A few members of our Diocese were invited by the Archbishop of York’s Mission Enabler for the North, Canon Dr Mark Powley, to come and share some of the experiences of Southwark Diocese in engaging new ethnolinguistic groups. An ethnolinguistic group is one which is unified by an ethnicity and/or language. We tried to have different types of congregations represented in our small group. Emma Lowth represented the Farsi Intercultural congregation at Christ Church, Gypsy Hill; Stephen Jullien represented the bi-lingual church at St Matthew’s Elephant & Castle; Timmy Ajayi represented a separate Yoruba congregation at St John’s, Plumstead. There are many other great ethnolinguistic congregations in Southwark!
It was a rich 24 hours at Swanwick and many good conversations and seminars. I will leave the feedback to the others who attended.
Emma Lowth writes:
The diversity of our churches is joyful, beautiful, multi-faceted, complicated and difficult. That was the message that I came away with from the conference.
From beautiful multi-lingual worship that expressed something profound and prophetic about the multitudes worshipping around the throne of God, to conversations which honestly unpacked the hopes and struggles that different ethnolinguistic groups experience in the daily realities of being church, the conference was a hope-filled but honest reflection on the complexity of being the church in our multicultural society. Aside from the joy of connecting with others ministering in various places and exploring similar questions, I was struck that there was a big range of opinion across the delegates about whether it was better to enable single language churches to operate independently, or whether intercultural models were more beneficial.
The model that we are growing in and learning from at Christ Church seeks to see ministry among Farsi speakers as an integral and integrated part of our church reality. The benefits are that different cultures can speak to each other’s blind spots and bring encouragement and gifts of different shapes and types. We are particularly seeing this in a reenergising of our prayer lives. But this requires constant bravery on all sides, to actively step away from our comfort zones and often to engage in harder conversations. And it requires whole-hearted buy-in across the whole congregation. The temptation to follow a more comfortable and familiar route is strong and there are alternative models which would offer a convincing case that discipleship is more effective in separate ethnolinguistic groups.
It will be interesting to see where the future leads us, but for now I hope that the exploration of intercultural theology will deepen across the church and that we will continue to learn more from different models of culturally diverse church.
Timmy Ajayi added:
The conference, which focused on intercultural and ethnolinguistic congregations, emphasized the critical importance of fostering mutual understanding and collaboration across cultural boundaries.
Through compelling examples of growth in intercultural ministry, the panel discussions proved to be both engaging and insightful, addressing not only the challenges of intercultural ministry but also the opportunities it presents for mission in an increasingly pluralistic society, such as that of England. As many of our churches become more diverse, I found one panelist’s observation particularly resonant: “We should always ask, ‘Who is missing? Who is not part of the conversation in our church?’” This question serves as a vital reminder to remain intentional about embracing diverse ‘voices and backgrounds’ in our congregations.
In one of the discussions, someone remarked, “When nations come together to worship, God’s power is redistributed.” This sentiment was beautifully reflected in the intercultural worship sessions through music. These sessions were truly uplifting, as they created spaces where people from different ethnic backgrounds could hear God being praised in their own languages and through their unique cultural practices.
The two-day conference was deeply thought-provoking, underscoring the reality that if we are not careful, our worship styles may inadvertently reflect only the dominant culture of our church or leadership team. It served as a poignant reminder of the richness of worship that can be achieved when we harness the latent power of diversity through intercultural and ethnolinguistic expression of ministry.
Stephen Jullien
It was great to be invited to the ‘Hope-filled conversations’ conference which lived up to its name. It was great to be connected with so many people from so many different linguistic backgrounds and to share wisdom from our different experiences. Some of the best conversations came when we had the chance to chat to new people outside of the main sessions and to begin to ferment new relationships. We’re in a privileged position in Southwark having a series of well-developed ethnolinguistic worshipping communities, and many of the conference attendees from the northern province highlighted the need for a national strategy for intercultural and multilingual ministry. I hope we can continue to share in these conversations which help shape this strategy so that we can continue to celebrate our diversity of backgrounds within the unity of our faith
Conclusion
There was much to encourage as well as challenge us. In Southwark we don’t have a one size fits all for working with different ethnolinguistic groups. Each of those above represent a different strand as they seek to work and care for those from very different heritages and backgrounds. There is no right solution for each ethnolinguistic group as different groups need different things at different times and places. This is an exciting time in the life of the Diocese and as we work to encourage participation in the life of Christ and his Church from so many different backgrounds we need to be aware of the call of the Spirit to be brave and venture into new places, to work to see who we are missing and work out how we might include them.
Canon Will Cookson, Director of Mission
