What does it mean to support an indigenous church? How do we best allow and support folk to experience and express the faith in ways that resonate with their own culture? These are the sorts of questions that this book raised in my mind.
A few years ago the Indigenous community within the United Church shared their Calls to the Church. When I first read them I remember wondering if what was being proposed was a church within a church. I still think that to a degree that may be what is actually needed if we are going to live out those calls if we are to take seriously the intention to give ownership to the Indigenous church. At the same time, based on reflecting on those calls and what Twiss has to say in this book I strongly suspect that the non-Indigenous church stands to benefit from opening the door to different ways of expressing and exploring the faith.
The one thing I, coming from a mainline tradition, would have preferred to see in this volume was some more discussion of how the mainline churches have been a help or a hindrance in the development of contextualized theology. It seemed more focused on the relationship with the evangelical communities. I suspect many of the challenges would have been similar in the mainline community, with the added challenge that the mainline churches in Canada at least were a major partner in the assimilationist policies of the past.
This was the 2nd book that had been recommended for an online course I took last fall. It raised important questions about our relationships with the Indigenous Christian community. It is well worth a read
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