Who is my Neighbour?
Who are the people you’d rather not notice? Who challenges your assumptions? Who sits outside your comfort zone? What would it take to imagine them as a neighbour? Conrad Grebel University College President Marcus Shantz asked these questions of new cohort of students, staff, and faculty. He reflected on the story of the Good Samaritan, noting that the Samaritan was the character who was overlooked and undervalued.
“Grebel is a small college, but there is more diversity and difference here than is obvious on the surface,” he said, building on the theme of “Who is my neighbour?” “We come from many places, cultures, and countries. We express a rich range of personal identities. Some of us carry deep faith commitments; others are unsure. All of us belong.”
“In many ways, Grebel’s residence program focuses on building skills to be good neighbours,” explained Jessica Reesor Rempel, Director of Student Services. “When we gather for weekly Community Suppers to eat and learn together, we are practicing neighbourliness. When students spend some of their hard-earned tuition money to support refugee students to live at Grebel, they expand their understanding of neighbours.”
Grebel’s programs widen students’ sense of community. “Working towards more peaceful possibilities calls us to build just relationships through thought and action,” noted Peace and Conflict Studies Professor Eric Lepp. “In classrooms, internships, and experiential learning, our programming provides students with pathways to immerse themselves in environments where they live, work, and collaborate alongside people with different social, cultural, and economic backgrounds and worldviews. These experiences deepen our understandings of who are our neighbours and how we can build more just and peaceful futures.”
“Students born in Jamaica, Korea, China, Colombia, Ukraine, and Myanmar add their valuable perspectives to our class discussions,” said Carol Penner, Director of Theological Studies. “Students in their twenties, their forties, and their sixties study Old Testament together. Students of different genders and sexual orientations from a range of denominations bring their perspectives to pastoral care. We are glad to be studying together in an academic neighbourhood that is rich in diversity!”
At the end of his address, Shantz returned to his opening question. “By the end of this year, I hope you’ll be able to point to many people around you -- whose names you know, people who have shared their stories and struggles with you. People you have laughed and cried with. People who are unlikely friends. People who are no longer strangers.”
Published in the November 2025 issue of Canadian Mennonite.