The Rev. Paul Earl Sheppard had recently become the senior pastor of a suburban church in California when a group of parishioners came to him with a disturbing personal question.
They were worried because the racial makeup of their small church was changing. They warned Sheppard that the church’s newest members would try to seize control because members of their race were inherently aggressive. What was he was going to do if more of “them” tried to join their church?
“One man asked me if I was prepared for a hostile takeover,” says Sheppard, pastor of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in Mountain View, California.
Our AMiA parish has a number Kenyans at every service (we let them use our hall for their native-language service after our 10:30 eucharist), and their presence is a true gift. I wouldn’t mind one whit if they did a “hostile takeover.”
I can’t help but think of my old rector Richard Martin, the African American rector of the mostly white Anglo Catholic parishes of St. Paul’s, K Street, and Church of the Advent, Boston. Ironically Martin was probably rather more conservative than most of his congregation (and paid a price for it in the oh so inclusive Diocese of Washington) but, while St. Paul’s may not always have been so welcoming (I remember a now-deceased acquaintance describing how she was upbraided for bringing an African American friend to worship during the early 1960s), Martin was very much loved.
Sometimes I wonder how much it is a racial thing and how much a cultural one. In Jeffersonian’s church (cited above), it is unlikely that there are the same cultural expectations within the congregation about Kenyans as there would be about native-born African Americans (which is not to say that the latter wouldn’t be welcomed, of course).
[url=http://catholicandreformed.blogspot.com]Catholic and Reformed[/url]
Hmm. The only Protestant churches I’ve seen with as much racial mixing as almost any Catholic church have been military chapels. I’ve had a black bishop for the last 11 years. It doesn’t seem to be very important.
[i]Only about 5 percent of the nation’s churches are racially integrated, and half of them are in the process of becoming all-black or all-white,…[/i]
I was wondering if this is particularly a Protestant phenomenon. Granted church memberships reflect local demographics but I don’t seem to have noticed said segregation within the parishes I’ve attended Mass over the years. Maybe I just haven’t been to the right ones because it usually looks like the United Nations in the pews around me. Not judging, as I said just wondering.
I don’t know how much of why churches are segregated have to do with racial attitudes as to do with economic and political segregation. Suburban churches especially only want to cater to the tastes of middle to upper middle class tastes, economical and political. Urban churches cater to a certain ecomical and political demographic, as to rural churches. My point being that anyone who does not fit into those views are not particularly welcome.
Yes, race has played a huge role in where people are in the economic and political spectrum now, but I am uncertain whether that is attributable to historic patterns or present conscious racial discrimation. I imagine its some of both, but to what degree depends on the local congregation’s attitudes.
The Episcopal Church I grew up in was roughly 1/3 Carribbean islanders. The rest were whites from diverse economic backgrounds. I never saw any hint of racism towards the islanders or vice versa and their presence and culture and music was a great gift.
Now, when the new Rector pushed to add a Hispanic mission congregation with a Spanish language service at noon.. well.. there was some serious pushback. I still chuckle when I recall a brief conversation between the Priest and a congregant on his way out of Church on Sunday:
“Father, I’m not so sure about this Spanish congregation. I don’t think they ought to be here”
“Well, then may God have mercy on your soul”
😉
Jeffersonian,
I belong to a Southern Cone parish in an area that is rapidly becoming more Hispanic in population. It seems a no brainer to me to reach out to them, but I have only very timidly suggested as much to other members of my church. When I have, I got the impression that I had touched upon a sore subject. The matter was taken into consideration and nothing has come of it since.
I have done some thinking about this and I don’t think it is at all a matter of racism as much as it is the political conservatism of so many of our members. If we are going to attract Hispanics, it means that we would have to, of necessity, accomodate their culture and language somehow. On the other hand, I think that most people in my church believe that Hispanics should integrate into our culture and speak English (I have to say that I agree with them.) They may see any sort of accomodation as selling out their principles. Some, and I would put myself in this camp, fear two parallel churches, one Spanish, one English speaking which have nothing to do with one another meeting in the same building. That would absolutely defeat the purpose in my mind.
So I guess what I would like to know is how does your church do it. How do you accomodate another culture and language while at the same time promoting congregational unity and cultural assimilation. Could you give some details or tips? I haven’t given up on my idea so I think I could use the information for the next time I pitch it. Thanks.
Hmm, my parish is very ethnically mixed with people whose backgrounds come from Africa, the Caribbean, Oceania, all part of Asia and of Latin American as well as Europe … some as immigrants and others born here. Our priests also come from diverse backgrounds. Funny, but I just never noticed it before. This was not true of the Protestant churches I attended, but that has been some years ago … so maybe it has changed. The funny thing is that the Pacific Northwest is not noted for its diversity outside of Portland or Seattle, and I don’t live in either of those two cities.
One of the impacts of the Church Growth Movement first implement on a diocesan leval in SJ by +Rivera wa an emphas on the homogeneous principle. Add to that Friedman’s insights fron Bowen theory as applied to congregations naturally seeing to maintain the system’s status quo and one powerful forcefield now exists to work against integrated congregations.
I happen to believe that vital sacramental worship, evangelical preaching, solid catechises, charismatic teaching, leadership expectations and foundation building with God inspired social action ministry creates catholic Anglican congregations. Call it Three streams if you will but it shows us the fruit.
[blockquote]So I guess what I would like to know is how does your church do it. How do you accomodate another culture and language while at the same time promoting congregational unity and cultural assimilation. Could you give some details or tips? I haven’t given up on my idea so I think I could use the information for the next time I pitch it. Thanks. [/blockquote]
I have only recently been elected to my parish’s vestry, so I don’t know all the details of how we interact with the Kenyans. I do know that a number of them come to our 10:30 service and stay for a native-language (which, I’m embarrassed to say, I cannot name) eucharist afterward. The priest and his family all speak English and are some of the finest people you could possibly know. I’m almost certain we don’t ask them to pay anything toward the maintenance of our facility/clergy.
Right now, I see them as a parish within a parish, and I would expect them to break off if and when they ever acquire self-supporting membership. We have great affection for each other, and their witness is greatly prized. I hope they do manage to be self-supporting, but I would miss them terribly.
Years ago in Orlando FL I was a friend of a man who took his family and excaped from Cuba. He and his wife were bilingual (English-Spanish). When his children started grade school he made it a point to tell them “we speak Spanish at home but you must learn to speak English here in America since it is the language of our adopted country.
There are excellent reasons for segregating onesself. None racial, but every reason in the world to do it for theological reasons. Ask the Pilgrims why they left Britain.
There is something to sticking to a message, which is why some evangelical churches, and high-anglo catholic churches, are successful. I think it requires leadership who can manage the different ways subcommunities think of power. One way is to have a process of reading scripture together where everyone has a change to respond to how God is working through them after reading a lesson, for example. Scripture then becomes the common vocabulary, supplanting race or other sorts of identity.
Good leadership that is humble, resilient, loving and magnanimous toward everyone goes a long way, while also challenging any sort of racism that appears. It helps to put “bridge builders” in leadership position – those who have experience in multiple communities and can harness that experience well.
The CNN article pointed to a key issue that some folks do not want to have to think about race, ethnicity or culture while at Church. The article pointed at some of the hurt that people of various colors experience around the issues of race, ethnicity and culture.
I am now rector of my second multi-cultural international parish (the first was in Asia with 30+ nationalities represented, the second is now in the US with nearly 20 nationalities present). Personally, I do not make race, ethnicity and culture a central focal point, but I do address such intentionally and consistently. It is important to be able to talk about culture positively and constructively–and many many biblical texts include cultural, ethnic and racial comments. For example, Ruth is almost always referenced as “the Moabite”, that is, the foreigner. Any Israelite reading the text would feel like the author was rubbing it in regarding her race/ethnicity. But also, John 12, the Greeks go looking for Philip to be introduced to Jesus. Philip was a Greek-speaking Jew: they looked for somebody who would understand them and be able to introduce them to Jesus.
I find that Americans (and most people around the world) are constantly interacting with questions of race, ethnicity and culture. The Church therefore has a great opportunity to create a safe place to engage our own and others–and to discover the benefits of such a community (which is a grand picture of the heavenly banquet!).
The focal point must remain Jesus, the Gospel of his resurrection, and his commissioning of his people to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Samaria and Judea, and to the ends of the earth (e.g. to our own people, to our neighbors who are different from us, and to people who seem worlds apart from us.