This Sunday is our International Sunday - one day in the year when we make a special effort to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity that comes with a multi-cultural congregation. So what sort of things do we have planned for tomorrow? Hopefully there will be some who come in their national dress. We will sing some songs in languages other than English. We will acknowledge every country represented by name, and encourage the children to colour the relevant flags. And to round everything off we are having lunch together, and everyone has been encouraged to bring a national dish, which will have a flag in it, so (if we know our flags) we can know where it has come from.
So why do we have an International Sunday? Well, I think that multi-cultural church is biblical - where a church exists in a multi-cultural environment, that church should be multi-cultural. And to build a multi-cultural church you have to be intentional. And this Sunday is just one part of that jigsaw.
I don't believe that it is good enough to say, 'I'm colour blind - I don't see colour - I don't think of you as black, white ...' For whilst I am not defined by the colour of my skin, I can't deny who I am - and that is moulded by where I have come from, where I have grown up etc. And therefore it is wrong to think of everyone else as being just like me (and I believe that is often what is under-lying comments like, 'I don't see you as black...'
On International Sunday we acknowledge that we are all different (and this is as true with gender, age, class etc. as well as race) and yet we are all created in the image of God, we are all loved by God, and we are all a vital piece in the bigger picture. God wants to use me and God wants to use you. Wherever we are from we have something to bring to the table that will enrich life for us all.
