August 13thSuzanne Gross' presentation at as part of the Intercultural Panel at Gathering 2025
My lessons and observations in my intercultural work at Holyrood Mennonite Church.
I come to you this morning as a majority white culture, Swiss Mennonite cis-gendered 65+ woman – new pastor! That is my lens. I have been challenged and blessed by six decades of Intercultural teachings in my immigration resettlement work by good friends from so many cultures and faiths different from mine. But, as Doug mentioned, I will be sharing a story about Holyrood Mennonite Church. Holyrood grew from a Swiss Mennonite white congregation to a church with 2/3 African (mostly from Liberia) and 1/3 white European. Membership of 40.
My story: As their pastor I was informed that we were to plan a baby dedication for a baby born into an extended Liberian family! I thought perhaps I could team up with someone from the African tradition with a pastoring background – to make it more intercultural. I had a few ideas!! But I suspended my ideas until I met with the “family”. I learned that I needed to organize this through Thomas – the head of the family – the uncle to the woman who had given birth to a baby girl. And so I made myself available for a Saturday morning – at their house. It started with breakfast! A real feast. Then we moved to the living room and I shared my ideas. The only thing they really wanted was for the pastor to lead everything. One pastor. Otherwise it is confusing, especially for the guests! Intercultural presentation through pastoral leadership was absolutely not a priority. And I soon learned why: interculturalism lives in more than the pastoral leadership. Interculturalism lives with the worship leader – in the case of this Sunday, a Liberian brother who knew exactly how to welcome us on this special Sunday – especially the guests from Lofa County in Liberia. We have learned, over time to love to sing each others songs. And so, interculturalism lived in the songs we had chosen. In addition to two Traditional Liberian songs, I had proposed “I saw a Tree” and “Child of Blessing” – both songs that are not part of the Liberian Traditional repertoire. But Amie, the aunt of the mother, thought these were perfect for this child dedication Sunday, especially if “I saw a tree” was led by our 10-12 year old children in the music team – because they – her children! -- have “Canadian style voices” she said! 
Interculturalism lives in the unspoken assumptions about who family is, and “how” the family will come up for the ceremony – and our response when these assumptions are different from our plans! Family is a culturally driven concept. The guests that Sunday all saw themselves as family – all 12 of them! And they didn’t just come on up to join me, the pastor – with my well-planned out little ceremony. They spontaneously went to the back of the sanctuary started singing together, and walked up to the front singing in Kisi with dance moves. I had to step aside for all of this! And after the questions to the family and congregational commitment and blessing --- we had two more songs in Kisi shared by the Kisi women – our matricarchs! No sharing from the mother – the testimonials were in the songs themselves. This all evolved organically – outside of my – well – “control”! And whenever this happens, I say “Praise the Lord” and the people say, “Hallelujah!”
Interculturalism lived in the confidence the minority community had, that the minority-community-ways would be welcomed, integrated on the fly – that we could all trust that it will be exactly as it should be, thanks be to God! That the Holy Spirit would guide us. And afterwards everyone said it was a “beautiful” service.
Holyrood feels so thoroughly Anabaptist to me – the emphasis on love, peace, trust, affirmation, acceptance, shared leadership, shared burdens, generous inclusion of perspectives and most importantly – grace – grace that allows us to learn and grow together in unity! It lives in our shared musical repertoire which includes traditional hymns. Add to that the sharing of histories – shared in our Bible study conversations – our Bible studies are full of intercultural stories – farm stories from Tofield, war and peace stories from Liberia. We teach and learn as equal vessels on the journey of life centering God in Jesus.
For me, intercultural justice always involves bending by the majority power culture toward the minority culture – or a subset community! This can live and grow in a single congregation, or it can grow as we strengthen our Inter-church activities – be they Inter-Mennonite or Ecumenical. It means going out of our way to include – not in token ways, not as an afterthought -- but in substantive ways with those formative first conversations we have in the ordering of our community life. It is never a 50/50 proposition of give and take. That is transactional thinking.
Intercultural justice means remembering that God creates order out of Chaos --- not us! And Godly order must stem from the movement of the Spirit – which can feel unsettling!
The Holy Spirit lives in the “how” of our relationships, the “how” of our planning together. Again – if we think about our North American majority culture, the norm is transactional relationships --- which, when engaged in unconsciously – can be toxic. Transactional relationships – as I experience them -- do not grow out of love and respect. They grow out of “what I need from you to achieve our agenda” grounded in expectations and conditions and standards. That might feel fair, but it is not necessarily grounded in or prioritizing love and respect. Relational approaches, on the other hand, are essentially covenantal, rooted in sacrificial love, where we prioritize each other’s well-being above our own. Interculturalism thrives in relationship-first thinking and behaving.
Interculturalism thrives when we remember that many cultures are oral cultures --- no doodle polls. No organizing through detailed emails. No reading documents in detail ahead of time before meetings. Phone calls, texts, Zoom gatherings, whatsap calls and in-person coming together is how it works. Oral summaries by trusted leaders for decision making guide discussions.
Creating intercultural spaces and experiences for unity, demands flexibility and grace --- trying new ways of being together and organizing together --- all the time! Just like in the exciting and evolving book of Acts – with Peter and Cornelius, with Paul and Lydia, with Philip and the Ethiopian – intercultural growing together is sacred work.