Education and Learning about Anti-racism

Becoming an Intercultural Church

October 14 to November 25, 2026 | Wednesdays, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. ET

What does it mean to become an intercultural church? How can congregations move beyond inclusion and diversity initiatives toward genuine transformation rooted in relationship, shared responsibility, and faith?

In this six-week online course, participants will explore how churches can embrace intercultural ministry as a way of being, rather than simply a program or strategy. Drawing on intercultural theology, biblical reflection, ecumenical missiology, and lived experiences of church communities, the course invites ministers, lay leaders, and congregational teams to reimagine the church as a community shaped by listening, companionship, mutual learning, and hope.

Designed for small teams from congregations but open to individuals, this accessible and interactive course will help participants engage questions of belonging, power, reconciliation, and diversity while considering practical applications for their own ministry contexts. Together, participants will explore faithful ways of living and leading in an increasingly diverse, wounded, and interconnected world.

The course is facilitated by Rev. Dr. Hyuk Cho, Director of United Church Formation and Studies at the Vancouver School of Theology. A respected scholar in postcolonial mission and intercultural theology, Dr. Cho is the author of Relation without Relation and co-author of Decolonizing Diakonia.

Weekly themes will follow the seasons of the church year, culminating in a vision for becoming an intercultural church:

• October 14: Advent: Waiting in Changing Landscapes
• October 21: Christmas: Crumbs or Banquet? Confronting Racism as a Theological Wound
• October 28: Epiphany: Intercultural Theology and the Gift of the Other
• November 4: Lent: Missio Dei and Restraint from Mastery
• November 18: Easter: Reconciliation without Mastery
• November 25: Pentecost: Becoming an Intercultural Church

Find more information and register through CHURCHx.

Anti-Racism Video Series

The United Church has released a video series on becoming an anti-racist church. The series, available on YouTube, features four United Church leaders. One video explores the realities of being a church that is rooted in racism, while another focuses on theology and faith. Additional videos will become available; accompanying study questions will also follow.

Policies and Background Documents

The United Church has a number of policies and background documents on anti-racism:

• Commitment to becoming an anti-racist denomination (2020)
• A Short Timeline of Racial Justice Work in the United Church
• Working Towards Becoming an Anti-Racist Denomination (2020)
• “That All May Be One” (2000)
• Calls to the Church (2018)
• Mending the World: An Ecumenical Vision for Healing and Reconciliation (1997)

Ongoing United Church Work

Learn more about United Church racial justice training and our work on reconciliation and Indigenous justice, interfaith relations, and interculturalism.

Ecumenical Partners

• World Council of Churches, Being church and overcoming racism: It's time for transformative justice
• Canadian Council of Churches, Cracking Open White Identity Towards Transformation: Canadian Ecumenical Anti-Racism Network Examines White Identity, Power and Privilege (excerpts and ordering info)
• Deepening Understanding for Intercultural Ministry, a program of the Forum for Intercultural Leadership and Learning

For More Information