Tony Floyd
Recently, while walking among several dozen stalls providing information about religions, different cultures and communities, and government responses to diversity, I was offered a cup of tea. More surprised than anything else, I accepted this kind offer. As I went to drink I was offered ‘sugar’, sweetened in quite unfamiliar forms. I put some into the cup. Gently I was told “In my culture we usually put the sweetener in our mouths and drink the tea over it”. Then we talked a little about her country, Iraq, and tea – the first sign of hospitality.
That brief encounter, and the wonderful cup of tea triggered memories for me.
The first memory was from a workshop at the recent Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia [FECCA] conference under the heading “Inter-faith – cutting edge or cups of tea?”. There a presenter took strong issue with the idea that cups of tea could be dismissed so readily from a central place in inter-faith dialogue. The presenter reminded the group of the critical importance of relationships in all human converse and interaction. “Cups of tea can be the cutting edge of interfaith initiative,” she argued. Interfaith activities that build wider communities and inclusion are most often to be found in the daily lives of people, and in that context the cup of tea is invitational and not coercive. It certainly worked that way for me at that ‘stall’.
My wife Shirley is a midwife and works in enhanced maternal health for our local government. Ours is a very culturally diverse community and we often talk about our experiences of cultural difference, the richness of diversity and ways in which we are received into the many homes in which we find ourselves. “Cups of tea” have been a topic of frequent conversation over the years. Recently they featured in conversations about the ways in which some cultures trigger potential relationships through the offer of a ‘cuppa’.
Shirley was visiting a family from such a cultural background. She had completed her interview and was getting up to leave. As she got up from the cushion where she had been sitting she was offered tea. “I was about to excuse myself because I needed to get back to the office to write up my report,” she said, “when I remembered our conversations. I stopped my refusal and indicated that I would be very pleased to have one with her and her husband. As we drank the tea together a transformation came over our conversation. There was a tangible change in the atmosphere and the way in which we all related to one another. What a difference from a simple cup of tea!”
Hospitality can also be expressed through openness to others, anticipating needs and concerns and taking steps to allay them. An Australian Korean speaking congregation, the first such UCA congregation in that city, knew that it ‘s growing ministries which are modelled in the way of their home churches in Korea could be a source of tension with local residents. An all-day Sunday program of worship services and meals, very early prayer services each weekday morning, choirs, young peoples’ programs meant a huge increase in on-street parking and many people of difference coming into the neighbourhood.
They decided it was vital to build bridges of understanding into that community and chose to do so through expressions of hospitality.
Now several times a year, young people who are growing up with English as their second major language, walk the nearby streets, knock on doors and invite their neighbours to special events and celebrations held in the very public grounds of the property. These occasions include traditional Korean food, Australian BBQ’s, singing, dance and traditional dress. These are designed to be non-threatening, welcoming, and educative all the while focussing on ‘fun’ and relationships. As these community relationships have grown over the years those same young people now ask folk in the households they visit if they have anything that they would like the church community to pray for. It is a neighbourhood of difference and those differences are being celebrated and shared.
Neighbourhoods of difference! They are here and can enrich, challenge and change us all for the better. Through hospitality offered, given and received those differences can become places of enrichment, joy and mutual discovery – even of understanding and friendship. Try it for yourself! It can be the first step into a new world of understanding.
Revd Dr Tony Floyd is the National Director of Multicultural and Cross-cultural Ministry for the Uniting Church National Assembly.
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