A Theology of Multi-Ethnic Church and Worship: From Global Church to Local Church

by Chris Padiath

As a result of immigration, congregations in urban cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver can be described as mosaics. We celebrate the PAOC’s mono-ethnic churches that were planted across our nation by first-generation immigrants in order to preserve culture-specific traditions, language, and expressions of worship and to pass on these values to the next generation. At the same time, we cannot ignore the fact that people from the nations of the world are at our doorstep. Our PAOC churches must embrace diverse peoples and discover together what it means to be a multi-ethnic church. This requires us to move from our current practice of representation into the future practice of integration. Click here to read the full article.

This article appeared in the April/May/June 2021 issue of testimony/Enrich, a quarterly publication of The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. © 2021 The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. Visit www.testimonyenrich.ca for more article content or to subscribe.

Photo courtesy Waterloo Pentecostal Assembly.

Photo: Worship service in progress before the pandemic.