Consultation highlights ways the denomination is woven together.

The 2005 Cross-Cultural Consultation and Celebration on April 21-24 drew as many as 250 African-American, Mexican, Dominican, Haitian, Indian, Puerto Rican, and Anglo Brethren participants over four days of events. Also in attendance were Annual Conference moderator Jim Hardenbrook and moderator-elect Ron Beachley, and church agency staff including general secretary of the General Board Stan Noffsinger, On Earth Peace co-executive Bob Gross, and Bethany Theological Seminary president Eugene Roop and academic dean Stephen Breck Reid.

The gathering was by far the largest since annual cross-cultural consultations began in 1999. A 1996 Urban Ministries Conference at Pleasant Dale Church of the Brethren in Decatur, Ind., preceded the 1999 consultation in Kansas City.

Worship services, listening sessions, and times of fellowship were hosted by the seminary, Richmond (Ind.) Church of the Brethren, and Eaton (Ohio) Church of the Brethren. The seminary and area congregations provided food, transportation, and hospitality.

The consultation theme from Colossians 3:12-17--"Woven Together with Love"--was just "a sophisticated way of saying, we are having a dress rehearsal for heaven," said Dennis Webb, pastor of Naperville (Ill.) Church of the Brethren, as he led participants in one of the many worship experiences.

Lively multicultural worship two or three times a day was a highlight of the meeting. "What I have enjoyed is seeing brothers and sisters coming from many states to worship together with very different races, and how many are open to more diversity so that all can praise God in different languages," said Alex Sable, of the Maranatha Multicultural Fellowship in Lancaster, Pa. Sermons were given by invited speakers, but worship leaders also facilitated open times of sharing in which participants were encouraged to bring "offerings" of music or testimonies. Prayers were said in Haitian Creole, Spanish, French, and English. Spanish-English translation was available.

A Saturday evening worship service at Eaton featured the Inspirational Choir of First Church of the Brethren and the Brethren in Christ in Harrisburg, Pa., directed by Barton Smith. First Harrisburg's pastor, Belita D. Mitchell, preached. Many of the 300-plus worshipers, including visitors from neighboring congregations, received anointing for cross-cultural ministry in the name of Jesus Christ. Sunday morning worship was at Richmond, where pastor Kelly Burk invited consultation participants and the Inspirational Choir to help lead the service.

Preachers focused on being woven together as Christ's multicultural body. "Woven together is knowing that I love my brother from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Covina!" said Gilbert Romero, pastor of Bella Vista Church of the Brethren in Los Angeles. "I want to be woven to you. You're the only church I have."

Bethany dean Stephen Breck Reid examined how the ancient Israelites were woven together in worship at the temple, and compared that to the multicultural experience. He urged participants to take the message of the weekend home with them. "It's important that we go home...to reach folks we haven't talked to yet," he said.

Mitchell spoke about being "well dressed in Christ." Love adds "marvelous beauty" to woven cloth, she said. "When we put on love as our outer garment and our shield, we put on Christ. With the love of God through Christ Jesus, we can become a multicultural church."

A keynote address on the peace of Christ in an American cultural setting of differences between people, values, and even scriptural interpretation, was given by Fumitaka Matsuoka, a former dean of Bethany who is teaching at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif. He called on Brethren to learn a "second language" of caring and compassion taught by scripture. "The Church of the Brethren started as a community that took seriously this second language" of nonconformity, he said. "Being in the world but not of the world--that's a second language." Matsuoka added a plea for Brethren to allow themselves to become vulnerable and exposed to other cultures. "In order to speak the second language, we have to live in more than one world," he said. "That's what the cross-cultural experience is all about."

The consultation also offered time for participants to share about painful experiences of racism and prejudice in the church, as well as suggestions about how to make the denomination multicultural. Several leaders called for honesty about the "hard issues" facing those who gathered. Seminary faculty and members of two Annual Conference study committees--the Intercultural Study Committee and the Study Committee on Doing Church Business--held listening sessions during the consultation (see feature below).

Consultation participants seemed to have no doubt of God's will for the Church of the Brethren--that it is to become multicultural. Some said the very survival of the denomination depends on it becoming multicultural. "This great denomination that has drawn this soul (referring to himself), will draw many more," said Joseph Craddock, lay minister at Germantown (Pa.) Church of the Brethren.

"It's wonderful, this event--getting better every year," said pastor Verel Montauban, of Haitian First Church of the Brethren in Brooklyn, N.Y. "When we are here, there is no color, thank God we all are the same."

The event was planned by the Cross-Cultural Steering Committee, aided by the General Board's Congregational Life Ministries. Committee members are Barbara Date, Ruben Deoleo, Sonja Griffith, Robert Jackson, Belita Mitchell, and Gilbert Romero. For more information contact staff members Duane Grady at dgrady_gb@brethren.org or 800-505-1596, or Carol Yeazell at cyeazell_gb@brethren.org or 828-687-1155.

Source: 5/10/2005 Newsline
top