“Are we going to be involved in the changes that are going on in our world and church so that those changes are healthy?” he asked, “or are we going to just stand by and watch the changes happen in ways that are less healthy or unhealthy?”
In a keynote presentation that was more free-flowing conversation than formal address, Reyes-Chow exhorted the 100 convocation participants: “We have to challenge the institution to use its power, and we have to use what power we have, to dream the dreams and do the work that will produce a healthy future.”
In remarks he titled “Multicultural Ministries in a Post-Race World,” Reyes-Chow — the grandson of Filipino and Chinese immigrants — said, “What we’re beginning to see in the U.S. and too slowly in the PC(USA) is a dramatic shift in the way we perceive race, culture, class.” Showing a photograph of his post-election celebration on the stage of the Assembly — an extraordinarily multicultural gathering of family and friends — Reyes-Chow noted that “we are in an amazing time in the life of our country and church and much of it is due to immigration.”
Immigration is “never going to stop,” he said. “We have to figure out what we think, not just about where we’ve been as a country and church, but how immigration affects our communities in the future. We’ve always welcomed immigration, sometimes better than others. Now how do we begin to see each other in a more complex way than simply as race or color or culture?”
Reyes-Chow said the question is raised, of course, in the current presidential campaign in which the Democratic contest was between an African American man and a woman and the Republicans, for the first time in their history put a woman on the ticket. “With this growing, visible diversity, our children are going to experience race very differently than previous generations,” he said. It’s not that racism no longer exists in the country, Reyes-Chow added, “but it’s more subtle, more insidious, more institutional. So how are we in the church going to talk about justice and reconciliation in ways that are productive for future generations?”
Pressing issues he’s hearing as moderator, Reyes-Chow said, are cultural tensions around how we communicate, how we address conflict, how we find leadership, and how we bridge generations.
The biggest issue in the world and in the church, he said, is economic injustice and it strikes at the heart of the PC(USA)’s immigrant ministries. Reyes-Chow quoted his friend and mentor, Virstan Choy, a longtime church executive and educator: “We give groups just enough money to fail.”
The PC(USA) landscape is dotted with failed racial ethnic congregations that didn’t receive adequate denominational support, he said. “Ethnic and immigrant ministry funding is an injustice we’re reluctant to admit. We have to stick in it enough, using the growing power and visibility we have, to change it systemically so the next wave of folks don’t get treated this way.”
Just as previous generations of Americans and Presbyterians dreamed of a better life for their children and grandchildren, Reyes-Chow said, we have to dream the dreams and do the work that will give coming generations the best opportunity to thrive. We have to look and listen, to see and hear who’s coming next and dream and prepare for them.”
