Cultural Mapping
By Rachel Chan and Leah Mernaugh Bergman
Our friendship once again blossomed over a book: This time, it was The Culture Map by Erin Meyer. For Rachel, who works on international teams in a corporate space, it was the tools for effective communication with colleagues from across the world. For Leah, a PhD student in Cultural Anthropology, it was the fresh reminder that we see ourselves more clearly through the recognition and appreciation of human difference. A Kaleo topic was born.
Why care about cultural differences?
Cultural intelligence, or understanding and valuing human differences, helps us not only in business, but also in our day-to-day relationships. As Christians, who affirm the inherent dignity and value of all humans, and who seek to see and show Christ’s love in the world, the invitation is especially strong. How can cultural awareness change the ways we know and love others? How do these experiences help us to know and love God?
Cultural trends, like those described in The Culture Map, are tools, not rules, and it's so important that we don't unconsciously confine others (and ourselves) to our context. The world changes fast, and all the time. While no typology or chart can really capture our unique and shared orientations to the world, tools like these can break us from the assumption of the right way to be, and help us to see more of the different ways we can be. Such knowledge helps us build relationships of lovingkindness with each other.
Culture isn’t just about international differences. Our “cultural trends” aren't just from the country we grew up in, but also who we grew up with, and everything that happens in between. We can thrive in international business and still struggle to communicate well within the bewildering cultural norms of our in-laws down the street!
At Kaleo, we talked about perspectives that are informed by our world view, our context, and what differing levels of directness, confrontation, and expressiveness may look like.
A matter of context
One of these perspectives compares high context vs. low context. Low-context communication values directness, explicitness, and lots of explanation to make sure we’re all on the same page. It flourishes in countries like the US and Canada, which have been shaped by generations of immigration: As people from very different contexts try to live in proximity, clarity is key and repetition is appropriate. In Canada, we learn to write papers to: 1) say what you’re going to say (introduction), say it (content), and then summarize what you’ve said (conclusion).
In a high-context environment, you’ll probably need a measure of (often unspoken) background for something to make sense. This is common where generations of people haved lived in the same place. When you know all the norms of your society and know what to expect from people, communication can be more subtle. Lots of explanation or repetition can even be seen as condescending! But this kind of communication can happen anywhere: think inside jokes with your family or a close-knit friend group. If you have to explain it, it’s just not fun anymore.
Why does this difference matter? Consider this story from Leah:
I grew up in the Catholic Church and attended mass with my family, but as a teenager all my friends went to a seeker-sensitive evangelical church. As I spent time in both worlds, it was soon clear that members of each church had a lot of negative stereotypes about the other. Friends and leaders in the Catholic Church warned me that evangelicals were too shallow, too out-of-touch with tradition, and have watered down Christianity. Friends and leaders from the evangelical church warned me that Catholics were so lost in ritual and tradition that they’ve lost the point of the Gospel. One person recalled, “I visited a Catholic Church once and didn’t have a clue what was going on. How is anyone supposed to learn about Jesus there?”
Knowledge of cultural differences can challenge our stereotypes. What if we looked at the Catholic Church as a high-context culture? As in any family or community that draws from a deep shared history, the Catholic service is for Catholics. Outsiders are certainly welcome, but full incorporation requires learning and knowing the responses and liturgies. That’s because there is a depth of intimacy that comes from the rhythm of lifelong participation and building on knowledge over time.
And what if we saw seeker-sensitive evangelical churches through the lens of a low-context culture, lovingly crafted to reach people from a number of diverse backgrounds? Like a high-immigration city trying to be welcoming and comprehensible to its newest members, such churches value evangelism and take pride in a simple, shared language that gets to the heart of the Good News they’re trying to communicate.
Even as these churches represent the same faith, the way their worship looks is different, in part, because they assume different default levels of knowledge from the people who participate on a given Sunday. Without that wider perspective, we might miss out on what our sisters and brothers in the faith might have to teach us, and the richness of the different ways we can worship and meet God.
Going further with self-knowledge
Even as we compare and contrast macro or micro cultural trends, it's important that we use what we learn first in self-evaluation. Considering for example:
What is good communication to me?
How do I show that I am listening or that I am polite?
How do I navigate disagreements respectfully? Are these ways public or private?
Does conflict represent trust and unity or an eroding of relationships to me?
Does silence from other people feel like warm openness (that someone is listening carefully) or does it feel cold (that someone doesn't care)? What about silence from God?
It's through our relationships that we learn to love and be loved. And through knowing and loving others who are different from us, we might catch a glimpse of how amazing it is that God can speak and relate to all of us, in all our beautiful and bewildering diversity.
Reflections From a Lay-Delegate on ANiC Synod 2023
By Emily Charter
Synod 2023 is a wrap! It was a week full of worship, training seminars, connecting conversations, celebrating milestones, and future planning.
In case you don’t already know me, I work for the Table Church as the Administrator. I’ve also been attending The Table for more than seven years now. This year I attended Synod as a lay-delegate (that is, a participant who is not a member of the clergy) representing our local parish. The Table doesn’t often send lay-delegates to Synod, but there are lots of reasons that it’s important for our community to send lay-leaders to events like this.
So, what IS Synod?
Synod is an annual assembly (literally, the Greek meaning of the word synodos is “assembly”) for those within our national diocese, the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), to gather for training, edification, and some business. Think our Table Annual General Meeting, but for 4 days, and with a lot more robes and vestments.
This past Fall, between November 14 and 17, more than 200 clergy and lay-delegates from across Canada gathered in Vancouver at the Church of the Good Shepherd for a sort of “state of the union” gathering: it was also a significant year because we held an Episcopal Election to elect a new Suffragan Bishop for Western Canada.
noun. episcopal /əˈpiskəp(ə)l/
of a bishop or bishops; (of a Church) governed by or having bishops
noun. suffragan bishop /ˈsəfrəɡən/
a bishop appointed to help a diocesan bishop
This was of special interest to us in Victoria, and we may receive a visit from our newly elected Bishop, Mike Stewart, at the Table in the near future! You can learn more about ANiC’s bishops here.
Sent by Jesus
The theme for the week was “Sent by Jesus,” guided by John 20:21 - “Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you’.” Our special focus was on evangelism, and especially on how to share the good news of Jesus in an ever-changing cultural landscape. The consensus in the teaching was two-fold: we must continually innovate to meet the challenges of the day, while remaining faithful to the word of the Lord, trusting that ultimately, our work comes second to the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Our Diocesan Bishop, Reverend Dan Gifford, presided over the events of the week, and shared many stories of new and continuing ministries across our national diocese, from coast to coast. It was exciting to hear about the many and varied ministries breaking ground in surprising ways!
Takeaways
You may have joined the Table because you grew up in the Anglican church; but if you’re new (or new-ish) to Anglicanism, it’s worth learning about those characteristics that unite global Anglicans. We have a few copies of “The Anglican Way” by Thomas McKenzie in the Table library, if you ever want to borrow one. Or, take a really fast crash course on ANiC’s website.
Let Andy know if you’re interested in attending a future Synod as a lay-delegate! It’s a fascinating look behind the scenes, and a great way to participate in the life of our national church.
The Whip and Sparrow: Jesus' Surprising Teaching on Money
By Jacob Buurma
The Whip and Sparrow
Secular books about personal finances tend to focus on techniques to acquire wealth. Many Christian authors also focus on the same. Or perhaps they tout ‘timeless principles’ that feel like heavy burdens. The principles themselves may be worthy but come off sounding like a long list of obligations.
I find it more helpful to start in a more basic place: What did Jesus know about money, and what kept him worry free?
Two images stand out to me as opposite poles for Jesus’ teaching on money. The first is the whip he made in the temple: Jesus’ surprisingly violent reaction to greed. The second is the sparrow of the sermon on the mount: Jesus’ worry-free attitude towards money – something he both taught and lived.
The Whip
The only place where Jesus gets violent is the moment when he clears the temple. Every gospel records it, which means it’s essential to the Jesus story.
Three of the four gospels also record Jesus being whipped during the crucifixion. So the man who received the whip - and in divine forbearance said “Father, forgive them” – is also the one who takes up a whip when he sees temple dishonoured. What a contrast! But it’s crucial to note that the blows he delivers are not at people but at a situation.
Why does Jesus take out the whip? On one level, Jesus wants to remove commercial distraction from worship. And he gets violent against business practices that take advantage of others. Many of the business virtues we hold sacred, that grease the wheels of capitalism and grow the economy – can be the very things Jesus rails against. There is a fine line between making a sustainable profit and predatory one.
But Jesus is not merely clearing a physical temple. There is an invisible battle as well. As Origen wrote, “Jesus overturns the tables in the souls of those fond of money”. He raises his whip against the spiritual power of greed. He snaps against the prosperity gospel, which teaches that success with money is at the center of God’s word. Jesus does hand-to-hand combat with Mammon.
Mammon is simply the Aramaic word for “property”. It does not mean wealth or affluence. It simply means our worldly possessions, whether they are many or few. More broadly, Mammon is “any personal or spiritual force that rules us.”
It’s helpful to do regular Mammon detection. Watch for these hallmarks of Mammon in and around you:
Insatiable. Os Guiness notes that the Hebrew word for money (kesef) comes from a verb meaning ‘to desire’ or ‘languish after something’. This insatiability applies to getting what we do not have and to holding onto what we do have. The “hardest financial skill is getting the goal post to stop moving” observes Morgan Housel. You reach a goal, but then it’s suddenly crept past you to a new spot. That’s the slight of hand that Mammon pulls on us over and over again.
Wealthy people are often intensely focused on work and less frequently have other big interests. George Herbert wrote that “soul is dyed the colour of its leisure thought.” The pursuit of wealth makes you single minded: always watching investments, jittery about market fluctuations. With dark irony, Mammon ironically creates the anxiety it promises to relieve.
Money problems are one of the top things that break up marriages. We have seen this happen in the lives of dear friends and it is tragic! If you let Mammon in, it eventually begins to devour you.
Generosity is an antidote to Mammon. Tithing is a tradition as old as the Bible, going far back to Abraham. But it’s not just another rule. Many pastors like to quote Malachi 3:10 to “bring in the whole tithe”, but miss the rationale for it in the following verse: “and I will keep the devourer at bay, so it will not destroy”. Generosity blocks spiritual power of greed in our life. Tithing is a practical way to inhibit Mammon and acknowledge that 100% of what we have is gift.
The Sparrow
Jesus had a thing for birds. In his teaching, birds are associated with being worry-free and fear-free. They are symbols of profound simplicity:
“Look at the birds of the air…they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” Matthew 6:23
This does not mean birds are passive – they are some of the busiest creatures in nature! They painstakingly build nests. They work hard after a rainstorm. They know how to read the seasons and migrate vast distances. They are active, but they are not anxious. Darrell Johnson writes: “Birds know they are held in the hands of someone bigger than themselves.”
We see the same stunning lack of worry in Jesus. He’s in the wilderness without food and isn’t bothered; but I worry if I forget snacks for the kids at the playground. When he needs transportation in town, he knows someone will lend him a donkey. When he needs accommodations, they are there. Even when he and Peter needed to pay taxes, there was a fish with just the right amount of money in its mouth.
“Every worry is a vote of no-confidence in God,” writes Helmut Thielicke. Lord, increase our confidence!
Many of us have seen times when unexpected provision arrived. But our memories are so short. So where do we need to remember to be more sparrow-like? Where do we need to soar above the worry of bills, purchase decisions, and bank balances? Credit cards promise to remove our worry with convenience – but only create heightened worry when the larger-than-expected bill arrives. Jesus assures that we have a Father who knows our every feather and need.
Prayer
Lord – help us to be free like a sparrow, as free as you are, in relation to money. And help us to recognize where you are raising a whip against our own financial choices and the economic habits of our culture. We know you want to save us from spiritual schizophrenia! Help us to lead less distracted lives so that we recognize you in the everyday and join you in making all things new.
On Prayer - Pain, Peace and Persistence
By Naomi Yeker
Kaleo Oct 23/23
Prayer can be a tricky topic in a lot of ways. We all have different associations with it, maybe feelings of guilt or exhaustion and we come from many different backgrounds with various expressions of prayer. I wanted to share a little bit about my journey with prayer as there has been change and growth in that area in my life and I am curious what our church community would look like if we had a renewed vision of prayer and how to take that into our lives.
I grew up with some larger than life prayer figures in my extended family. At Christmas people would be visiting and I have memories of walking into a room and finding an impromptu prayer meeting happening, or someone sitting in the living room would have a blanket over their head interceding for someone or some issue in the world. C'mon people. It's Christmas! Can we just chill out? :P Not to mention my cousin who was the first Table intern hired on specifically for prayer and had a room/closet in their community house specifically dedicated to prayer.
When I was young, maybe 13, my well meaning cousin's suggestion for prayer was, “just try for 2 hours a day, it will change your life!” Needless to say, I was crushed by the weight of this expectation that I just felt like I couldn’t fill and the dominant theme in my prayer life was failure and frustration. At the same time, there was something that inspired and drew me about their passionate desire to pray.
To this day, my initial response to prayer is often resistance. I think there is an element of guilt; I don’t feel like I’m praying correctly or the right amount or for the right things. There is an element of weariness, my life feels so full; where I am I going to fit in this list of things I’m supposed to ask God for. What if God asks me to do something more, I can’t fit anything more in! I’ve asked and prayed desperately for things in the past and it seems as though nothing happened. What is the point? I’d rather not be disappointed over and over. Surely doesn’t God doesn’t want to hear about the annoying minutiae of my life, so what DO I pray about? I’m not disciplined enough, why even try? Also it takes time! And in a full week it feels like the last thing I want to do sometimes.
So what shifted? I think for me, it was mainly two very painful experiences in my life that awoke a desire to know and receive from God in deeper ways than I had currently been doing. Prayer and time with God became a refuge, a place of blessing and solace in a way that I had not known before. And while it continues to be a struggle of fits and starts, my imagination was caught for what’s possible and I know now that there is goodness there that I have tasted and I can’t ignore. However, life is not always so intense and we’re not always driven to prayer out of deep pain or desperation. In my learning around prayer, it seems there is so much about just showing up whether we feel like it or not, and through this consistent returning, our hearts are incrementally shifted towards God, and our hearts and desires are brought more into line with His.
It’s been important for me to recognize that having a consistent prayer life IS hard. There is so much momentum around us that encourages us NOT to prioritize time for this. Specialists in silicon valley are highly motivated to keep us glued to our screens, to consume and spend money and culturally there can be an expectation that speed and busyness, fullness of experience and maximal relationships are what’s best for us.
We perhaps can also consider that spiritual forces as well that would rather us not be communing with the loving creator of the universe.
It also takes practice! It’s not something that necessarily just comes naturally and will feel immediately transcendent at once.
Another thing that has been significant is realizing what image of God I am bringing to prayer. Tish Harrison Warren writes, “There is no wrong way to pray. You cannot fail at prayer, except by giving it up altogether. But prayer can malform us if we suspect we are praying to a God who can barely stand us, who is malevolent and angry and out to get us, who rolls his eyes when we call to him, who we have to convince to hear us”.
Something I have found helpful has been assessing this image of God and finding scriptures or images that help root me in my true belief about the character of God.
A story that I have found helpful in that moment of discernment deciding whether or not to pray is that story of the prodigal son or prodigal God as some have come to call it. That image of the Father looking out at the horizon and seeing his son cresting the hill, arms outstretched running to greet him, helps remind me of my belief that God always enjoys welcoming me back. It’s harder for me to get stuck in a spiral of guilt about my neglectful prayer life when the picture of God running to greet me is held in front of my mind.
“House Of Belonging” by Scott Erickson
Another thing that has brought an aliveness to prayer for me (inspired by the psalms), is bringing my unfiltered, whole self honestly before God. I think I’m almost embarrassed to bring before God the things that are actually on my mind, the pettiness, the frustration, the disappointments. But the more I engage this way with God, the more I feel as though it is a real relationship where I am fully known and seen in all my mess. I’m a journaller so free journaling and turning those things to God in writing is a helpful practice for me in this area.
Another thing that has been crucial for my prayer life has been Sabbath. Sabbath has pivotal in helping create the spaciousness for me to be able to come before God, tell him what’s actually on my mind and in that space of hurt or anger or disappointment, have space for healing, blessing or just feeling seen and cared for in the minutiae of these moments. And into that place of raw openness finding my identity as a beloved child of God. Henri Nouwen writes, “Why is it so important that you are with God and God alone on the mountain top? It’s important because it’s the place in which you can listen to the voice of the One who calls you the beloved. To pray is to listen to the One who calls you, “my beloved daughter", “my beloved son”, “my beloved child”. To pray is to let that voice speak to the center of your being, to your guts, and let that voice resound in your whole being.”
So often I think praying is mostly a mental exercise, but something that has been interesting to explore has been involving my body in prayer. I have definitely been overwhelmed in some communities that are very comfortable with bodily expressions of worship and this has, in a way, turned me off as it can seem performative or manipulative. However, I think there is something that can be lost if this is ignored completely and there is something invitingly vulnerable to experiment with these things in a community where this is less common.
Something I’ve been experimenting with is how does it change my experience of worship if I stand? Does confession feel different if I kneel? Does making the sign of the cross over my heart after communion help ground that experience in the reality of my embodied life? About making the sign of the cross Strahan Coleman says, “It changes how I feel about my body when I pray this way. It awakens my awareness to its holiness. To the God it homes.” Maybe these physical acts can help inform our prayer rather than feeling like we have to wait until we genuinely “feel it” (as I have felt in the past). I think too often we can neglect our bodies in the conversation with God and this can lead to a bit of a false separation between our “spiritual” ideas of God and our lived life, when in reality they are intertwined so closely.
Tish Harrison Warren talks about the way our posture toward God also influences our work. She says, “If God is behind, under and throughout all our good work and every moment of our lives, prayer is never a merely “spiritual” act of piety, a few feet off the ground, divorced from the real work of the word. When we pray for healing or redemption or peace or justice we are praying for those who work - for scientists, doctors, poets, potters, researchers, retail clerks, farmers, politicians and pilots - the actual and limited men and women through whom God is bringing renewal. Praying this way changes how we work. We can take up our daily work knowing that through it we participate in the eternal work of God. We can take up our vocations not simply to find success, get a paycheck or make a name for ourselves, but from a place of rest in God. This view of work also changes prayer. The practice of prayer becomes a propulsive force, galvanizing our participation with God’s work.” Love this.
As I grow to trust this God who loves me and sees me as worthwhile even when I am doing nothing for him, just being a bratty confessional kid, my openness and excitement to partner with this Good God takes root and expands. As Tyler Staton puts it, “intimacy leads to fruitfulness.” “If we make fruitfulness the goal, leap-frogging intimacy, this will lead to exhaustion and resentment”. I think this is often the case for me. It’s hard to make space to be filled by God or to rest in God before pouring out, but I find without this, I run dry very quickly. Sometimes I worry that this kind of prayer is selfish. Am I only spending time with God because it feels good and I feel peaceful? I think there can be a potential for becoming passive in prayer, only ever hoping to receive, however I think if we truly come into contact with the living God in prayer, we are inspired to love those around us in real ways. To quote Tyler Staton “It is impossible to know God without equally participating with God in public mercy… inner prayer and outward compassion are inseparable. In fact the Hebrew word for personal righteousness and outward justice is the same “tsedaqah”.”
This is definitely an area I want to grow in because I think it also takes practice and I wonder how we could grow in this as a community. I think we have a few ideas percolating around how we could grow in this and would love to hear your thoughts as well!
~~~~~
From the Celtic Book of Prayer:
I bless you,
In the name of the Holy Three,
The Father, the Son and the Sacred Spirit.
May you drink deeply
From God’s cup of joy.
May the night bring you quiet.
And when you come to the Father’s palace
may his door be open
and the welcome warm.
~~~~~
Contact Naomi If you are interested in joining our Practicing The Way Prayer study, or receiving a copy of the prayer practices provided at Kaleo (Examen, Lament Prayer, Breath Prayer, Visio Divina, Lectio Divina, and a couple intercessory liturgies).
Below are the dates and topics (Location TBD) :
Nov 16, 2023 @7:30pm: Talking to God
As we learn the pragmatics of prayer, we’ll begin habituating and fine-tuning a daily prayer rhythm.
Nov 23, 2023 @7:30pm: Talking with God
In prayer, we bring our pain, hopes, joys, and fears to God in a personalized way.
Nov 30, 2023 @7:30pm: Listening to God
Prayer is not just when we talk but when we listen to hear his voice.
Dec 7, 2023 @7:30pm: Being with God
Learn about the type of prayer that goes beyond words to simple loving presence, or what the ancient Christians called “union” with God.