Like many Christians, many of us in St. Matthew's Cathedral, believe that at this time, as in every period of human history, we are being given a particularly incredible opportunity to testify with our actions, not just our words, of God's reconciling love for ALL peoples. God is putting before us a diverse world that He created himself, people different from us who bring their gifts to the house of God.
Although the vision of a multicultural church is as old as the church itself, this is a vision that must be renewed in us every day. No matter how tireless this dream may sound, especially given the fact that most congregations tend to be homogeneous. We cannot forget that the church described in the second chapter of the book of Acts was a multiracial, multilingual, and multicultural church. This was not by accident!
The amazing event of Pentecost still stands as a mandate for us today. In fact, we are called, not only as individuals, but also as "The body of Christ," to open our doors, our minds and our hearts to others, to those we see as different, those we see as foreigners. This requires that we become practicing Christians, and be willing to be transformed by the experience of embracing those who are different and strangers, and increasingly accept the values and behavior of other people, as long as both are acceptable to God and consistent with Christian teaching.