Churches in Cultural Transition (CCT)
Equipping the Church to effectively receive refugees into their communities.
When Christian refugees come to resettle and make their home in a new country, their culture is often vastly different to their own. Church culture is not exempt from this difference.
We recongise that integration can be challenging both for refugees joining local churches, and for churches striving to be adequately equipped to welcome and support them.
We connect with churches across Australia, working on furthering training modules to prepare the communities to receive refugees with cultural awareness and sensitivity. We also partner with other organisations across the world (Brazil, Canada, New Zealand) who are also facing similar issues surrounding a smooth refugee-church integration.
What do these challenges look like?
Adib is a Christian from Afghanistan. As a leader of the underground church in Kabul, he was forced to flee after the Taliban takeover. Each week he held a secret church gathering in his home. It turns out his neighbours were spying on him, taking photos of the gatherings and the group reading the Bible together. They exposed him to the Taliban, forcing him to flee.
Upon arriving in Australia, Adib wanted to go to a church, but he had never seen a church building before.
When he entered, he was shocked to see that there was a livestream going on of the service for people to tune in at home. The camera and technology made him nervous. He did not want to enter out of fear of his digital footprint and safety issues. He was also concerned for his Christian friends who remained in hiding in Afghanistan, and any further proof of his faith could put them in danger.
He used to sit right at the back so that he was not caught on the camera, but after a while he decided to stop going due to the panic he felt during the services.
The training module addresses issues like these, and many more that churches can often overlook. It encourages communication between both parties, and how the church can best support these new valuable members of their church.
We aim to partner with them in eliminating the barriers that stop refugees from coming to church, to approach their issues with sensitivity, and to provide reassurance and understanding. This can be particularly challenging for those who have come from the persecuted church.
Donations to this appeal will go towards building the training budget.
Asha* (picutred below) is a Christian refugee who arrived in Australia after in 2023 after 30 years of displacement across Africa. Passionate about refugees and building God’s kingdom, we have partnered with him as he travels to churches around Australia, educating others about refugee integration. He speaks of his own experience of integration into Australian church-life, and how we can best help others like him in the future.
