of an embodied approach to structures. It is my assertion that ridding organisations of dualistic and atomistic tendencies in favour of an holistic approach in which the embodied self has signifying value would create a space of potentiality for the health of the organisation and the realising of embodied capital.