Blooming in the Desert – Episode 7-Unity and Diversity from St. Paul’s International Food Festival 2009

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A lot of hard work went into this year's International Food Festival. But this is the case every year.

Steve, Andrew and I, the hosts of Blooming in the Desert, thought it would be a worthwhile show this time around right from within the Festival itself.

We set up our little booth and basically worked with our theme, "Unity and Diversity" as a backdrop for the show's theme. We begin the show discussing amongst ourselves the sheer miracle of mingling with people of so many diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds in a setting which lends itself to a needed cooperation between peoples who otherwise would never have had reason to be united under any cause, voluntarily.

Now to many Americans in other Christian communities, or even communities that are not Christian or religious, this may not seem unusual because in our larger cities the "melting pot" understanding of things seems to be normative and expected. But if we examine the reason for this it is quickly discovered that this outward "unity" we have as Americans is not one brought about by a common heritage or understanding of what it means to be an American, but rather it can almost be said to be an economic arrangement whereby we cooperate to promote and preserve opportunities and a lifestyle centered around making money.

What is unique in Orthodoxy is that in the Church, as mentioned in the podcast show, ethnicities are not dissolved but rather are preserved within the Church and retain their distinctness. Something of that which is good and comes about with age retains its value not only in a sentimental fashion but in a manner where the value is of such an essence that it actually has the power and the capability of rendering intact another world within which one may experience the timeless.

Its almost as if we may say that in the Church is captured and preserved a mode of being completely other than the current of the world direction which rushes away from tradition and permanency towards anything which is new and holds promise for those enamored with newness, tired of all the old ways.

Now we don't actually go in this direction in this particular show but here I share some of my own thoughts having listened to it.

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