Dear Brothers and Sisters, – Please add this to our Diocese of Montreal messages. I don’t see it on the diocese of Montreal page – though I might have missed it.
The Dream baby dream poster is charming and beautiful. I won’t post it in our church, though, unless it is to jump-start yet another discussion on the Church and racism. It’s a beautiful poster. I watched the video, which most won’t be able to do in our church, not having computer access. So, the image presented to most of us is a white baby, cute as the dickens, with a bishop’s mitre. The multicultural aspect improves on the video, although the child who is most obviously a child ‘of colour’ simply bounces and slides in and out a few times.
The idea for the poster is marvellous. I would like to think that in our church of 2019, we would automatically create a poster that reflected beyond the ‘white’ nature of our church to its multicultural reality – babies (if we are using the images of babies who will grow into our church of the future) of Aboriginal, Black, Asian, western European descent… three or four babies, in other words…
A marvellous image and idea and yet it saddens me. In fact, I did use it in a sermon – and asked what the poster said to our congregation about the church’s vision of 2019. The first to respond to what might be ‘wrong’ with the image was a nine-year-old boy whose parents are of Caribbean (Black) descent and Cambodian. He said, “the baby’s white.” We talked about the issues of what we want the church to be in 2019. About inclusion. About awareness. About difference.
In 2019, we hope to see our leadership reflecting all aspects of our church. We hope to see a church in which we automatically reach out to, and respect, everyone.
We hope for a church In which the voices of poor and marginalized are heard. In which we work together to bring about justice for all. The Church will recognize that the voices of the marginalized will only be heard if those with power reach out to help the voiceless gain confidence and know the value of their say in our church.
We would also like to see a church that continues to ask questions and to minister from within the questions, that is willing to live in uncertainty and to trust that God is bigger than any of our images, words, fears. That God is love, and that more and more we will reflect that love to the world.
I’m not sure that the last issue would be of concern to every member of our parish, but I would like to see more inclusive language liturgy – as we find in our new hymn bookas well as more creative liturgy.
Roslyn Macgregor, Priest in the Diocese of Montreal (of a multicultural parish St. Cuthbert, St. Hilda and St. Luke) and of the multicultural, multilingual Mile End Community Mission)
