How good is your parish at welcoming diverse cultures?

Many of us have been noticing the growing presence of ethnic communities within our Diocese. Individuals and families from China, India, the Philippians, Korea, Pacific Island nations and South Africa are the largest of these groupings and many have a Christian background or are interested in exploring Christianity.

This represents an opportunity for our parishes to reach out to migrants, build relationships, offer pastoral care and begin new expressions of Church. This is already happening in some of our parishes most notably Upper Riccarton-Yaldhurst, Burnside-Harewood, Fendalton and East Christchurch. Other parishes have ethnic congregations using their facilities either on Sundays or midweek.

Recently a group, including Rosie Fyfe from NZCMS and Rev Chris Ponniah, met to discuss how we could develop a Diocesan strategy to enable greater focus on this missional opportunity. The group will develop plans, undertake research and carry forward a vision to see the gospel reach new people-groups in our Diocese.

Anashuya Fletcher is the Assistant Bishop Elect of the Wellington Diocese and her consecration as bishop will take place on Saturday 13 April. Ana has worked as the 'Intercultural Communities Enabler' for the Wellington Diocese and has written extensively on how parishes can effectively reach out to ethnic communities to help grow the kingdom.

Find below some hints and tips that your parish can implement today. Why not get together with a group of parishioners that are interested in this kind of outreach and work through the questions as a kind of internal audit - to check if you're ready to welcome ethnic minorities into your church!

1/ Hospitality

• How does your communal physical space embrace difference? (e.g. signage, artwork, layout, choice of space)
• How would a first-timer know that there is space for them?
• How are people made to feel welcome at large gatherings?
• How is the original welcome followed up?
• What knowledge do you have about culturally contextually appropriate hospitality? How are you growing your knowledge? How are you implementing your knowledge?
• Who are you developing authentic relationships with those from minority groups?
• Are you spending time in spaces where you are the minority group?
• Are you spending time in places where you are hosted by a minority group?

2/ Leadership

• How are newcomers’ giftings identified and invited into participation?
• Are there minority group leaders that you are developing?
• How are you adapting your leadership style and processes to accommodate for cultural differences?
• Is the diversity of your parish/mission unit reflected in your leadership group(s)? Why/why not?
• How are you developing your competency leading in and developing diverse contexts?

3/ Preaching/Teaching

• Are you using a diverse range of commentaries to prepare your messages?
• Does the preaching/teaching roster reflect a diverse group of people/voices?
• Are you training and developing preachers/teachers from minority groups?
• Do your examples and applications in preaching/teaching only represent the majority culture?

4/ Discipleship

• Are you aware of discipleship tools from diverse cultural contexts?
• How are you using these in your discipleship of others?
• How are you empowering others to disciple across diverse cultural contexts?
• Are you critiquing your preferred discipleship programmes/models through different cultural lenses?

5/ Pastoral Care

• Where can you go to get support for the specific pastoral needs of minority groups (e.g. new settlers, refugees)?

6/ Children and youth

• Do those participating in your children and youth ministries reflect the diversity of your local community and your congregation?
• How have you adapted your children and youth ministries to be culturally appropriate for the diversity in your wider community and your church community?
• Have you identified potential ethnic minority leaders within your youth/young adults?
• What are the variations within your ministry to accommodate 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation immigrants?

7/ Worship

• How is te reo Māori incorporated into your common worship?
• Are you drawing on global worship resources to curate your common and individual worship?
• Is common worship led by a diverse group of people?
• To what extent does the form and style of worship reflect the diversity in your wider community and congregation? Why/why not?
• How might someone from a minority culture experience hospitality, solidarity and mutuality through your worship?

8/ Evangelism

• What training and equipping has your congregation had for engaging across cultures and participating in interfaith dialogue?
• What level of knowledge do they have about other cultures and religions?

9/ Administration Systems

• What level of knowledge and drive do your administrators have for engaging with people of other cultures from themselves?
• What opportunities are there for your church to offer administrative support to ethnic minority congregations?

Click here for more on Intercultural Engagement