Theology and Research

The Research and Theology group of FILL invites, fosters, and amplifies the many people working toward theologies of interculturality; connects faith based intercultural ministry to the learning of other disciplines; and initiates and brings together research on intercultural ministry in the churches.

This group was formed after a 2018 nation-wide ecumenical consultation to hear the experiences, resources, successes and needs of its members around relationships and ministry across cultural and racial differences. This consultation was a step toward forming the new CCC reference group, The Forum for Intercultural Leadership and Learning (FILL). That consultation identified a need for a “Canadian Centre for well-done theologies of intercultural ministry and racial justice.”

Interculturality Framework and Guiding Principles: an Invitation to Conversation and Dialogue

The Theology and Research Group offers this living document as a framework and guiding principles as it attempts to be open to and live out interculturality in our various church communities. The group recognizes that interculturality is a complex and painstaking process of mutual learning and of undoing inherited structures that privilege a small segment of society over others. As a living document, this will change over time as we become more sensitive to hearing God’s calling to become a prophetic community. The group offers this document as an invitation to conversation and dialogue toward understanding Interculturality in contexts across Canada:

Interculturality Framework and Guiding Principles: an Invitation to Conversation and Dialogue 
version française: Cadre et principes directeurs en matière d’interculturalité: une invitation à la conversation et au dialogue

National Conversation Toward Describing and Articulating “Interculturality” in Canadian Contexts.

In 2022, the Theology and Research group of The Forum for Intercultural Leadership and Learning invited small groups in contexts across Canada to read the document “Interculturality Framework and Guiding Principles: An Invitation to Conversation and Dialogue.” Local groups were invited to submit questions that emerged from reading the document together in their contexts. These questions provided a framework for a Canada-wide event in which participants shared stories of how these questions are being engaged in their contexts.

Download the initial report on these local conversations, the questions generated in these contexts, and the Canada-wide event.