Church leads by example on Owatonna

In the days, weeks, months and years following the first Easter, nearly 2,000 years ago, the leaders of the early church were looking for some sign of what shape their mission to world would take. Would they remain a small faction within Judaism, as some of the early church fathers believed and likely hoped they would? Or would their mission take them to the gentiles as well? In the end, Christians came to believe that they were being called to take their message of love and forgiveness across ethnic lines and to the ends of the earth.
A vision of that universal brotherhood came to Owatonna on Saturday, on the eve of Easter, the day that Christians throughout the world celebrate as the center of their liturgical year. A group of Christians gathered in the Associated Church Saturday afternoon to celebrate their faith in a special worship service. What made the event unusual was that the vast majority of those who came together that afternoon were African immigrants who had come to the United States as refugees from war-torn African nations. They came here to Owatonna to share not the things that separated them, but to celebrate the faith that united them.
What made Saturday’s celebration so inspiring was the fact that few of those who gathered at the church for that day’s worship were actual members of the Associated Church. They came to the church from across southern Minnesota, Iowa and as far away as Kansas City, Mo.
Since time immemorial, humans have had the tendency to concentrate on the things that separate them from others — tribe, clan, race, religion, culture, you name it. As the world has grown smaller through the explosion of technology, the concentration on our differences has been amplified. The end result has been that the world has become an even more dangerous place.
We appreciate the example of the Associated Church, for seeing beyond differences of culture, race and language to reach out to others and make them welcome. Let us hope we can all follow that example.

Owatonna People’s Press editorials are the opinion of the Press editorial board. Other editorials, columns, letters and cartoons appearing on this page are the opinions of the authors and artists and not necessarily the People’s Press.

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