Director of Partnerships, Africa, Europe, and MENA

One December evening, my church home group gathered around my kitchen table for our regular meeting. Among us are an adult education expert, a musician, a couple of IT professionals, an artist, and a salesperson — a diverse group brought together by a shared desire to study the Bible, reflect on our discipleship, and pray together. That evening, I asked what partnership means to them. We discussed how partnerships require giving and receiving, and that partnership is built on trust and relationship. The group compared partnership to a puzzle, where different skills, experiences, resources, and knowledge come together to create a more vibrant picture. And we all agreed: partnerships shape us. 

Canadian Baptist Ministries is shaped by the people and organizations we partner with. We believe that the partnerships we build and nurture with our Canadian churches, with our partners around the globe, and with one another need to demonstrate that we are a “grateful, forgiving, and hope-filled community,” as expressed by our Executive Director Jennifer Lau at our Global Gathering in Frankfurt in November 2024.

We believe that the partnerships we build and nurture […] need to demonstrate that we are a ‘grateful, forgiving, and hope-filled community.

On this journey, we have identified four pillars for our partnerships: 

• We enter into partnerships by invitation
• We build relationships that carry the partnership through the good times and the difficult 
• We respect mutuality and recognize the need for everyone around the table to learn from each other and support one another 
• We aspire to be sustainable, so that the fruit of our partnership would last even after certain people are gone, and programs finished, yet the seeds of it would sprout, grow, and continue revealing God’s Kingdom 

This is our desire. Sometimes we do well; sometimes we make mistakes. But we know where to turn when we need wisdom: there is no better example of the ecosystem of partnerships than the Trinity. True, the Trinity is a mystery that even two thousand years of Christian theology has not been able to fully uncover. Yet, there is much we can learn from the Bible and from the very rich Christian theological tradition from East to West.

Rublev’s Icon

One of the expressions of this rich tradition is the icon by Andrei Rublev (14th-15th century), called “The Trinity.”1 For us Baptists, the icons often don’t make sense. Yet, in Eastern Orthodoxy, the icons play a very significant role. They are considered the windows to heaven. They frame something of the divine reality and help those who are praying to fix their eyes on something other than themselves. So, when Orthodox Christians look at the icon, they focus their prayer and worship on the topic of that icon, not on what they need from God.

Rublev’s icon is based on the story of three men visiting Abraham and his wife Sarah in Mamre (Genesis 18). Abraham receives the guests and serves them a meal. As the conversation continues, the Biblical language changes from “three men” into “the Lord,” and Abraham seems to be talking to God. Rublev paints these three men as three angels who also serve as a metaphor for the three persons of the Trinity. This is recognizable from the symbols painted above the three figures. 

The first figure represents God the Father — above, you see the house, which symbolizes the whole of creation as the Father’s household. The second figure represents God the Son, the tree above him stands for the oak tree in Mamre, but also for the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden, and ultimately the tree from which the cross was made for Jesus’ crucifixion. The third figure represents God the Holy Spirit. The mountain above this figure represents the place to encounter God (Moses on Mount Sinai, the disciples and Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration), and tells us that, through the Holy Spirit, even we can encounter and experience God today.

God is ready to accompany us on our human road where we stumble and grow tired, reminding us that we are not alone.

The Sticks

There are many symbols in this icon, but I will highlight two for our reflection on partnerships. As you can see, each person holds a stick. Why would angels, as depicted by Rublev, need a stick? What is the stick for? Can you stumble when you fly? Can your legs grow tired in the air? Well, we don’t know as we don’t share that experience. But we do know that on our own journey, stumbling and growing weary are very real, and we need support along the way. In the icon, the walking sticks symbolize that these three persons are willing to enter into our journey if we invite them. God is ready to accompany us on our human road where we stumble and grow tired, reminding us that we are not alone.

Similarly, CBM enters into partnerships when we are invited. But what does that truly mean? Yes, we sign the partnership agreements. Yes, Canadian churches help to fund programs across the globe. Yes, we visit our partners and invite them to visit us. But above all, I believe we are invited to become companions on a shared journey.

Becoming a companion means allowing our own story to be shaped by the stories of our partners as they serve their communities and build their churches. Just as the angels visiting Abraham became travellers, and just as God’s own story was shaped by becoming flesh and walking on this earth, we, too, are called to journey alongside one another.

When the Ukraine war began nearly three years ago, I worked for the European Baptist Federation (EBF) and coordinated the global Baptist response for the Ukrainian Baptist Union and its neighbouring countries. One of the issues I struggled with at the time was safeguarding policies. For example, in small Ukrainian church communities, it feels unthinkable not to hug a child grieving the loss of a father on the frontline. Yet for Western funders, implementing safeguarding policies to protect children from abuse was essential. And these policies included guidelines that limited physical contact between volunteers and children.

How to navigate this? How to reconcile these very different approaches and bridge the cultural differences? As we listened to each other, we learned to respect each other’s perspectives and find a mutually satisfactory solution for the safeguarding principles. This is true for all partnerships — we need to enter into each other’s stories, build relationships, listen to one another, and learn from one another. We need a mutual learning experience to journey together so that our partnerships would glorify

God and God’s Kingdom may grow.

Around tables, relationships are built — together with food, lives are shared, and mutuality is embodied.

The Table

Another symbol on Rublev’s icon is the table at the centre of the image. It represents Abraham’s hospitality to the angels. Hospitality opens space for new opportunities and perspectives to emerge. Around tables, relationships are built — together with food, lives are shared, and mutuality is embodied. Sharing food, one of the basic human needs, builds a foundation of trust and fosters the sharing of the deeper needs of human existence. 

Yet another layer of Rublev’s icon is that this table becomes the symbol of God’s hospitality. As the angels eat, the conversation unfolds, and the guests share a prophetic message about Abraham and Sarah’s future — they will have a son. This is a message of God’s grace — from a human perspective, having a son would have seemed impossible given Sarah’s age.

On the table, there is a bowl with roasted lamb in it. It represents God’s lamb sacrificed for the world — an expression of God’s timeless and boundless grace poured out for the flourishing of the world. Now, it is not only Abraham’s table; it is God’s table to those who have invited thirsty and hungry travellers to find new strength in a shared meal. Abraham was gracious to his guests and God’s grace filled Abraham’s life and gave it a new direction. This story echoes the New Testament account of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after Jesus had been crucified and buried. They welcomed a stranger into their home and offered him a meal, only to discover that it was Jesus himself who broke bread for them. The disciples’ hospitality and the shared meal provided an entirely new perspective on their lives.

On Rublev’s icon, the table is depicted in such a way that the free space is on the viewer’s side. It is not only Abraham’s table where he invited his guests. As it has become God’s table, we are invited to take our place and become the recipients of God’s grace. And it is now we who are welcomed, equally with everyone else.

Gathered by God’s Grace

From Rublev’s icon and the biblical account, we learn that the Triune God is not an exclusive club. Jesus says in the Gospel of John: “On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14:20). By God’s grace, we are invited to join God’s table. However, Miroslav Volf makes its impact on us very clear. He says, “Inscribed on the very heart of God’s grace is the rule that we can be its recipients only if we do not resist being made into its agents; what happens to us must be done by us.”2

Volf reminds us that as we participate in God’s work for the flourishing of the world, we act in God’s place, extending God’s grace to a stumbling, weary, and broken world. What happens to us must also be done by us. This forms the foundation of mutuality in our partnerships and guides us as we continue our journey with partners around the globe.

At God’s table, there is always a free space for others to join.

1 The interpretation of the icon follows the tradition presented by the Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Parish in Pullman, Washington, US.

2 Miroslav Volf, 1996. Exclusion & Embrace, p. 129.