cover
Roots
The Filipino evangelical
rooted back home and in
red Sebastian jokes that when he left his home
in Manila two decades ago for balmy Thunder
Bay, Ont., it was to pursue his “involvement
in journalism. I was delivering newspapers,”
chuckles the pastor, who now heads Church
of the Living Hope in Winnipeg. Like many
of his Filipino countrymen and women, Sebastian came to
Canada to find a new life unavailable back home. But those
opportunities weren’t simply limited to employment and
education. Sebastian had bigger things on his mind.
He went on to work as a dietary aid and a shipper/
receiver before pastoring a church full-time, but he credits
those early working environments as important training
grounds for his ministry in Canada. “I was going from a
city of 20 million to one less than 100,000; there was a lot
to learn about life here,” he says.
Sebastian’s story is common among Filipinos. He
moved to Canada to work and send money back home,
and in the process learned about his new country from
the ground up.
As a collective, Filipinos have formed an identity in Canada that is relationally focused, eschewing individualism in
favour of community. At the same time, Filipino-Canadians
have easily integrated into the multicultural framework of
this country, all the while maintaining strong connections
to their homeland. It’s a balancing act few cultures are able
to negotiate with such ease.
F
fred Sebastian preaches at church
of the living hope in Winnipeg,
where he serves as pastor.
Keeping the balance
For one, their community strongly identifies with its roots
without sequestering themselves to one end of town. As
one pastor told Faith Today, “Filipinos do not tend to cluster
like some nationalities have. They don’t make their own
‘neighbourhoods’ in cities – they blend in with the majority
of their adopted society.”
While there are pockets of Filipinos throughout Can-
ada – including a congregation of Evangelicals in Yellow-
