From multicultural to cross-cultural to intercultural
We start October with a new resident as Chakrita Saulina’s summer term has drawn to a close. She has brought new energy and thinking into our worship and she has “broken in” our beloved Kansha building with the help of her husband Ben Wilson. It became a comfortable home for them. Chakrita brought her South East Asian culture and her Yale Divinity School New Testament knowledge into the Parkview world. The combination created new energy.
Our new resident is one already known to you, Ontonio Christie. His background is completely different. He is the son of church planter and farmer on the Caribbean island of Jamaica. He studied graphic design as an undergraduate and theology at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia. His wife Kadine came to the US from Jamaica as an eleven year old and grew up in New Jersey. Ontonio develops websites and is also an accomplished painter. His artwork is already hanging in a restaurant on Broadway in Sacramento.
With Chakrita and now even more so with Ontonio you as a congregation come more in touch with the stories of other cultures and experiences. Necessarily these pastoral ministry residents brought and will bring their own take on the Bible and their own perspective. Their narratives and their “story” of the Bible stories meet up with the narrative of your lives as you listen and participate in worship. And so a new dialogue begins.
We are a “multicultural” congregation which means a congregation where different ethnic groups are represented (about 10 in Parkview’s case) and exist side my side. But these groups may not be necessarily in full communion with each other. Then there is the term “cross-cultural.” This describes the building of bridges from one cultural group to another.
However, the Presbyterian Mission Agency wrote a paper about the need for an “intercultural” church. In an intercultural congregational all cultural groups relate to each other on equal terms. I see you do this as you becomes closer with one another from different cultural backgrounds. In an intercultural congregation there are “mutually reciprocal relationships among and between people from different cultural groups who become transformed, shaped and molded by each other’s experiences.” There is mutual respect, gifting and learning from one another. No one is unchanged in this intercultural process. Some wind up examining their own culture more deeply, others learn more about what it means to be in community. Also “power imbalances” are addressed and everyone moves closer to being transformed.
I see all three: multicultural, cross-cultural and inter-cultural in the life of Parkview. The presence of the residents will move us toward the intercultural more rapidly. According to the Presbyterian Mission paper a true intercultural church will be an open church that seeks the Holy Spirit and uses well-chosen words. It thrives on building respectful relationships, It responds to change positively by, among other things, being resilient in “absorbing cultural inclusion.” It is justice -driven as it addresses racism and the historical injustice perpetuated by the Church at large. It is mission driven as it seeks to help people discern God’s purpose for them and to make God’s love known to all. May God bless our chosen ministry. See you in church. Aart
Last Updated: October 10, 2016 by Aart
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