Churches, Multiculturalism, and Justice in Canada: An Anglican Perspective

Abstract

In the Anglican Communion, the legacy of colonialism touches the lives of worshippers in sometimes surprising ways in a multicultural setting. Like all Christians, they are called to hospitality. Yet, this is not an easy matter, for welcoming the other who happens to be also Anglican in Canada requires understanding issues of multiculturalism and “white privilege.” In this chapter I examine contradictions within Canadian Anglicanism in relation to issues of race and cultural difference. My starting point will be to view these contradictions through the lens of two congregants of an Anglican parish in Toronto. The discussion then places these specific experiences into the wider context of the church in multicultural Canada. It will be argued that the Canadian state has framed multiculturalism in ways that often exclude visible minorities and at the same time privileges an invisible white majority. Similar processes occur in the Anglican Church of Canada. In order to rectify this problem in the church and the society it is proposed that the church moves from understanding itself as a multicultural church, and actively work toward being a justice-based, multicultural church.