We are living in a time of transition, when the character, the personality of Canada [and all of NA] is changing, morphing. In many cities, the 'visible minority' now are actually the majority - and within a few years this will be true in most of our urban centres.

Open Out is a podcast series to empower everyday folk to live courageously, even joyfully, in the midst of these reconfiguration. Canada has changed, is changing - a country today in which the people themselves are as diverse as the land itself. This is a series about the nitty-gritty of creating and living in intercultural communities, the practical side of welcoming folk from different cultures into our lives. It is a safe space where all of us, no matter what our cultural background is, can gently open our hearts and heads to diversity, create space in our personal lives and faith communities for those who not only look and sound different, but also think and act in ways we might not expect.

While funded by a grant from the United Church Foundation, to equip congregations with new resources, the information in these podcasts can benefit all kinds of groups. This first episode is an introduction to the entire series.

This first series of Open Out podcasts, called "Curious" begins to explore that the possibilities are for faith communities who want to be intentionally open to welcoming folk who are somehow different - often those with different cultural backgrounds, including those who are new Canadians. We move from there to look at why a faith community might want to do that - and this means looking at the changes in both our country, and in our churches. Our country is experiencing a dramatic shift in its growth pattern - we are now growing mostly through immigration, and most of our immigrants are non-white &  non-European. Our churches too are experiencing a dramatic shift in their growth pattern - but for many this has meant shrinking.

Rather than lamenting the declining attendance in our churches as a bad/sad thing, what if we see it as a Divine invitation to a radical new hope, a re-conceptualization of church in Canada. In these podcasts, Bill Millar, an intercultural ministry researcher & trainer, presents specific info on demographic changes and projections in the Canadian population, as well as patterns of church decline, and then explore strategies to lift churches out of shock and discouragement – helping them mobilize hope by opening their faith communities to more diverse populations!

This episode, "What are the possibilities" looks at just that - what are the possibilities for faith communities who want to "open out" in new ways? We look at the story of one faith community that made such a change, and look at the difference between being simply "diverse" and being "intercultural" - becoming intercultural means opening the very heart of our communities to those who are new, those who bring the insights, vision, passion and resilience that has grown out of their experience of "coming from away"

On openout.ca you can download some material from this episode.

This episode was recorded before we felt the full impact of Covid-19

Given the dramatic changes in our world over the last few months, and especially, for North America in the last weeks, the context for Open Out, and for conversations about interculturalism and faith communities has changed significantly. In fact, most of those faith communities are currently closed. . . literally. 

This is a special edition of Open Out, looking at the impact of fear in our current situation.