Ethnic Advisers Serve Synod 2017
Synod 2017’s ethnic advisers (l-r): Mina Meliky, David Chung, Jei Wilson.
Karen Huttenga
Mina Meliky, David Cheung, and Jei Wilson are serving Synod 2017 as ethnic advisors.
Meliky, from British Columbia, enjoyed attending an evening session on understanding Muslims that was held on Sunday night. He said that as ethnic advisors, their role is “to help people understand other cultures. I also want to encourage our church in friendship with people of other faiths, our ability to dialogue with them.”
Cheung is also from British Columbia. He pointed out that diversity also includes the diversity of languages. “I’m part of a classis where all the churches but mine are monolingual,” he noted, citing some of the challenges that that entails. “They don’t really understand us.”
He also pointed out that this can cause challenges. Sometimes, the person who can best speak English is selected to attend denominational meetings, for example, and this might not be representative of the larger group. “Ethnic minorities are not really well represented because we are not [all equally] identified. We [as the CRC] need to be more sensitive to that,” he said.
Wilson is from the Chicago area of Illinois. In addition to serving Synod 2017, he also had the opportunity to lead worship on June 10.
Up to seven ethnic advisers can be appointed to synod, but that number is decreased if the percentage of delegates to synod who are from ethnic backgrounds increases. This year, of 182 delegates chosen to attend synod, only 27 are people of color.
For continuous coverage of Synod 2017 including the live webcast, news, video recordings, photos, liveblog, social media links, and more visit www.crcna.org/synod.
