North American
Pacific/Asian Disciples

Reconciliation

The World We Live In:
Gifts from the past, Hope for the future
The Importance of Reconciliation Ministries

Our world is a vastly different one than the world of generations before us. We have some fundamental rights that our parents did not have. We celebrate the fact that we are beneficiaries of the civil rights and farm workers movements, the Immigration Act of 1964 and the increased embrace of cultural identity. Going out for dinner, we choose between Thai, Japanese and Middle Eastern. We vacation in the Caribbean, Belize, Guatemala, and Russia. Our relationships are a blend of culture, nationality and economic background. We want to reach across boundaries. As a result, our generations are facing different questions regarding race relations.

Despite much progress, we know boundaries still exist. There continue to be roadblocks that stop us from being able to fully embrace one another’s cultures. They are not concrete though. The challenges of race relations today do not involve immediate physical violence or the palpable dehumanization of Jim Crow or anti-immigrant laws. They are subtle and often done without awareness:

• When do we intentionally attend events that give voice to the concerns of a particular culture or ethnic perspective?
• How often do we reflect on the church meeting we’ve convened (even with a diversity of cultures at the table)?
• Does the silence from one member of the group mean they have nothing to say or rather a cultural value of respecting time before speaking?
• Do we rely on forms of leadership training that might miss out on people with limited English skills or people outside of our (predominantly white) denomination’s higher educational structure?

These barriers are the result of subtle but still present forms of systemic racism. Without addressing these systems head-on, we will never be able to fully appreciate one another’s cultural context. We will all continue to suffer. We must have a better cultural understanding of our systems in place and the areas that could benefit from new perspectives and revolutionary thinking!

We have listened to the biblical story of how Jesus touched and transformed the woman from Samaria and the Roman centurion, or when Peter gave the good news to the Ethiopian. They did not expect these new followers to check their culture at the door. Our generation understands that reality and the next generation will understand it even better. Right now, we are called to wrestle with how we treat one another in a society designed to force us into one mold. We are called to work together by God to embrace all manifestations of humanity with respect and dignity. We are called because the world is getting smaller. We are called to be in solidarity with the struggles, celebrations and lives of all our neighbors.

—Sandhya Jha serves as Minister of Transformation in the Northern California/Nevada Region. She is also Co-Moderator of Reconciliation Mission Commission.
— April Lewton is a Divinity student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. Currently she serves as Moderator of the North American Pacific Asian Disciples (NAPAD).