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Note #8818 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05390
July 22, 2005

Cote of many colors 

1,100 at conference envision a multi-hued, multicultural PC(USA)

by Evan Silverstein

NEW YORK - Cotton Memorial Presbyterian Church, in Henderson, NC, was founded
in the late 1800s to give former slaves a place to worship.

	It was part of a larger effort by two white Pennsylvania ministers to
improve health and educational facilities for blacks in the small town in
rural eastern North Carolina.

	The ministers worked with the Freeman's Bureau, established by
Congress in 1865 to protect the interests of former slaves.

	"At one time we had a church, a hospital, and a school that were all
interconnected, and they were the only places that blacks could go to get
healthcare or go to school," the Rev. Todd Hester, Cotton Memorial's pastor,
said during a recent visit to Manhattan.

	The 33-year-old minister, his wife and their two daughters are the
only white people in the 100-member congregation. 

	But that may be changing. The church is trying to attract whites and
Latinos to its pews.

	That's why Hester traveled to New York City last week for the
first-ever Churchwide Transformation and Multicultural Connection of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

	"We are already tangibly doing some multicultural things, and
attending this conference was a way to pick up some more information on how
to do that even better and to network with people who have already gone
further down the path than we have," said Hester, a native of tiny Travelers
Rest, SC. 

	Cotton Memorial's turn toward inclusiveness came just after Hester
and a church elder attended last year's PC(USA) Multicultural Conference near
Dallas, TX.

	To reach out to the rapidly growing Latino community, the church is
planning to offer English-language classes and may incorporate Spanish music
into worship. It also hopes to start parenting classes to attract white and
Latino worshippers and new African-American members.

	"There are a number of people at our church that really have a
conviction that the kingdom of heaven is not one color or another, or one
socio-economic stratum or another," Hester said. "We really are trying to
make that a reality."

	Hester was one of about 1,100 Presbyterians at the conference -
including people of Asian, Hispanic, African and Middle Eastern heritage -
who envision a church enriched by inclusion of a broad spectrum of races and
cultures.

	"It is a church that is engaged in the world," said Rick
Ufford-Chase, moderator of the PC(USA)'s 216th General Assembly and a speaker
at the event. "It is a church that has worship that is vibrant and open to
the traditions of the entire world."

	The four-day symposium at Columbia University earlier this month
brought together church members and clergy, representatives of middle
governing bodies and others interested in or engaged in church transformation
and multicultural ministry. 

	All were there to exchange ideas, share experiences, attend
workshops, listen to expert speakers, network with colleagues and come
together in worship. 

	Participants from abroad included a group from the Presbyterian
Church of Taiwan. The executive committee of the PC(USA)'s General Assembly
Council took time off from a retreat elsewhere in New York to attend opening
worship.

	Speakers and workshop leaders addressed such issues as how to get a
transformation under way; how to develop leaders in multicultural ministry;
how to adapt to changing demographics; and how to create transformational
worship.

	"They're getting a sense of hope that it can be done," said the Rev.
Steve Boots, a conference organizer. "They're getting it not only from the
keynoters, the workshop leaders, the worship; they're getting it from each
other. That's one of the purposes of this conference - to bring people
together to share those visions."

	The event combined two always-well-attended annual PC(USA)
conferences: The National Multicultural Conference and the Churchwide
Transformation gathering. The merger made sense, organizers said, because
church transformation and multicultural ministry go hand-in-hand.

	Boots said the big crowd was "an affirmation of the fact that people
in the church are ready for transformation, ready for becoming a
multicultural congregation."

	Conference presenters challenged participants to live out Christ's
vision by taking risks, crossing social, cultural, religious and racial
barriers to create a Pentecost church and demonstrate the transforming power
of the gospel. 

	The Rev. Cynthia Rigby, a professor at Austin Presbyterian
Theological Seminary, said Christians are called to "bear witness to God's
radical hope" for change.

	"We talk about salvation, and we talk about God's grace, and we talk
about God's hope, the hope of transformation, the hope of resurrection, in a
way that is premised on this idea of change," she said.

	Cultural change, especially shifting demographic patterns, has
profound implications for many congregations. Some have responded by
retrenching and going into "survival mode," but others are embracing the
changes.

	Church transformation, once known in the PC(USA) as church
"redevelopment," takes many forms, speakers said. Sometimes it requires a
fundamental overhaul of a church's mission and ministry, and sometimes it's
as simple as a session retreat to fine-tune existing programs.

	Often, the seeds of redevelopment take time to germinate, many said.

	The event's theme,Witnessing to God's Radical Hope (Luke 24:2-5), was
a reminder that God has plans for everyone, even when it isn't clear where or
how to start.	

	"The challenges are huge, and no one in this room is an expert on how
we're going to become that new thing that God is trying to work in us,"
Ufford-Chase said. "We know that ... once size doesn't fit all, don't we?
Multicultural and transformed is going to look different in different places
for different people."

	Multicultural congregations are increasingly vital to the
denomination. By the year 2056, sociologists say, the majority of the U.S.
population will be non-European and non-white. Already, Asians, Africans and
Hispanics make up one-fourth of the population.

	Multicultural churches are those that incorporate the cultural
traditions and dimensions of more than one ethnic or racial group.

	PC(USA) officials believe the denomination has more than 1,900
congregations (out of 11,200) that relate to at least one multicultural
church model, said the Rev. Raafat Girgis, associate for the PC(USA)'s Office
of Evangelism, Racial and Cultural Diversity (ERCD), a conference co-sponsor.
 
	"This is a nurturing process, and growing every day, and there is no
specific model - there are many," he said.

	Some of the models: bi-lingual or bi-cultural congregations;
congregations with one cultural majority and significant influence from other
cultures; congregations with no single cultural majority; new churches
starting out in multicultural neighborhoods.

	Another model is that of "nesting" churches, which provide homes for
congregations of different cultures, a practice at John Knox Presbyterian
Church in Marietta, GA. A Brazilian Presbyterian church worships in the
fellowship hall of the predominately white congregation.
 
	"We came here to get ideas about how we can take the next steps in
our relationship with the (Brazilian church), because there aren't any maps
out there," said the John Knox pastor, the Rev. Fritz Bogar. "We also think
we have a story to tell, and so we want to share what we are doing because we
think it's important."

	Thao Giang, a 21-year-old Vietnamese-American, said she would go home
with a challenge for her fellow worshippers at the Church of All Nations in
Minneapolis, MN, a 200-member multicultural congregation chartered last year.
Most of its members are Korean and African immigrants, although it has some
Euro-American members. 

	Giang said there is more work to be done.

	"I want to challenge our congregation to stop being who we are and
learn other people's culture," she said. "I think it's great to challenge our
faith to step out of our comfort zone and embrace other people's culture,
their way of living."

	Giang said the Minneapolis church has an immigrant ministry, an
African choir, and "special Sundays" featuring foods indigenous to members'
homelands.

	"On Easter Sunday we may eat Korean food, and then on Pentecost
Sunday we may eat food from Kenya," said Giang, adding that it's not unusual
for worshippers to attend services wearing traditional native garb.  

	Giang, a former Buddhist who converted to Christianity three years
ago, said the strong turnout for the conference made her optimistic that the
overwhelmingly white PC(USA) has a more colorful future.  

	"The majority of people here are Caucasian, but they are all here
willing to change their congregations, and I think that's very inspiring,"
said Giang, who leads a multicultural campus ministry at the University of
Minnesota.

	A spirited opening worship included praise bands and dancers whose
performances were broadcast on large screens. Dancers helped the audience
turn the hall into a multicolored sea of twirling scarves intended to reflect
the vibrant face of multicultural transformation.

	"So far, I'm learning that we shouldn't be afraid to venture out,"
said the Rev. Andrew Aboagye, pastor of a fellowship of Ghanaian immigrants
in Columbus, OH. "We should take the risk. We should break barriers and just
lunge out. I'm being very much encouraged, because the group that I pastor is
a little bit closed (to change) and they don't understand."

	The gathering was sponsored by the Presbyterian Multicultural
Network, the Evangelism Racial and Cultural Diversity Office, the Network for
Churchwide Transformation, the Office of Congregational Transformation, Stony
Point Conference Center and the Office of the General Assembly. A number of
local sponsors also were involved in planning, including the Synod of the
Northeast and presbyteries of New York City, The Palisades, Long Island,
Hudson River, Newark and Elizabeth. 

	During opening worship, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of
the General Assembly, said: "I believe God is calling us in the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) to go far by going together, to be a church that welcomes and
encourages the small church and the large church, that encourages people of
every race and tongue and nation among us."

	Attendees were warned that making an inclusive church won't be easy.
Bible-study leader Rodger Nishioka, said the challenge facing the
transforming church is witnessing to Christian values in a culture of
"consumerism, of selfishness, of hopelessness, of sin, of death, of
destruction, of convenience."

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