Mutual Radical Accompaniment with Global Partners

The Partner Council of The United Church of Canada, supported by the Church´s Global Partnership Team, hosted a gathering of a total of 77 Global Partners from the African, Asian, Middle East, and Latin American Regions, as well as Global Ecumenical Partners from the World Council of Churches and World Student Christian Federation. All met to divine the spirit of Mutual Radical Accompaniment—and the tangible opportunities that flow from this bold framework. 

The United Church of Canada has committed to decolonizing its structures, policies, processes, and practices​. In the work of Global Partnership, this manifests as our goal of Mutual Radical Accompaniment: 

Radical Accompaniment is a framework and a starting point for the church to live into commitments to authentic mutuality and equity; to building relationships of trust, respect, and transparency; to engage with others in God’s Mission of abundant life for all humanity and Creation; to challenge narratives of decline and despair.

This meeting was the beginning of a process that seeks to unlearn persistent colonial and neo-colonial ways of engaging in partnership—to not re-package new wine in old wineskins. It seeks to be contextual, partner-led, and rooted in communities. It seeks to discern a different type of relationship: no parent-child, no donor-receiver, no one partner dictating because they have resources; all these resources belong to God—we are merely stewards. Discussions centred on creating mechanisms for intentional partner engagement on Mending the World.

Key Reflections

Global Partners’ conversations during the meeting began uncovering the challenges and opportunities inherent in this new path. Reflections included:

• Resources do not just mean financial—they also mean human, organizational, and spiritual resources. 
• Partners wish to connect south-south, not only north-south, share these resources, and empower each other. In these efforts, all belong: all ideas, inputs, skills, knowledge, capacities, and resources are welcome and needed towards mutual accompaniment and transformation​. 
• Partners have important resources to share with the United Church, such as experience living through crises, gifts of spirituality, training, knowledge, and generous hospitality.
• It is difficult to imagine a new framework: “We are all so colonized that is hard to think about how to do this. We are used to ‘them’ telling ‘us’ how to get funding.  We are invited to participate in assemblies, but the tables where decisions are made about resources are not participatory.“
• Partners desire a process that strengthens and edifies their work, is not cumbersome, responds to regional priorities, and benefits the local communities with whom they work.

This meeting was a foundational first step in a longer journey of decolonizing and shifting power in decision-making—a journey that is necessary to embody the goal of mutual radical accompaniment.  We are called to be deep, bold and daring—and we believe that by trying and testing this approach, we can be part of a process of mutual transformation with partners and engage in relationships that are more equitable and just. 

Learn More About the Work of Global Partnership

Would you like to accompany the Global Partnership Team on our journey of daring justice, bold ideas, and deep radical accompaniment? Follow the United Action for Justice pages on Facebook, Twitter/X, and Instagram.

The Global Partnership Team engages many partner organizations around the world who work in a myriad of areas, including economic justice, human rights, food security/sovereignty, militarism and violence, water rights, refugees and migration, climate change, and many other interconnected issues. 

The Partner Council is one way the United Church lives out key partnership principles, enabling partner voices and input to be heard at all levels of the church, including governance structures, and affirming the importance of global partner accompaniment as we continue to live out God’s mission in Canada and globally. 

Read more about global partners and the Partner Council in the Downloads, below.