We are the fragrance of Christ
2 Corinthians 2:15

People are made right with God by faith and by what they do because of their faith….

Faith that does no good is not a live faith.
James 2:24,26.

“A community of grace, welcoming, inviting, inclusive and caring, committed to ‘building each other up, binding each other’s wounds, becoming each other’s refuge and being the fragrance of Christ in the little town of Freiburg”. This is how I summarised my impressions of ACF in my report to the Annual General Meeting in March 2024. The crucial question that arises from this affirmation is- How do we become the fragrance of Christ in Freiburg?

The strengths that we bring to the table include the plurality of experiences, expressions, expectations and expertise. We are clear that we are not an exclusive club of the chosen ones but an open space where the stranger is always welcome. We want our doors to be always open where the broken hearted can come in and find solace, where the troubled soul can find rest, where those pushed to the margins find a place of comfort. However we should also realise we are a community called to REACH OUT. There are several people ‘out there’ who would need a comforting and healing touch, who are longing for an arm to hold theirs, a shoulder wherein they could lean their tired heads and share their burdens of life. The Church is called to reach out to the edges. We must understand that the Church is not a cruise ship navigating to the ‘other shore’ but instead is a life-boat commissioned to reach out to the sinking souls.

The Anglican Church in Freiburg is committing itself this year to reach out to people in the margins in a very intentional manner.

The needs that we are called to address include

1. The integration of the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial, multi-lingual community into the social fabric of the society.
2. The isolation and mental struggles of the student community who are in Freiburg and are far away from their home contexts and support systems.
3. The existential angst of the millennial generation constantly trying to make their life meaningful and useful.
4. The daily life realities of friends who are in Freiburg as “refugees and asylum seekers” and those trying to escape from the trauma and fear of their ‘turbulent home contexts’.
5. The life struggles of diaspora and migrant communities who live around us.

Why should we as a church community bother about the agonies of the people who live in the peripheries and get ourselves involved in their struggles

Our aim as a church community is to

1. Make ACF a SENSITIVE community to the needs of the people around us. It is a fact that sometimes we do not see or hear the pain of the people around us unless we intentionally open our eyes and ears.
2. Make ACF an ENGAGING community. There is much more we can do together to be the salt of the earth and light of the world and to help the people who would appreciate our friendship and support.
3. Make ACF an ACTIVE community. Our strength include our children and our young people. There is no limit to what they can achieve if we are able to give them the right ambience to flourish. Being the University community we do have a wonderful group of young adults who want to be active in the reaching out ministry of the church.
4. Make ACF a MEANINGFUL community. The brigade of supportive families and committed elderly persons alongside our youthful generations can make our presence visible in a much more meaningful way.
5. Make ACF a FRAGRANT community. The beauty of fragrance is not only that it attracts but is also that it reaches out. We need ACF to be attracting and to be reaching out

The Methodology we would be using to make us a fragrant community would include

1. Hospitality.
   One of our strengths in ACF is Hospitality. All we need to do now is to be more welcoming and intentionally inviting. Inviting people for our Breakfast fellowships, our hikes, our dinner evenings, our chill outs, our home groups, our youth and young adults events, our shared lunches and organising regular and special events reaching to people who would appreciate hospitality. Hospitality is nothing but sharing God’s love with the last, the least and the lost.
2. Creativity.
   We in ACF have a great repository of children, youth and young adults who understand the heart-throb of their friends in need. We need to allow them to creatively offer entertainment and recreational opportunities for their friends to allow them to relax and enjoy life more calmly amidst all the turbulence. This would be a good way of engaging our generations and helping them reach out to and integrate with those in the edges. Opportunities to sing together in a band or an orchestra, to play together, dance together, camp together, travel together or any such creative initiative based on their interest can be provided. Being a balm to the turbulent soul and disturbed mind can reap unparalleled dividents.
3. Counselling.
   There are several people in the ACF community who are engaged in the health sector, education sector and in the direct and indirect work among migrants, refugees and those in varied manifestations of modern day slavery. That would mean we have the expertise to organise individual and collective sessions in various aspects of counselling to people in need or to support those who are already doing it. This collaborative effort can be very productive if properly coordinated. The modern day understanding of counselling branches out to several areas of possible involvement in the lives of communities in need.
4. Academics.
   ACF being a research and academic community we could use that expertise to initiative studies and research on the life situations and needs of people in the peripheries and propose long term solutions to several of the issues that are being faced today. There could also be academic support provided to people who need the same. Publications, Posters and Publicity Material advocating for causes of Justice must also be seen as an integral part of this initiative.
5. Acts of Kindness.
   What people need when they are hungry is food, when they are thirsty is water, when they are sparsely clothed is clothes, when they are homeless is a place to stay, when they are sick or in prison is a visit and Jesus says- anything you did for even the least of my people here, you also did for me.” Acts of kindness must not be seen as charity but as the right of the other to live in dignity. Understanding the dignity of all as our responsibility is in fact the essence of being the fragrance.

Conclusion

Who would do this? If not each one of us, then who else?

When will we do this? If not now, then when?

We are called to be the fragrance of Christ in the little spaces we are called to live and as long as we are able to let us truly strive to make our faith alive and meaningful and make our fragrance known.

Vinod Victor

March 1, 2024