Page 34 - Presbyterian Connection

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PRESBYTERIAN
FALL 2022
presbyterian.ca
By the Special Committee on Petitions 1 and 2, 2021
The 2022 General Assembly gave the Special Committee on Peti- tions 1 and 2, 2021, another year to listen to stories of Welcome and Not Welcome, of racism and hospitality, of marginalization and engagement within The Pres- byterian Church in Canada. We welcome people to tell their sto- ries—stories of what they have experienced themselves and sto- ries of what they have witnessed. The telling of these stories is scary, yet sacred work—and the Committee is honoured that indi- viduals would share these stories with us.
The Committee will add these stories to those we have heard over the last year as we develop a statement of confession about the racism and marginalization pre- sent in The Presbyterian Church in Canada at both an institutional level and at an individual level. This statement of confession will be presented to the 2023 General Assembly.
If you would like to tell your sto- ry to the Committee, you can con- tact us at the Committee’s secure email address: special.committee. pcc@gmail.com, or you can write to us at Special Committee, c/o 325 St. George St. W., Fergus,
Ont., N1M 1J4. We welcome writ- ten accounts, online conversa- tions, phone calls, and, given your location and comfor t level, even in-person storytelling. All stories will be kept confidential.
Our report to the 2022 Gen- eral Assembly suggested some ways to go forward as a church which seeks to be a community of people who live out the vision of Revelation 7:9: “[T]here before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every na- tion, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb [Jesus Christ].”
The church is to be a place where all people who follow Jesus, regardless of language or ethnicity, regardless of race or clan, regard- less of tribe or nation, are drawn into one community by their praise
and worship of Jesus Christ. How do we turn those words into something more than words?
The concept of thin relation- ships and thick relationships has been applied to a number of contexts. The idea is this: We all have thin relationships with some people; we know their name and their occupation, and maybe the car they drive. But we don’t know the person’s favourite restaurant, their preference in music or their dream vacation—such relation- ships are thin. A thick relation- ship, on the other hand, means a great deal is known about the oth- er person, including their hopes and dreams, and even their fears. The relationship is full of details, shared experiences and stories; it is a thick relationship.
Thin relationships lead us to
think of the other in stereotypi- cal ways. The person is the job they have or the car they drive, so that when they say something we find disagreeable, we dismiss not only what they have said, but are also dismissive of them as a person. In thick relationships, the differences we have with the other person are seen within the whole context of the relationship. The other person holds views we disagree with, but we have spent enough time together to discover they are a great person despite the disagreements.
Apply this idea to the margin- alization present in The Presby- terian Church in Canada. Clergy, congregational leaders and con- gregations in the PCC frequently have thin relationships with clergy, congregational leaders and con- gregations from ethnic and cultural backgrounds other than their own. We say: “Those are the Ghana- ians,” or “That is the Korean pastor from St. Andrew’s.” Rather than: “Let me introduce you to some of the people from the Ghanaian con- gregation,” and, “That is the Rev. Kim, they are a great person; you should get to know them.” Once the view of the other person moves from seeing them as part of a thin, surface-level “they” to a thick “I know them” understanding, the entire relationship changes; the
ways we speak to each other and about each other changes.
The responsibility for begin- ning the work of building thick relationships across the cultural lines in the church lies with the dominant culture in the denomi- nation. Clergy and congregational leaders of European descent are called to make the first move to- ward building thick relationships, committing themselves to contin- ually working on this. This can be done, for example, by getting to know the Korean-speaking con- gregation in the same commu- nity; inviting the African-Canadian pastor, who serves a dominant culture congregation, to have cof- fee; sitting with people of a dif- ferent culture than your own at a presbytery meeting; holding pres- bytery retreats, where the various ethnicities present are intention- ally mixed together; and so on.
The Special Committee chal- lenges clergy and congregational leaders of European descent to reach out and cross the lines of cultural division in an effort to build thick relationships with indi- viduals and congregations cultur- ally different from themselves.
For further reading, we rec- ommend Faithful Friendships: Embracing Diversity in Christian Community by Dana L. Robert (Eerdmans, 2019).
Connection
COMMITTEES
The Thin and Thick of It
Meet the New Committee Convener of Assembly Council
Hi! My name is Cherie Inksetter, and I am the minister at St. Giles Presbyterian Church in St. Catharines, Ont. I have been serving there since 2012, and I love what I do! I have been involved in the courts of the PCC since becoming an elder at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Carluke, in the Presbytery of Hamilton, many, many moons ago. I have been active in all levels of the church—most recently at the presbytery level, as clerk for the Presbytery of Niagara. I formerly served as Moderator of the Synod of Southwestern Ontario and served on the Assembly Council for the last three and a half years.
I have lived in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas all my life and am blessed to have most of my family here as well. I have three amazing children, who each have an amazing partner, and I have one grandson, Eli, who is the light of my life! I’m honoured to serve The Presbyterian Church in Canada as the Convener of the Assembly Council as we work for the benefit of the entire church.
New Resource: Baptism and Marriage Register
New hardcover Baptism and Marriage Registers are now available to order from the PCC for a cost of $30 each. This book is for recording baptisms and marriages and is designed for congregations and ministers adhering to either of the two protected definitions of marriage.
Throughout, the language reflects the church’s decisions on language and practice that should include all people. There are blank lined pages at the back of the book that can be used to record funerals and other pastoral rites.
Individual pages are free to download on the presbyterian.ca/certificates web page, available in English and soon to be available in French, Korean, Arabic and Chinese.
Orders can be placed by visiting presbyterian.ca/order or calling 1-800-619-7301 ext. 331.