Inter-cultural commission marks ten years

More than 100 delegates have gathered at the London City Mission headquarters to celebrate ten years of the Evangelical Alliance’s ‘One People Commission’ (OPC).

Anchored by Titilola Babarinde, the co-ordinator of the OPC, the celebration began with a time of collective worship.

Then there was a panel discussion involving OPC Director Israel Olofinjana, Tani Omideyi, Chrishanthy Sathyaraj, Steve Clifford and Bishop Wilton Powell. They considered the history of OPC and vital importance of what it aims to achieve: helping UK evangelical churches to grow inter-cultural church communities, advocating for racial justice and bringing together denominations to ‘reflect the multi-ethnic Kingdom of God’.

‘In 2022, the number of hate crimes recorded was 109,873 according to the Metropolitan Police. Over 8,700 of those hate crimes were religious ones,’ said Sathyaraj. ‘How would it look for us to be intentional, and pour our love into our Christian community?

The 2023 ‘Joel Edwards Award of Unity’ was then presented to Pastor Agu Irukwu (Church Ministry & Leadership) and Dr Krish Kandiah, OBE (Mission & Social Responsibility), before Olofinjana ended the evening by taking the guests on a brief journey of the present and future work of OPC.

In 2024, the OPC hope to release new resources and continue collaboration with different church networks to empower churches to build an intercultural approach. In a positive step towards this, the newly appointed South Asian Forum Coordinator, Rani Joshi, was introduced at the event, and an Intercultural Church resource video by the OPC was shared – a video to equip and inspire those who want to grow an intercultural church in a multicultural context.