A taste of diversity: stories from GIT students

The Global Institute of Theology (GIT) purposefully accepts students from a wide range of countries and contexts, building a diverse community over the course of the institute.

Douwe Visser put it this way in his opening remarks to the students: “Most important is that you are together and that you are a global community for three weeks. You come with your stories here, stories of hope, joy, grief and concern—and you share that. And when you go home you will be a global community. This is a very deep once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Here are some brief stories from this year’s GIT students, which ran 5-28 July:

Promoting interfaith reconciliation

Born into a Presbyterian family, Vincent Kalvin’s policeman father wanted him to become one as well, but Vincent felt called to ministry. Currently obtaining his masters of theology degree, Vincent is a member of the Protestant Church in the Moluccas (Indonesia). And although not yet ordained he is involved in many church activities including teaching Sunday school and leading youth services.

But what he ultimately wants is “a ministry of reconciliation. I want to build peace with my Muslim brothers and sisters.”

Repeated riots between Muslims and Christians are etched in his memory. Vincent’s home was burned, and when he was seven years old he saw people who were killed, victims lying in the streets.

Because of the trauma from the Christian-Muslim conflicts, Vincent struggles with pluralism. “I see people dying because of violence and war. I want to do something, to reconcile my people,” he said.

Vincent believes it is important to be part of the GIT, because “I need my mind opened. You can learn something from others and their struggles.”

The experiences at the GIT confirmed the importance of being in dialogue for Vincent and the other students. “What I learned is being in conversation with other people, not all Presbyterians are the same. It’s strange for me. So, when I was trying to be in conversation with other people, it’s nice because I know their struggle and their context. I know their story and I can learn something from their story.”

Vincent also was challenged by what he learned at the GIT: “Everyone has problems, and I began asking myself, ‘Who am I in this world?’ and ‘After the GIT what do I do?!’ I am just one person in the world. I am not a big man with a lot of power. But I can help one person back home. I cannot feed everyone, but maybe I can feed one person.”

Making mission a daily occurrence

Newlywed Sunelle Thompson co-pastors a church in Krugersdorp, a suburb of Johannesburg, for the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa.

The co-pastors are dedicated to empowering their congregants “to every day really live church and to engage in mission because we believe that everyone is part of mission,” she said. “We want to empower congregants to think differently, to speak differently about others, about the world; to interact with people in a way that shows God’s love.”

A specific programme that captures this goal is the HelpLift Network, an ecumenical online network that links people with needs to people with resources (www.helplift.co.za).

Through the network, people are brought together: “You have to go take those in need the clothes yourself, for example, to actually see their context, to actually interact with them, to build a relationship with them. So it’s not just the people that receive the stuff whose lives get changed. But the givers, their lives also get changed by the ones they’re giving to.”

Sunelle is passionate about using mission to unite even in diverse situations. “I did my thesis in a way about diversity, but it was more about the gap between rich and poor in South Africa and how the Trinity, the specific relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, can help churches to overcome the gap,” she said. “There that specific relationship is all about unity within diversity. It’s this dynamic, reciprocal relationship of diversity.”

This same interest is what excited her about the GIT. “The GIT is such an awesome diversity,” she said. “Where people from different backgrounds get together—something happens there. Peoples’ lives really get changed. I’m coming here and I’m getting exposed to so many different backgrounds and different cultures, and it’s great. I want to take it back to South Africa where we have an unbelievable diversity.”

Encouraging equality in society

Pulak Samantaroy, married and a new father, has been working as a minister since 2006 for the Church of North India in and around Amritsar, serving congregations in both urban and rural areas. Pulak’s challenges are many and include harassment of Christians, economic disparity and injustice and caste discrimination.

“We try to educate all of the people. We try to educate Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Muslims. We bring them all to one centre, in the church,” he said. “So the poor people, those who cannot afford to go to school, we bring them and give them free food in the evening. And through this we bring the people in one boundary so there will be unity.”

“For religious conflicts we interact with religious leaders of other faiths. We call Muslim leaders, we call Hindu leaders to come to a common platform where we can discuss the problems and the solution,” said Pulak.

The caste system remains strong in the villages, with many Dalits (formerly known as “untouchables”), the lowest caste level, facing severe discrimination, including separate water taps and economic enslavement.

And economic success doesn’t free Dalits from discrimination. “Even though now some of the Dalits have come up in their lives and they have very good jobs, people continue to look down on them,” explained Pulak. “But in church we invite all people to come, sit together, and the pastor visits everybody’s house, no matter what caste they belong to. Pastors are open to all so that we can bring togetherness in society.”

The GIT has given Pulak “an opportunity to meet international students and know their culture and how they work in their society and how they work in the church. So it will help me to know them better and learn new things I can implement in my country, back in my home church, so that I can transform my society.”

Offering an alternative narrative

A former lecturer in Hispanic studies at Glasgow University, John McCulloch is just entering his second year of training with the Church of Scotland. While studying, he’s also been placed at a church in one of the poorer areas of Glasgow, learning alongside its pastor.

“In this particular community, which is what we call an urban priority area, the church is reaching out to the children. There’s a lot of violence in the area. There’s a lot of broken families and social problems. And so we run a church for the children which meets once a week,” John explained. “And from that, they’ve been able to establish links into the schools.”

“But I think another very important aspect of what the church does is the Sunday worship—by offering an alternative narrative to the narratives of consumerism, of individualism, of violence and of deprivation in the city. Preaching the liberation of the Word in the Gospel has a huge impact on the lives of those around the church,” John said.

Before the GIT John travelled through Central America with his wife, a doctor, and their four children. “I connected especially with our Catholic brothers and sisters. I think what most impacted me is the faith of the people in Central America.”

When asked why he wanted to attend the GIT, John said, “What attracted me was to be part of a global conversation from a Reformed tradition. I think we who have been brought up in the West would do well to listen to our brothers and sisters from the Reformed tradition to see how their approaches to ecclesiology, to hermeneutics, to living in contexts of huge challenge—how all that has shaped their theology.”

Anchoring a neighbourhood

Marleen Blootens ministers in a diverse neighbourhood in Amsterdam—but not in a typical church. “Our church has been renovated and opened two years ago in a completely new concept. So we are not only a church, we try to be an open house for the neighbourhood, a community centre.”

Part of the community centre houses a toddlers group, attracting parents and children of all faiths. “That’s what we want. We really think this is good for people who are vulnerable to have a place to play with their children.”

But it’s not only a church and a community centre: “We started a social restaurant. And the people who work in our restaurant are deaf—not only deaf, they’re also mentally disabled. They get an education to find a way to the regular restaurants and bars to get a job. In the restaurant now we’re also starting with visiting hours, when everyone can come in who needs help.”

Volunteers from both the church and the neighbourhood have been trained “to be helpers for people who need help.” Thankfully a number of church members live close by: “We’ve got 15 houses which are above our building,” explained Marleen. “And everyone who lives there is part of the church, and they form a community also together. So within the community is also a community of people who are committed to this neighbourhood, and to this church, and to the Christian faith.”

The diversity of her neighbourhood spurred Marleen to attend the GIT. “I noticed being a minister in a multicultural area that sometimes I don’t know how to deal with cultural differences. I just have no tools. I know that I just don’t know enough about intercultural theology,” she said, adding that the extreme secularization of Amsterdam was another reason: “I’m such an exception, being a Christian. And I really longed for a meeting with people who are in places where being Christian is not such a rarity. I’d really like to breathe a bit more of that air.”