Beyond the Welcome

I went to a workshop today:  "Beyond the Welcome" based on research done through Tyndale and World Vision to help local churches meaningfully include new immigrants into their communities.  Great stuff!  The speaker was a familiar face, Bill van Geest, husband of one of Carol's teaching colleagues in Rexdale from the late '80's.  The topic was an important one and, as I thought about it in terms of the congregation I (normally) lead and serve, Maranatha, a perfectly culturally appropriate one.

Maranatha was founded by immigrants. In the 1950's, they were the new Canadians.  I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other Canadians in Galt wouldn't have told what they thought were jokes about these Dutch immigrants: the way they talked, and the curious habits they had.  And so, the Dutch immigrant community did what was not only theologically but socially relevant for them: they clustered together, formed a community, and slowly opened their doors and habits to invite others in.  Today, Maranatha is a fantastic community of people who love God, know Christ, depend on the Spirit, and are looking for ways to meaningfully express God's care to the city in which we live.  In other words, Maranatha is perfectly poised to welcome the new Canadian, rather than tell jokes about or exclude them.

New Canadians today face the same challenges which many of Maranatha's founding members faced:  skill sets which don't necessarily transfer, some levels of economic scarcity, lack of domestic education, and a bit of a generational gap as their children feel more at home in the new country than the parents do.  While the adults of an immigrant generation tend to want to cluster, the children or next generation want to integrate.

Now, let me introduce you to Zlata.  I met this Yugoslavian immigrant at the Library today.  She came 40 years ago, and remembers just how much of a challenge Canada can be to new Canadians, because our culture tends to encourage the segregation of people into pockets of culture of origin rather than to stimulate integration of non-like-minded people.  But, says Zlata, things are changing.  As a Librarian, she has seen a massive shift at the Queen's Square library in terms of two items in particular:  books and resources for learning languages, and books on ethnic cooking.  She felt that Cambridge residents are increasingly and rapidly looking for ways to actually integrate, to do something which previous generations did not do, and the effects on library lending in these areas are dramatic.  She pointed out resources the Library has which I had no idea existed -- especially the online resources, for borrowing e-books, audio books, language learning tools, and so on.  I think I'll have more conversations with Zlata about how I can use these tools.  She said she had a hard time getting the word out about them and that many don't know they exist.  I told her I would write about this in my blog, read by about 60 people per day.

anyway,

As Zlata and I stood and talked for 30 minutes in the library (remember when you couldn't talk in the library? -- now I was talking with a Librarian in a Library) she shared with me how she felt that people really just need a sense of place.  I told her that I had been to a conference that morning about how local churches can and should be places where new Canadians can experience a welcome and a sense of place.  She said that would be great.

What do you say?