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Encounter
With Toronto: International Church Will Meet Toronto’s
International Community
Among the most exciting
features of the General Conference Session in Toronto is the fact
that the worldwide family of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
will be coming to one of the foremost cosmopolitan, international
cities of the world. The encounter between the visitors speaking
in their native languages with citizens of Toronto, able to speak
the same languages, offers exciting opportunities to share one’s
faith and Adventist Christian experience.
The international character
of Toronto is also reflected in the make-up of the Toronto Adventist
community. There are some 12,000 baptized church members in 37
congregations in Greater Toronto. In the city, we have several
ethnic congregations. Among them are the following: Filipino,
Ghanian, Brazilian, Spanish, Chinese, Estonian, Hungarian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Ukrainian, and Yugoslavian. Apart
from these, there are many church members in Toronto’s congregations
who come from many Caribbean islands. Toronto has a truly international
Adventist community. These congregations are looking forward
to welcoming brothers and sisters who speak their languages and
dialects and can share the culture of their homeland. [See sidebar
for a list of international communities in Toronto with their
approximate populations. The various cultural groups have their
own organizations, religious centers, and media.]
By coming to Toronto from
so many countries of the world, we can also make a difference
through sharing our experiences and our culture with members of
the larger ethnic communities, many of whom are to be won for
Christ. This offers our visiting delegates and other participants
in the world Church convocation an opportunity to prepare for
meeting their ethnic brothers and sisters, with whom we can share
our faith in Jesus and the hope of His soon return.
Several ideas come to mind.
How about preparing literature, which can be distributed?
How about considering that our musical groups be available
for public performances, not only in our churches, but in different
venues throughout the city? How about considering an ethnic food
fair, organized by one of the congregations in cooperation
with the visitors to the GC Session? There are many more possibilities,
including a variety of evangelistic or faith-sharing events
in the churches throughout Toronto.
The challenge of the international
encounter with Toronto clearly belongs to both those who are already
there and those who are coming as visitors. The local conference
office can offer specific information on “who is who” in Toronto
in our Church, as well as respond to other inquiries regarding
preparations of the local churches during the GC Session. For
more information, please contact Dirk Zinner, Ontario Conference
of Seventh-day Adventists, at: 1110 King Street East, Oshawa,
Ontario L1H 1H8, Canada; phone: 905-571-1022; fax: 905-571-5995;
or e-mail: dzinner@ont-sda.org.
[Ray Dabrowski]
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