— Midweek Meditations:
thoughts, inspiration and encouragement
from ACF community members —
We recently had our AGM. The impressive and comprehensive report (with 21 pages) from the ACF spiritual leader included a chapter on the challenges of an inter-cultural church such as ACF Freiburg: “differences in cultural practices may lead to misunderstandings or friction, as each group may have distinct traditions and expectations”.
Indeed, this has been the normal practice in my professional life for the last 20 years working at international organisations in Geneva (WHO and The Global Fund) and in Freiburg coordinating since 2016 our international and interdisciplinary post-graduate Master in Global Health with a representation of more than 60 countries and 50 disciplines. Personally, our small nuclear family with only three members is also international with German, Colombian and British routs and living abroad in around six countries.
From the work perspective, in our Master programme, in every cohort there are frictions, misunderstandings, misinformation, misinterpretations due to the various cultures, disciplines, values, beliefs and religions interacting together. We accept a maximum of 20-23 students. Some times, we have the same number of countries and disciplines.
Some personal examples I experienced:
A) At WHO, a director from the Caribbean was fired as he sometimes greeted his assistant touching her in her shoulder (this is a common practice for us – Latin-Americans- and it is not considered as sexual harassment). His “enemies” made a case and they succeed in the expected negative result they wanted. This was wrong.
B) My last WHO line manager (male) was from Pakistan (I worked at the HR and workforce unit responsible to motivate staff!). Almost every day, he was shouting at his assistant asking her to clean his desk “Connie, my desk is dirty.” Apparently in his own words, in his country, people in power or of a high socio-economic class can demand this. Job positions and hierarchies allow authorities to abuse subordinated staff. This is incorrect.
C) One of our Master students from India went to his country for the funeral of his grandfather and took more than the permitted time off exceeding the maximum of 30% absence which represents failing the module. Apparently, in India, a male grandson should attend the funeral and be present in the following rituals which last for several days. Despite the student asking to reconsider the decision, the members unanimously decided that the student should repeat the module based on the examination regulations. The conclusion from the members was: “All students (representing different cultures) should follow German regulations to maintain the high standards of the programme”. Was this wrong?
D) In our own ACF community, under the slogan “all means all”, the envisioned joined breakfasts (men and women), the shared lunches and the bazaar for fund raising showed that the preparation of food and cleaning afterwards is mainly being done by women (the majority from Low and Middle Income Countries). This seems to be a common cultural practice in developing countries. In Germany, genders are equal. There are no privileges based on gender.
In the examples above, we can see that differences in cultures (and traditions) can lead to inequality, discrimination and injustice.
In summary: There are many positives’ aspects in intercultural communities but:
- Cultural differences can contribute to violate basic rights for vulnerable groups by people in higher positions and with authority
- Cultural differences sometimes ignore that “weak” people may be exposed to more oppression
I feel fortunate that I live in my new country Germany… a country which ensures as much as possible equal rights in the society … for children… for women… for the elderly… for vulnerable groups…
The chapter from the ACF spiritual leader ends with the following statement: “with very different communication styles and cultures the tensions that are bound to happen must be addressed with love”.
Some questions we can ask ourselves to verify our loving actions:
- Do we need to use our titles and positions to impress people?
- Do we want to control activities in successful and well established events and groups?
- Are we open to learn from other cultures to achieve a better mutual understanding and self-reflection?
- Are we willing to adapt ourselves to new cultures that promote positive values?
- Are we committed to show love with actions and not only with words?
Anton Chekhov said: “Man will only become better when you make him see what he is like”. But if we continue to believe that we are without errors … capable of everything … gifted in all aspects… how can we improve ourselves?
Merciful God, help us to keep and apply the biblical principles of unity and diversity and the need to adapt with humility our own styles to diverse communities.
The ACF Midweek Meditations
are written by a diverse group of our church members with the intention to seek God’s fingerprints in our lives. They range from somber to humorous and are inspired by all facets of live and faith. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, they reflect a wide range of Christian backgrounds and spiritualities.
Each week’s text portrays the individual viewpoint of its author. They might not always resonate with everyone, and are not meant to be understood as representing the Anglican Church Freiburg as a whole. Yet, as a church that is aiming to ‘Build a Community of Grace’ we seek to practice learning from and listening to one another.
We pray that these humble ponderings add a small spark of blessing to your week.
Freiburg Anglican Church 