today’s guardian has a fabulous section on london which it claims in 2005 can lay claim to being the most diverse city ever. there is a map(pdf) and key which shows the locations of various communities and cultures which it is worth getting the paper for in itself. there are also lots of articles and features that are gathered together at what is britain?
the editorial calls for diversity and not segregation. i have been thinking a lot about this in the last few months and was reminded of it again following richard’s post. the editorial says
Such segregation is something which society and governments can change. True, a degree of "clustering" is helpful in consolidating a community’s culture. But communities which do not overlap or have meaningful interchanges, breed fear, distrust and division… … …There are all manner of small schemes that can provide bridges – school twinning, interfaith networks, cultural swap programmes.
the church is the body of christ of all nations and tribes and cultures down all the ages… the most globally diverse network possible. the vision of the future is of a global city. how well are we doing at providing a foretaste of the age to come in our churches and especially in our emerging churches? (it’s interesting to change the first sentence of the quote by replacing the words society and governments with churches).
Well said Jonny! Great stuff; and I can recommend the supplement and articles in the “Comment & Analysis” section of the newspaper. Huge questions for our nation and for the church. Arguably, the church is ahead of the game in addressing these issues and crossing cultural borders with mutuality. But at the same time, we reflect the segregation too in the ever-increasing ebb of vital church life to affluent suburbs.
I read part of the supplement this morning and found it fascinating. I was also drawn to an article in the main section of the newspaper about racial attacks on Orthodox Jews in London. This highlights more than anything the need for meaningful interchange within diversity.
bah! i was just about to blog about a fantastic suplement in today’s guardian about racial diversity in london and then saw that you have already done it! – one step ahead as ever!
hope you are well
thanks jonny. fantastic challenge for god’s people in a global culture and an important issue for the emerging missional church to be focussing on.
since moving onto a predominantly african american neighborhood seven months ago we have experienced the lingering segregation mlk jnr prophesied against. we’re trying to at least place ourselves in the inner city with the humble posture of missionaries (sensitive to the fact we are primarily learners). we are already enjoying the grace that comes with ‘meaningful interchanges’ and our hope is for our home and our lives to become places of cultural overlap. we haven’t done this alone…..members of our missional community have made neighborhoods like ours priority locations for renting/owning.
on a slightly different note, our bosnian (muslim) friends and our american (conservative christian) friends both think we are crazy for moving into the ‘hood. nice to see different people from different culture agreeing on something 🙂
Thanks for blogging on that article, it was interesting. I had over 4 years in London and found it very diverse, but not very multicultural. When cultures do meet it is freqently on the level of either anatagonism, or cultural tourism. Not sure how well the church deals with this to be honest.
“how well are we doing at providing a foretaste of the age to come in our churches and especially in our emerging churches?”
I’m not too sure ?
I think Zygmunt Bauman has something when he talks about ‘mixophobia’ which he says manifests itself in the drive towards islands of similarity and sameness admidst the sea of variety and difference.
I think a little too often the church mirrors that mixophobic tendency rather than challenge it. It is really healthy that you are flagging this up
Ive spent quite alot of time in London and I think I would probably agree that it is the most diverse place on earth, although to be fair I havent travelled to many of the places which could be used against that claim! Anyway another thing is that I really hope through the growth of emergent, labelled and unlabelled churches that ethnicity and diversity would be encouraged to break the white middle class trend which is so prevalent in the western church and was such a hurdle to my own salvation.
Anyway Im sure Ill read the article fuller when I go to get coffee and a free copy of the guardian…man im such a cheap student!
Liam
Aberdeen, Scotland