Cross-cultural initiatives such as ESL classes will help us to make contact with all parts of the community.

On a recent Sunday I attended St Peter’s, Cooks River, a small-ish inner city parish. In the 1950s it had flourishing congregations, but more recent decades have been a struggle. The main reason for this, of course, has been the population shift as new arrivals have moved into the area in large numbers.

The church is not large even now, but I think I saw there the future our Anglican Church is going to have to embrace if we are to reach out into the real Australian community. The church is an excellent mix of ages, and both sexes were well represented. More significantly, however, as well as people of English descent, I met people from Austria, Portugal, Italy, Slovenia, South Africa, Tonga and China.

We are often deeply troubled by the absence of the so-called ‘blue collar workers’ in our churches. I am not sure whether such a term is a very adequate description of the social make-up of the community, but it seems to me to be somewhat misleading as we think about the reality of modern Australia.

The greatest section of ‘blue collar workers’ who have been in our community over the last 50 years has been the newcomers from many lands. Our challenge as a church all along has been to welcome and incorporate the newcomers. Instead of bemoaning our inability to reach ‘blue collar workers’, it would have been more fruitful for local churches to have concentrated on the needs of migrants.

One of the most practical ways of helping newcomers is to give them experience and help in learning English. Over the years had we been keener to make contact with people from all parts of our community, we could have done a great deal more to provide help with language.

The good news, however, is that there are many new flourishing ‘English as a Second Language’ (ESL) initiatives in the Diocese. This is an excellent idea, and I commend it warmly.

Whether ESL is the best way of making contact or not, I have no conclusive evidence. Yet what is certain is that our churches will have to reflect a far broader mix of ethnic backgrounds than they do at the moment if we want to be part of the Australia of the future. Our care and evangelism must embrace all and not merely some.