By Mark Bernstein, Shared Growth Consultant for CERG
Often, when I ask the musical question of congregations “Why do you want to grow?” one of the answers I get is “We want to be more diverse.” I find this a curious response because the synonym for “diverse” is “different.” So, to take people literally, they are saying that growth in numbers will allow the congregation to increase the differences among members.
Obviously, that is not what people mean when they say they want to be more diverse. What they mean, I think, is that they want a congregation that better embraces diversity; that holds within its walls a mosaic of people who bring a variety of backgrounds, styles, perspectives, values, and beliefs as assets to the congregation.
We often look around our congregations and assess our diversity based on the number of people who are of color or other minority ethnicity or on the number of people who have an overt disability, either physical or cognitive, or on the number of people who we happen to know are LGBT. But we as a population are diverse in a multitude of ways, ways that are often unseen and unnoticed. We differ also in our marital and parental status, religious upbringing, education, economic status, work background, geographical origins, interests, hobbies, skills, and so on.
Embracing all the ways in which we are different creates a congregation where diversity is cherished and where multiculturalism can flourish. Margaret Mead wrote, “If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.” We find those gifts in others by questioning, listening and understanding the values, beliefs and experiences that make others who they are. In this way, we move toward growth…in ourselves and in our congregational communities.
The late and great UU Minister Reverend Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley once wrote, “What is our liberal faith for if not to teach respect for difference?” In her Litany of Restoration, she captured the essence of embracing diversity in words both eloquent and timeless:
If, recognizing the interdependence of all life, we strive to build community, the strength we gather will be our salvation. If you are black and I am white,
It will not matter.
If you are female and I am male,
It will not matter.
If you are older and I am younger,
It will not matter.
If you are straight and I am gay,
It will not matter.
If you are Christian and I am Jewish,
It will not matter.
If we join spirits as brothers and sisters, the pain of our aloneness will be lessened, and that does matter.
In this spirit, we build community and move toward restoration.