Building a Home for a Multicultural Parish: Lessons Learned

Abstract

A FIRE AND A NEW SET OF QUESTIONS On December 12, 1995, St. Francis de Sales Parish in Holland, Michigan, faced the task of building a new home for God’s people. A fire accidentally destroyed the church, which this community of English, Spanish, and Vietnamese speakers called “home.” Two years later a new church emerged, designed to sustain the faith life of three unique communities and to promote among them cross-cultural understanding and dialogue. The new home rises as a prophetic voice against a culture of standardization. Designed specifically for a culturally diverse context, it promotes unity without uniformity. Both ambiguity and clarity are held up as values within and beyond its walls as it speaks of the mystery of God in whose image all have been fashioned. How do you build a home for the Church when it is a culturally diverse community? What should this home look like and what sort of a process should be utilized? How do you incorporate into this process a wide array of approaches to being Church by its members, immigrants from across the globe? These and similar questions are being asked by parishes as they prepare to build or renovate in culturally diverse contexts. The story of one culturally diverse parish’s reconstruction in the midst of tragedy may prove helpful for other communities.