Dealing with different cultures in a church community isn’t easy.

The Rev. Eric Law should know. As an Episcopal priest working with different Christian churches in the United States and Canada for more than 10 years on multicultural ministry, he gives churches a “mixed report card” when it comes to achieving more culturally-inclusive communities.

“A lot of churches are beginning to recognize that multicultural ministry is an issue they’re not very good at addressing, and there’s frustration because they don’t know how to deal with it,” he said.

“What I’m talking about is enabling a parish community to deal with all kinds of differences—ethnic, racial, cultural and class—by observing, listening and inviting people to dialogue. It’s bringing people together to interact constructively and to achieve understanding.”

Law, the author of two books on developing multicultural communities whose methods have been used widely by leaders of Catholic, Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Methodist and Lutheran churches, presented four workshops in the Diocese of Sacramento March 4-11 with more than 400 participants from various parishes.

He walked participants through practical exercises to help them gain a better understanding of cultures and why there are cultural differences. He also focused on communication styles and perceptions of power and their effect on building inclusive communities, and skills and strategies parish leaders can use for multicultural ministry.

The Rev. Eric Law says the way Jesus dealt with cultural and class differences in his own time is the prototype for Christians facing the challenge of multicultural ministry today. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo

In an interview, Law said the way Jesus dealt with cultural and class differences in his own time is the prototype for Christians facing the challenge of multicultural ministry today.

“Like Christ, we must deal compassionately with and do justice to the people we meet, and often they are very different from who are already in our church communities,” he said. “We’re called as Christians to do this—not just because society says it’s the thing to do, but because we’re called by Christ to deal with people who are different. When we avoid this, we deny the call of the Gospel.”

A misperception about multicultural ministry is that it’s finding the middle ground among all the cultures in the parish, Law said. The ideal is not finding middle ground, “it’s the dance between the two” extremes of being multicultural all the time or not at all, he contended.

Some denominations have attempted what he calls an “above the iceberg” approach, intentionally combining different ethnic or cultural congregations in one church building to co-exist together. What these denominations have discovered, Law said, is that such an approach doesn’t address “what’s below the iceberg—this is the larger question.” Still other churches “are plain in denial about trying to build inclusive communities,” he added.

Law contends that by teaching church leaders some basic techniques to use with members of their communities, “you’re not pushing people together above the iceberg, but you’re being inclusive and it will be transforming.”

Techniques he suggests include:

• Respectful communication guidelines which all church members agree to honor, such as empathetic listening, being sensitive to communication styles, tolerating ambiguity and keeping confidentiality.

• Studying the Scriptures together, asking people to “allow the Gospel to challenge and affirm each culture differently.”

• Mutual invitation in group discussions, in which each participant shares and then invites another to share, so that the difference in the perception of personal power among the participants will be addressed.

Using these techniques in a parish to help make decisions about things such as worship practices and leadership structures can be a time-consuming and difficult process, but the reward “will be a true empowerment of people,” Law said.

“Each congregation has to figure out its own process of dialogue, communication and accountability to the different cultural groups, in raising up leaders and making sure all the communities within the larger community have equal power,” he said. “The goal is to teach local leaders to enable all in the community to dialogue and arrive at a structure that works for them.”

[Catholic Herald - This Issue]