Two Sydney parishes are partnering with a pair of innovative church plants in an initiative that will help reach the city’s huge multicultural population.
St David’s, Arncliffe and St Andrew’s, Strathfield have become ‘home base’ for Cross-cultural Bible Church (CBC) and Korean Bible Fellowship (KBF) respectively. Both ministries were originally planted by St Matthias’, Centennial Park.
CBC began meeting, under the name Greek Bible Fellowship, on the campus of UNSW in 1985. Recently moving to Ashbury Anglican Church, a growing children’s ministry meant they began to outgrow those facilities.
When they were invited to become part of St David’s, the Rev Moussa Ghazal, pastor of CBC, says they jumped at the chance despite the difficulty of relocating. “Moving to an area that is predominantly made up of Greeks, Macedonians and Arabs means some exciting possibilities open up ahead of us,” he said.
CBC has an average attendance of 80 adults a week, with 70 children. Mr Ghazal hopes the added responsibilities of a local parish will enhance CBC’s work, rather than prove a distraction.
“We aim to reach as many people from the cross-cultural community as possible,” he says. “I think the schools ministry, and taking over other aspects of the parish’s responsibilities, will only help us in doing that.”
Across town, the Korean Bible Fellowship’s partnership with St Andrew’s, Strathfield is likely to provide a similar boost. The Rev Kevin Kim, pastor of KBF and new rector of St Andrew’s, says there are around 50,000 Koreans in Sydney, most of whom live within half an hour’s drive of Strathfield.
“Being the hub of the Korean community [the Diocese] thought Strathfield was an appropriate place for us to go, and the existing congregation was looking for something that would revitalise the parish,” he said.
Starting with 15 members in 1990, KBF now has around 90 adults and 60 kids at its morning service, plus 60 students and new graduates in the evening. “We’re now better resourced to continue our ministry to Koreans, but we are also positioned to extend our horizons beyond the Korean community and evangelise the area,” Mr Kim said.
