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.  

In this second episode of the "Curious" series, we look at reasons why faith communities (and other groups) might want to consider opening themselves to welcome greater cultural diversity - because Canada itself has changed, and is changing - dramatically. We look at the extraordinary transformation that is going on in the cultural make-up of our land - by looking specifically at census data, and at projections by Statistics Canada of what we are likely to look like in 15-20 years.

Much of this episode focuses on information in the less-than-inspirationally-titled study, by Statistics Canada, called Immigration and Diversity: Population Projections for Canada and its Regions, 2011-2016. Just over 50 years ago something happened that changed the entire direction of Canada - or, rather... stopped happening. Canadians stopped having as many babies - the birth rate dropped below replacement level. Since then our population increase has come primarily through immigration. In a few years almost all of our population increase will come through immigration - and these new folk are coming primarily from Asia and South Asia, plus significant numbers from Africa and the Middle East. This means the racial character of Canada is shifting - and soon, in many urban centres, the so-called 'visible minority' will, in fact, be the majority.

This episode probes into these shifts, and asks what they mean for Canadians, for our identity and character, why they have happened and where they are likely to lead us.

Episode recorded before full effect of Covid-19 pandemic

In this episode we continue to explore why faith communities and other groups might want to intentionally open outwards, welcome the new diverse folk who are the new Canada. Today we look specifically at the impact of both the declining birth rate in Canada and the dramatic rise in immigration on the church itself. 

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?  Bill Millar, in this follow-up to Episode 2's exploration of demographic changes and projections, explores pathways to help individuals and churches mobilize hope by opening their hearts, minds and communities to "the strangers", newcomers, those who are now providing our growth as a nation.

After these days of shuttered churches, our time of sheltering in, once more will come a time for opening out. It will not be a return to what was, but some kind of new time for churches - we will need to decide how we open out and to whom we want to be open. Same old, or new people, different people, all people? 

This is the first in our 'Considering' series. Here we dig a bit deeper, get a bit more into the specifics, the messy and wondrous nitty-gritty of opening our communities of faith to everyone, including those with a very different cultural background.

In this episode we pick up on the theme of Curious 1, exploring what we might look like if we truly did 'open out' - looking, for example, at how a traditional Japanese church in Montreal opened itself to their Filipino and Pakistani neighbours and emerged as a rainbow community. 

We look specifically at the different levels of welcome a community might wish to express, from not-welcome to transformational welcome. 

This episode was written and produced before the full impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was upon us.

When our computers stop doing the things we want them to, we reboot the system.  How can we reboot our thinking? Our relationships? Our churches? Our brains naturally perceive anything ‘different’ as a potential threat – so how can we help our brains adapt? This episode helps us prepare by understanding how privilege works & how it limits us,  as well as what helps people’s minds open out.

This episode was written and produced  as the full impact of Covid-19 was just beginning to be felt. As the pandemic has spread across the world, we have seen the most astonishing thing - a near global rebooting. We have shut down our economy, turned off our commuting, reconfigured how we can be church to one another. Inevitably at some point, following these days of sheltering in will give way to a time of opening outwards. When, at last, we take down the shutters from our churches and other places of worship, and we open the doors again - we will decide how far we want to open those doors, to whom do we want to open our faith communities? Same old, or everyone, including those who have different cultural backgrounds? This episode can help us do that with new clarity.

In this episode we will look at the unique patterns of both privilege and entitlement in faith communities, and help our brains find new ways of navigating unfamiliar paths.

This episode picks up on some of the thoughts of last week's "Rebooting", but in today's we focus specifically on the actual mechanics of how we change. Our brains are hard-wired to resist change, yet and this is so evident on a global scale at this point in the Covid-19 crisis, humans have a remarkable ability to change, to adapt - and to do so quickly. Why can we do it, if not effortlessly, at least effectively, sometimes - yet at other times change can be so difficult? 

At this point, we do not know what life will be like after this pandemic, but we can be pretty sure it will be different than life before. The church, which at times has seemed so adventure-adverse has risen to the challenge amazingly, providing new, creative ways for folk to connect and be community together. After this time of sheltering in will, inevitably, come a time of opening out, and we will, at that point either intentionally or by default decide to whom we want to open our faith communities - same old? or all the folk that God might want to invite (even if they have a very different cultural background).  This episode provides a base for helping communities navigate through the change process.