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Connection
COMMITTEES
The Church Dinner
presbyterian.ca
SPRING 2023
PRESBYTERIAN
13
  By the Special Committee, re. Petitions 1 and 2, 2021
At St. Matthew’s Presbyterian Church, dinners take place this way. The planning committee, all members of the dominant culture, bring all the food, set the tables, decide on the table decorations, and determine that tickets will be sold for the meal and what the price will be. To this meal, peo- ple in the church who are of other cultures are invited to attend as guests, being served and eating what is set before them.
At St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church, the planning committee, made up entirely of members of the dominant culture, plans eve- rything about the meal. They do invite/tell the Koreans to bring kimchi (even though it is an unu- sual choice to put with ham and scalloped potatoes) and the Ara- bic speakers are asked to bring tabouli. Instead of tickets, there is a basket for donations with a sign indicating the suggested dona- tion. The members of the domi- nant culture are pleased with their graciousness in having space on the buffet table for some food from other places in the world.
At St. Luke’s Presbyterian
Church, the church dinner is planned by a committee, some of whom are from cultural groupsotherthanthedominant culture. But there are not many “other” voices at the table. Eve- ryone realizes the meal will be very much as it always has been when someone from the domi- nant culture says, “Some of that food from other places in the world smells strange. We need to avoid that kind of food at this din- ner.” The donation basket keeps disappearing only to be replaced. “The food isn’t free to make,” is said by those who replace the basket.
At St. John’s Presbyterian Church, the whole committee is in the kitchen, everyone is a chef, it is chaotic and confusing, but an amazing fusion meal is put out on the table to be enjoyed by all. Everyone is exposed to the food of the other. The meal takes time to prepare. Mistakes are made, some fusion dishes don’t work, but a surprising number do. While the kitchen is a disaster to clean up, people develop relationships across cultures. The donation basket never made it out to the table but as one committee mem- ber laughingly said, “We were too
busy learning and growing to care about that.” More seriously, anoth- er committee member said, “It’s thechurch;itisallaboutgrace,so of course the meal was free.”
Obviously, these are metaphors for the ways congregations and The Presbyterian Church in Can- ada, as a whole, engage with the multi-ethnic reality of the denomi- nation. When congregations and the denomination function like St. Matthew’s, St. Mark’s and even St. Luke’s, there is little chance for the church to benefit from the richness and diversity of the spiritual food that a multicultural dynamic brings to the church. Only when the mul- ticultural dynamic is allowed into the places where the real deci- sions are made is there any hope for the church to experience the blessing of being a multi-ethnic church. Great courage and a will- ingness to risk are necessary if The Presbyterian Church in Cana- da is to be a foreshadowing of “the people of every tribe and language and ethnicity gathered around the One who sits on the throne and of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9).
Jesus frequently unseats the host from their position of secu- rity, inviting the host to become guest. God hosts the banquet,
turning everyone else into a guest. The calling of the gospel is for the dominant culture in the church to take up the precarious position of being the guest. In doing so, the members of the dominant culture are invited to exercise the same grace and humility guests are ex- pected to live by. Both guest and host find themselves on an equal footing as guests at Jesus’ table. To be a guest means learning to take the lead from the host, which includes showing welcome to the other guests at the table. The oth- ers at the table are guests the host has chosen to invite, even though we ourselves might not have cho- sen to invite them. We are all at the table together. Jesus’ table has only one host and all the rest are guests.
The Special Committee on Lis- tening, Confession and Associa-
tions was established by the 2022 General Assembly to hear stories of welcome and not welcome. To that end, the committee very much hopes to hear from individuals and groups in the church who have stories to tell of marginalization and of welcome, of being cared for and of being ostracized. We are ready to hear stories of what individuals themselves have expe- rienced and stories of what people have witnessed. To tell your story, please contact the Special Com- mittee at special.committee.pcc@ gmail.com. This email address is confidential; it is accessed only by the Rev. Linda Park and the Rev. Peter Bush, co-conveners of the committee.
For more information about the committee or to tell your story, contact the committee through special.committee.pcc@gmail.com
work required to bring a college up to university standards, and it is too much. Given a chance, the Malawian church could achieve their dream, but without help they’d never get that chance.
International Ministries, with Glynis’s commitment, suppor ted the dream for ZTU. Star ting in 2016, Glynis walked with the CCAP leadership. At times she has been the friend who asks impor tant questions. When lead- ers despaired of achieving the dream, Glynis offered a word of suppor t and tangible signs of The Presbyterian Church in Can- ada’s ongoing friendship. And sometimes, the tangible signs of support have come in the form of financial support.
When ZTC officially became ZTU in the fall of 2022, just as Glynis was retiring, the staff and faculty of the college wanted to honour her and the relationship with the PCC. A local artist was commissioned, and the one- of-a-kind portrait was given to Glynis at her retirement.
 Zomba Recognizes Glynis Williams
 By the Rev. Blair Bertrand, international mission staff
Why should the church be excit- ed about a portrait of the Rev. Dr. Glynis Williams, recently retired Associate Secretary of Interna- tional Ministries?
Perhaps “excited” is not the right word, since por traiture doesn’t usually excite. Glynis would not want anyone focus- ing on a painting of her. Her work has been about the people, the ministry, the partnerships. The more we focus on her, she would argue, the less we are focusing on the important service of doing God’s work in the relationship that exists between people.
And it is Glynis’s emphasis on the relationship between people and churches that is the reason
we might pay attention to this portrait a bit more. At their best, por traits honour someone who has done the time, who has put in the work, and, while not flashy, got the results. While not flashy, Glynis has done the work and she got results.
The painting of Glynis comes from the staff and faculty of the newly minted Zomba Theological University (ZTU) in Zomba, Ma- lawi. In 2016, the Church of Cen- tral Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) had a dream. They wanted ZTC to become more. As a university it could offer degrees at both the Masters and Doctoral levels. ZTU hoped that it could appeal to a broader range of students, ulti- mately becoming the preeminent theological school in the country.
Dreams take a lot of work.
Kawonga Chitsulo and Chuma with the portrait of the Rev. Dr. Glynis Williams.
RECOGNITIONS
And, in the case of a college be- coming a university, that work can be complex. The Board of Trustees had to work through myriad governance changes to align with best practices. The Governing Council had to work with the government to secure the appropriate permissions. And most painstaking, the staff
and faculty had to meet the ex- acting standards set out by the National Council of Higher Edu- cation (NCHE).
This work costs money. The CCAP struggles to meet payroll each month. Extra expenses, like meetings and government applications, are a burden on the church. Add in the years of































































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