General News and Announcements

In Canada, June 27 is recognized as Canadian Multiculturalism Day.

Established by the Canadian government in 2002, and first celebrated in 2003, Canadian Multiculturalism Day is a day of awareness and recognition of cultural diversity in the Canadian context. On Multiculturalism Day in particular, Canadians can honour the contributions of diverse cultural groups to Canadian society, and focus on equality and mutual respect for one another.

The United Church of Canada has made a commitment to becoming an intercultural church—what’s the difference between multicultural and intercultural?

In multicultural communities, we live alongside one another. We value tolerance, and celebrate one another’s culturally distinctive cuisine, dress, music, dance, and related outward expressions of culture. It usually requires only superficial and polite social interaction.

In our intercultural commitment, we want to go beyond this.

In intercultural communities, there is comprehensive mutuality, reciprocity, and equality. Our social structures and everyday interactions are defined by justice, mutuality, respect, equality, understanding, acceptance, freedom, diversity, peace-making, and celebration. Intercultural community hopes to take us deeper than multicultural models of community.

We are inviting United Churches to use Canadian Multiculturalism Day as an opportunity to learn more about what it means to become an intercultural church. Churches may choose to have an intercultural focus the day before—on Sunday, June 26.

Several resources are available to help mark Canadian Multiculturalism day:

• Explore articles written about what it means to become an intercultural church
• Use some of the worship resources on intercultural ministries
• Read more about Canadian Multiculturalism Day
• Our Common Vision: Becoming an Intercultural Church is the United Church’s newest DVD, and it focuses on what it means to become an intercultural church. View a segment of the video; order the video from UCRD.

For more information, please visit Intercultural Ministries, or e-mail Intercultural Ministries.