Black and White

mareese, I'm curious if you can tell if you have a mixture of white and black members in your Church. I have not been to a Church where whites and blacks co-exist in the same congregation.

 

It's hard to find a black church here. I have never seen one. We do have some ethnic churches--Chinese, Korean, East Indian, etc. But then we have some of the same peoples in our own church--black, Philippinos, East Indian, Korean, Aboriganal, and others. Though the cultures of the peoples attending are very different, it doesn't stop us from worshipping one with another. The basis of our fellowship is: 1. Christ, and 2. doctrine.
DHK

 

The churches in Australia are multi cultural, I think its great, I suppose if there was a large group of Greeks in one area, the local church might be represented that way, but I am sure there would still be non greeks there.

 

Mareese,
I thought it was interesting what you stated about the relationship of a white female with a black member. So now my question is it wrong to have interracial relationships after all Moses did marry Zipporah.

 

No it is not wrong, the only unequal yoking is between a beliver and a non believer, if God gives a man a wife of a different race, yet she loves the Lord, that man has recieved the greatest blessing that God can give a man.

 

It is indeed sad that one of the most segrated places in America today is the church.

Thankfully, there are a lot of churches in our area that represent the diversity of our community. My own church has a nice mix of Anglos, Hispanics, and Blacks (which includes African Americans, Jamaicans, etc.).

One of the key ways to have a diverse church is to have a church staff that represents the community as well. However, I think that this is even more of a rarity than a diverse church.

 

I would feel very uncomfortable to be excluded from worship on account of skin colour or cultural background. Does this mean that a man of Hebrew/Jewish ethnicity would be given the cold shoulder in the USA or his mates because they were rough looking in their work gear.....

Oh my.....

 

Good response Mareese, and I agree up to a point. There are a huge number of advantages in multiculturalism and of course there is a down side which is ghettoing of subgroups which I am very anti. Naturally there will be associations for folk to get together in a social context, however people migrating to a new place should ber ACTIVELY DISCOURAGED in bringing their prejudices from their old home, this is not easy.

Welcome to Australia or USA or whever but leave behind the bad stuff you left in your old home country. Governments need to underscore this by language courses, particularly for those usually women confined to home because of small children etc.

I know churches in my city will often have Cantonese services for Lutheran members but all come together for fetes, songfests etc. to cite one example- welcome to Oz but we want you to become Ozzies. Being RC myself the Mass that I attend is in Latin so there is no need for vulgate services......one of the major advantages in retaining Latin I feel.