In my first piece for this newsletter I found myself asking : “While we are at it, how diverse do you think we are right now? What sorts of diversity might there already be in our midst?”. Those seem to be important questions. And in fact I am not sure they are as simple as they seem at first.
On the face of it it would be easy to say that we are really not a very diverse community of faith. After all, on Sunday morning when I look out from the pulpit (or if I pick up the last photo directory and thumb through it) I see what looks like a pretty homogeneous group. In terms of skin colour, socio-economic bracket, and other easily visible criteria we are all pretty similar. But I wonder because I think we are also pretty different in some ways.
My wondering is based on some stories, 3 to be precise. These stories push me to ponder what diversity might be among us that we are missing.
Story #1: First year seminary. One of my classmates, who returned to university as a mature student, is sharing a story form one of her English classes. The Professor had asked who spoke with an accent. She raised her hand, which confused many of the students since by all appearances she did not have a different accent than any of the others. Her point was that we all speak with an accent, shaped by the place where we were raised and the environment in which we learned about the world. These accents are not only in how we speak but also in how we understand the world, in how we view the world. What various accents are present in our community of faith? What accents have been silenced or people taught to learn to speak/be more proper?
Story #2: A continuing education gathering where hymn singing was the topic (it was the year that More Voices had first been published). Bruce Harding, the keynote speaker, was talking about getting congregations to sing in a language other than their first language. It is a challenge to get folk to sing in French, or Shona, or Cree, or Chinese or Latin (I like to sing the first verse of O Come All Ye Faithful in Latin once each Christmas season), even when there is a transliteration available and hints about how to pronounce the words. Most congregations will choose to sing the comfortable English words because they are the words they know and understand. [Side note: I find this happens also with hymns I have known since a child where the words have been altered to be more gender inclusive, I sometimes automatically sing the ‘old’ words.] A colleague who is a few years younger than I stands up and says “but I have been singing in a foreign language all my life”. As an example she used Holy, Holy Holy with ”thy” and “thee” and “which wert and art”. Do we make assumptions about what is normal and what is new to people when we think we are all the same? Do we speak different languages and assume we will all understand the same way?
Story #3: A colleague from another denomination is talking about filling out annual reports. One of the questions asks how diverse the congregation is. Being in a slightly ornery mood, he asks if this means “how many visible minorites are present?”, is it based on skin colour? Or does it take into account the family with roots in the Ukraine as well as the WASPs and the recent immigrant from France and... When we think “diverse” or “intercultural” what makes the cut? What gets thrown into one bin and said “all the same”? What makes one ‘different enough’ to be a sign of a diverse community?
So I ask again, how diverse a community are we really? Or maybe the better questions are: a) how are we already diverse? and b) in what ways could we be more diverse?.
As we continue to explore being an Affirming Ministry we have to take seriously the call to be a diverse community. Being Affirming may be a discussion that began around questions of gender identity and sexuality, but the questions of full inclusion cover all the many aspects of diversity. What different accents or world views are present, and how do we make them feel included? How might we need to change our language and way of being to open the door for those with other understandings? Can we open our eyes to see past the ways we thing we are the same and celebrate the wonderful diversity already present among us?
It means taking a risk. It mean opening ourselves to be changed as a
community. Are we willing?
--Gord
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