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Editorial:
Thinking about the common good? From
the director: Untold stories Faith
and Politics After Christendom Comment:
Doing the Right Thing Give
Generously and Change the World? Economics
and the Common Good Interview
with Jim Wells (MLA): Polishing our Cars Review:
No Longer Strangers Division
and Diversity: Churches in a plural society Buying
in - Opting out Interview
with Fr Mariusz Dabrowski: Meet the neighbours Questions
& Answers: Reader survey responses Review:
Mark: Gospel of Action Bible
Study: The Common Good Difficult
Conversations: Let's talk about tax... |
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From the Editor: In response to readers’ requests we’ve chosen to highlight several publications relating to issues around immigration and the increasing cultural and religious diversity on this island. THE ISSUE OF ASYLUM and Immigration is comprehensively addressed in the book Asylum and Immigration, a Christian Perspective on a Polarised Debate by Nick Spencer, Paternoster Jubilee Centre, 2004. Though statistics, and legislation, can be out of date as soon as they hit the page, this book gives careful consideration to a notoriously slippery subject (based on UK examples), clarifying language and seeking to focus on the underlying principles of the debate. The extensive sections addressing biblical teaching on issues such as nationhood, ethnicity and the treatment of the “alien” or stranger in the community’s midst, make it widely applicable and a real aid to getting to grips with these issues. On a different tack, Stephen Skuce’s The Faiths of Ireland, Columba Press, 2006, explores and explains the faith of newcomers and some longer established non-Christian faith communities, while also unearthing intriguing stories of Irish interaction with people of other faiths in the past. It is a valuable and interesting look at the contemporary religious landscape of Ireland and increases understanding of other faiths. But how do Christian “new residents” fit in to the religious landscape? For some, the answer has been to establish their own churches alongside the existing denominations. Others have chosen the path of integration in the Irish churches. Mercia Malcolm takes a look at a publication exploring the issues and challenges of integration in this context… No Longer Strangers. Cultural Integration in Church and Society in Ireland. A Doctrine and Life Special, Dominican Publications (Oct 2006). This special issue of the Dominican Publications’ journal, edited and introduced by Bernard Treacy O.P., reflects upon the experiences of a growing number of congregations in the Republic of Ireland, mainly from the Protestant denominations, and the challenges and enrichment brought about by the influx in recent years of new members from immigrant communities. Tony Walsh, a lecturer in Adult and Community Education in NUI, Maynooth, begins by considering, “The Trauma of Cultural Displacement”. Two further chapters reflect on the direct experiences of people in culturally diverse Christian communities in Ireland and the changes produced by those experiences in both church and society. There is inevitably considerable overlap here, but he offers a clear analysis of the process of change and of the challenges and excitements involved. In the most extended chapter, “The Ephesian Moment: the Possibilities of Cultural Reconciliation in a Cosmopolitan Environment” Alan Martin, a retired Presbyterian minister, formerly of Abbey Church in Dublin, analyses the way communities of the early church grappled with cultural diversity and issues of integration, finding the greatest vision of integration when the dividing walls are broken down by the reconciling power of the cross. It is a thought provoking and stimulating vision of how openness to transcultural experiences can transform both the church and the surrounding society. An examination of the sociological factors that facilitate integration – proximity, equality, authority and a sense of the common good – frames the discussion of what happened in the early church and what is happening in modern-day Ireland. The key point is that proximity alone is not enough to produce good relationships between culturally diverse groups. Indeed, simply mixing people together can have very negative results, fostering low-level racism or sectarianism and subtly reinforcing divisions. The distinctively Christian elements of forgiveness and repentance are seen as essential to the reconciliation which can unite people of very different cultural backgrounds and experiences. Anne Ryan, the head of the Department of Adult and Community Education at NUI, Maynooth, contributes a helpful chapter describing different approaches to engagement. These are assimilation, which eliminates difference through absorption, multi-culturalism which retains the distinct identities of cultures and inter-culturalism, in which identities are retained by promoting understanding between cultures and transculturalism, which promotes interaction, leading to change in each culture that enhances all the cultures involved. Transculturalism is the most difficult level of engagement to achieve, but she provides a very inspiring vision of the benefits attached to such risky engagement. Sahr Yambasu, a teacher of theology from Sierra Leone, now Methodist minister in Galway, contributes a fascinating Bible study on the encounter between Peter and Cornelius, called “Embracing the Different Other”, using some of the categories of encounter offered by Miroslav Volf in his book, Exclusion and Embrace. This timely and stimulating book reveals that while it is unsettling to face challenges to accepted norms in the encounter with those from other cultures, where work, thought and care are employed in “embracing the different other” it can be an enriching and positive experience for all. This little book gives ample evidence that the benefits far outweigh any difficulties. |
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