Preamble: When Abram answered God’s call to pack up his family and his belongings and move to another land, he did so without hesitation. But at the back of his mind he no doubt asked himself the same questions that many immigrants asked themselves when they landed on the shores of Australia or New Zealand some seventy years ago, and continue to ask on arrival today. “Now What?” Do we live as strangers in a foreign country, or do we follow the adage, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”? This in essence, is the question asked by a reader back in 1957. As you read this letter, think about what your response would have been to this reader. Maybe you have been in the same situation. What was your solution to this question? With hindsight, did you make the right decision? What do you advise newcomers to your church who come from a different background or culture?
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From Our Readers: SHALL WE ADOPT THE NEW OR MAINTAIN THE OLD? Trowel and Sword. February 1957
A wise man said: “The life of an immigrant is to compromise between adopting the new and maintaining the old”.
At one side, the circumstances we live in, press us to do away with many customs we were used to. At the other side, it is necessary to keep up the spiritual inheritance of our fathers, to stick to those ideas which are the backbone of our life.
When our first Dutch immigrants came here some six years ago, they were told to forget about all things behind, and to adopt the so called “Australian way of life”. Later on, this idea was replaced, also by our Australian friends, by: better not to put away TOO MUCH, but to assimilate into the Australian world carrying with us those good old principles, and to enrich the country we are now living in.
To compromise now, is to put away so much of our old customs etc. as we can dispose of without causing damage to our lives, and to keep up and bring into this new country of ours those old and true ideas which are really part of our lives, and of which we cannot dispose without much harm for ourself and our posterity.
We, immigrants, receive in this our new country many good things. We have a nearly unlimited freedom, and the possibility to build a new future for ourselves and for our children. However, as immigrants, we give away our labour, our loyalty, our intellect. And also, we must give to our Australian neighbourhood part of our spiritual inheritance, which we will never leave or forgot.
Even if our new friends are not too anxious to receive this inheritance, it is our Christian duty to show them the beauty and the riches of these old ideas, as to make them desirous to inherit with us.
But, what is the spiritual inheritance we brought with us when we came to our new country? Spiritual things are very difficult to express in words. But, we can see the most clear lines of it. Let us see ourselves through the eyes of the average Australian. They hold us for being industrious and hardworking, reliable, religious, regular churchgoers, as leading a sterling life. Against that, we have many vices ( talkativeness, envy, to mention a few), but that is often mainly confined to our own circle, and Australians do not see that so much.
Spiritual inheritance is of course connected with our own history and the history of our country. And now we migrants, must look for a compromise between old and new. We may never leave our inheritance, but must also take part, as far as possible, in the life of the Australian world around us.
The lines of the stamp of the Reformation should not fade. On the contrary, they must show perfectly, outside as well as inside our circle.
So help us God.
W.P., Orange NSW .
The subject touched here by br. P. deserves our attention indeed. However, I do not appreciate a word like compromising. Is it too “Australian minded” for us?
I prefer to speak about Integration which means so much as preserving your character and personality in a new world.
Provided, personality and character really exist!
Editor.
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