Andrew Dick's study on migratory Mennonite communities will benefit Canadians and the field of migration research more broadly, as it demonstrates the ways religious groups accommodate their theology and practice to their new environments.
Andrew Dick, Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Humanities (2022), explores the doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers” and the way it is applied in migratory Mennonite communities. He is an award recipient for the Canada Graduate Scholarships —Master’s award (SSHRC CGS-M), a federal grant of $17,500. Dick’s work is relevant to the current social and political context in Canada, which has seen a rapid increase in immigration over the last few years.
According to a 2016 census, immigrants made up 21.9% of Canada’s population. Between 2011 and 2016 alone, 1.2 million new immigrants entered Canada.
In B.C., immigrants represent 28.3% of the population, while in the City of Vancouver, immigrants make up 42.5% of the population.
Religion and Canada’s immigration patterns
Dick’s research will benefit Canadians and the field of migration research more broadly, as it demonstrates the ways religious groups accommodate their theology and practice to their new environments.
According to recent surveys, immigrants in Canada are twice as likely to adhere to religious beliefs and practices, Dick reports.
“I find this interesting, as governmentally, Canada is largely a secular and post-Christian nation,” he notes.
“Demographically, it is a pluralistic society, and one that can commonly experience cultures in opposition,” he continues.
Rise in anti-immigration attitudes in Canada
According to a 2019 EKOS Politics poll on attitudes to immigration in Canada, 40% of Canadians believed there are "too many.... visible minorities coming to Canada."
Dick explains, “As human beings we often fear the unknown and act on that fear with negative responses towards those we view as 'other.'”
“Citizens who view this otherness with fear often react with bigotry against the tendency of immigrants to adhere to religious beliefs, and in Canada, we have seen the rise in popularity of anti-immigration rhetoric and politics,” Dick reports.
In response, immigrants may feel the pressure to adapt their religious practices as they seek to integrate into their new environment.
“Immigrants, especially those of visible minorities, are often viewed with fear on the basis of religion, and can find it difficult to navigate their new environment with these additional issues while holding to their religious identity,” Dick says.
How immigrants accommodate their religious beliefs
Dick’s research will demonstrate the ways in which religious groups accommodate their theology and practice to their new environments. “I hope it will add value to the way in which Canadians view those who hold different religious beliefs than their own,” he says.
Dick has chosen to study the effects of migratory experience on religious faith and practice among Mennonite communities. “Migration has long been a part of the Mennonite identity, even among those who are the grandchildren or great grandchildren of those who migrated,” he says.
Specifically, Dick’s proposed research will examine the effects of migration on three different communities of Mennonites: the Russländer Mennonites who settled in Yarrow, British Columbia; the Swiss Mennonites who immigrated to the Franconia and Lancaster districts of Eastern Pennsylvania; and the Dutch Mennonites who immigrated to Danzig, Prussia (modern day Gdansk, Poland).
Dick will use qualitative historical research methods, through careful analysis of Mennonite devotional literature, confessional writings, letters and private papers to explore the doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers” and the way it functioned in Mennonite communities.
The inspiration for Dick’s study comes from his own family, “I was inspired to choose the Dutch immigration to Danzig (Gdansk) and the Russlaender migration to Yarrow as my family history is intertwined with these two migrations,” he says. “I find it quite interesting as it shows a snapshot of these communities and how they developed later after multiple migrations.”
He chose the Swiss Mennonite migration to Pennsylvania as this group originates its Anabaptist theology independently of the Dutch Mennonites, and also underwent a large migration.
Dick will explore the doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers” and the way it functioned in Mennonite communities.
The doctrine of “the priesthood of all believers” among migratory Mennonites
Dick is particularly interested in doctrine “the priesthood of all believers” as it was practiced in a revolutionary way among Mennonite communities.
“This doctrine was not a new one in Christianity,” he says, “but it took on new meaning amidst Mennonites as it decentralized teaching and pastoral responsibilities, and redistributed those responsibilities among all the members of the church.”
Dick says, “I want to see specifically how this practice evolved or was affected by the experience of migration.”
About Trinity Western University
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