Intercultural Ministries is a focus of the Office of Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries. At Pentecost, God’s Spirit created the intercultural church, leaving cultural and linguistic identities in place and unifying them in the creation of a new, and larger, expression of common humanity.
Biblical Mandate
Our work is driven by mandates from the Word of God. Biblical references for our work are found below.
“Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 13:29)
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place…” (Acts 2:1)
“…no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female…” (Galatians 3:28)
“…a house of prayer for all peoples…” (Isaiah 56:7b)
“…a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language…” (Revelation 7:9)
“…all are one in Christ…” (Galatians 3:28)
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19)
Becoming an intercultural church means living together with an awareness of each other’s distinctiveness and valuing our differences. We do this by examining ourselves, building relationships, and distributing power fairly.
Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries promotes and encourages the vision of intercultural ministries. Our Office works with congregations and mid councils, the Presbyterian Intercultural Network (PIN), and the Presbyterian Intercultural Young Adult Network (PIYAN) to help develop strategies and coordinate efforts for intercultural ministries in the church. By doing so, the office assists the PC(USA) in its efforts to become God’s intercultural community – facing racism and building multiracial, multilingual and intercultural communities of faith.
Here you can find the Intercultural Initiative approved by the 223rd General Assembly (2018): “Declare an Imperative for the Reformation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in being a Transformative Church in This Intercultural Era”.