The more one reads the Bible, the more one sees that the concept of nation runs throughout almost all Holy Scripture.  Almost from the very beginning of Genesis, it was recognized that it was not good for an individual to be alone.  The Book of Revelation speaks not of individual salvation but of the destiny of people collectively embodied in “a new heaven and a new earth” where the story of redemption will be completed in all its fullness and all its richness.  Shared destiny runs throughout Scripture.

Throughout all of human history individuals have chosen mates and become couples. Couples led to the creation of immediate and extended families.  These relationships solidified into clans and tribes and eventually into villages and communities.  Communities expanded into towns and cities, reaching a high point in the creation of nation states that were most often characterized by well-defined geographic parameters and distinct cultural characteristics.

When most people think of “nation,” the concept that first comes to mind is of a group of people living within specific geographic boundaries such as Canada, Italy, and India.  Land and people are the two essential characteristics for a nation.  Without the former the latter has no meaning.  Without the latter, the former are merely displaced persons or refugees seeking to find comfort and solace in any cultural or political environment that will receive them.

Within the context of land and people, other factors are determinative of a people’s sense of identity and loyalty: racial and ethnic characteristics, their history and culture, their traditions and institutions, their physical and natural environment, their theology and psychology.  These many different factors all contribute to forming their sense of nationality and giving citizens and residents alike their sense of nationhood.

Given that particular typology and background, it is no wonder that ancient nations such as India and China continue to have such a hold on the popular imagination even as they rise to challenge the hegemony of the modern European Union and the contemporary United States of America comprised of peoples from many nations and many states the world over.

I believe we are living through some fascinating times as the image and concept of nationhood undergo some radical and fundamental changes.  No continent or region is isolated from this process.  Political and geographic considerations are thoroughly intertwined in ways that are so complex as to defy comprehension and straightforward explanations.   Making the time of change even more uncomfortable for millions of people is the sense that the forces causing change are overwhelmingly external forces.  The familiar internal sources of comfortable and affirming identity and loyalty to family, tribe, region, and nation are seen as threatened from the outside.

I come from Guyana (formerly British Guiana), I was educated at the University of the West Indies and Codrington Theological College in Barbados, and I have served in three different Episcopal Dioceses in the United States of America — the Diocese of Virginia, the Diocese of California, and now the Diocese or Newark.  Today, I consider myself a citizen of the world.  A naturalized U.S. citizen; I am often torn in my feelings and perceptions regarding the impact of American foreign policy abroad.

At the same time, given my first-hand experiences from frequent travels abroad, there is nowhere I would rather be and no other country that could command my loyalty and my love as these United States have.  With all its shortcomings and disappointments, it is still “the last great hope of mankind” and its political, social, and economic structures, though under a great deal of stress at the moment, are admired by many in the world at large.

I would expect that my feelings towards our nation could be said for many, if not all, of my parishioners at Christ Episcopal Church in the City of East Orange, New Jersey.   Members of the congregation come from several different countries and states across the eastern seaboard, the Caribbean, and West Africa.  These Anglican Christians come from three distinct geographic regions of the world, each with his or her own sense of “how church should be done.”

This is at once a tremendous challenge and an enormous opportunity made all the more remarkable by the fact that the next generation of young people who accompany their parents and grandparents to church are now born and raised in the United States.  In the course of my long ministry in this particular parish, I have had to develop some important strategies for dealing with congregants who have come to this country from several other countries and continents.

To be an effective and faithful pastor, I have had to make clear that my overarching loyalty is to the Gospel and its unambiguous call to serve all of God’s children.  In light of this, I determined that I could not allow myself to be held captive by any one group.  It was particularly important for me to demonstrate this to the Guyanese and other West Indians who might assume that I would naturally favor them. I made it quite clear in word and in deed that I am a pastor for all God’s people regardless of where they originate and I will not be obligated to any one particular person, family, group, or nationality, because of who I am and where I came from.

Once I established the principle that I could not personally favor one group over another it was important to institutionalize this concept of equality in other aspects of church life.  All committees, groups, and organizations of the parish include individuals representing the three regions of the world from which our parishioners originate so that no one nationality will dominate the proceedings.  We have had to be intentional and deliberate about this strategy because in previous years conflict among African-Americans, West Africans, and West Indians had hampered the solidarity of this parish.

Perhaps one of the most positive and well-received initiatives has been to sponsor quarterly “cultural evenings.”  Over the space of two or three hours, four times a year, church members from a particular nation, Jamaica for example, decorate the parish hall in their national colors with historical artifacts from their homeland.  They make artistic and cultural presentations, share their music and dances, and share their native cuisine with parishioners from other parts of the world in an atmosphere that is pleasant, entertaining, and completely non-competitive and non-threatening.

[quotes}While these strategies help to mold our diverse congregation into “one people with one destiny,” it was rooted in prayer and grounded in a study and reflection upon Holy Scripture in which our Lord’s payer that “all may be one as Jesus and the Father are one” would become a reality in our parish.{/quotes}  I am happy to say at the time of this writing that these words have now become incarnated in our midst as we strive to put our mission statement into effect, “to know Christ and to make him known.”

Let me share with all our readers a prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer that I have found to be of inestimable value in this on-going enterprise:

“O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races and cultures in this world.  Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”