Migration

• grace davie


  Argues that the Polish Roman Catholic influx has made a significant difference to the Roman Catholic Church:

  ‘the decline in Catholic activity may to some extent at least have been arrested by immigration’

  120 Polish priests currently working full-time in England and Wales. Polish Catholic Churches expanding.
• Alana Harris 


  Focuses on a Catholic parish in Canning Town (St. Margaret's)

  While it was originally a hub for Irish immigrants, by 2012 it was changing.

  1200 worshippers from more than 40 migrant populations, including

  •Philippines

  •West Indies

  •Various African countries
• Alana Harris


  “the wheel moreover is turning full circle: these enterprising people are bringing back to this country practices originally exported by missionaries, thus re-animating aspects of devotion that have waned in Britain”
• Welby 


  “immigration by itself is never a solution, unless it is accompanied by integration”

  “Language learning is the sine qua non of integration, the key to all possibility of progress”
• Welby's 8 barriers to assimilation

  1.Ghettoization – being confined to small pockets of the UK

  2.Inability to speak the language of the host country

  3.Separate schooling

  4.Inequality

  5.Racism

  6.Exclusion

  7.Cultural attitudes

  8.Unchallenged assumptions about each other.
• The Melanesian Brothers and Sisters 2005 Mission to the UK


  Between May and August 2005, 20 men and 4 women came from Melanesia (Indonesia, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea. 

  They stayed in Chester, Exeter and London, visiting Church of England parish Churches, schools, care homes and priests. 

  They sang, performed a passion play, and a play about the Prodigal son, wanting to renew the Church of England and reach out especially to young people.
• Rebeca Cato 


  "There is an increase in numbers of committed, often young people, willing and able to travel, wishing to evangelise the "dark continent of Europe""
• Catto reports that one Melanesian Bishop is now working in a parish in Devon is critical of the term 'reverse mission'.

  He prefers the term 'partnership' because reverse mission feels too proud and has overtones of colonialism.

  He points out that there are still more members of the Church of England in England than the entire population of the Solomon Islands and statistics about churchgoing in Melanesia are very patchy.

  It's not clear how many people the Mission affected long-term.
• Pastor Peter


  From Nigeria, based in a North-Western city, not his real name
• Peter's African independent congregation

  • It was thriving
  • It outgrew the place it worshipped
• Merging with local Baptist Church

  1. Saved the Baptist Church building

  2. Very few of the original Baptist Church now come beyond the Minister and one or two others
• Reverse Mission


  Did not effectively change those from white, non Nigerian backgrounds
• Catto: 'This vignette is an example of Christians from the global South helping a mainline church to survive, but not really to grow as such'
• Catto also presents case-studies with 'missionaries' from

  •The Church in South India

  •A Christian couple from Peru

  •Methodists from South Korea.

  She is keen to show how broad a movement Reverse Mission is.

  For all of the case studies, those who came to Britain gave up a lot and found it hard, particularly cut off from their culture. Reverse Mission can be brave and generous.
• The examples presented here indicate how highly varied and difficult to typify contemporary missions to Britain are
• Their presence and activities challenge a stereotypical definition of mission as charity and conversion
• Success can be difficult to gauge, not least in terms of numbers
• Christians migrating to the UK, to study, work or explicitly undertake a mission, are not replacing or recruiting sufficient numbers to replace, those leaving mainline churches
• Nonetheless, they are challenging and changing preconceptions
• John Sentamu may be seen as doing this today
• The growth of Christianity in the 'global south' and of immigrant congregations has made mainline churches in Britain take notice and realize that they also have something to learn in what is a period of transition for them and for wider society