Interculturality was recently featured during a webinar by the Union of International Superior Generals in Rome. During the talk, Sr. Patricia Murray, IBVM, the Executive Secretary of UISG spoke at length on the difficulties and opportunities interculturality presents. She noted that interculturality impacts nearly every part of a congregation, even in ways that seem minor, as when there was a miscommunication about the meaning of “purse” between UISG and some American congregations, as the word has different meanings in different English-speaking countries.
You can see Sr. Murray’s entire talk here, as well as an a talk from March 2021 on “Interculturality as Witness” by Sr. Chinyeaka C. Ezeani, MSHR. An older essay from Sr. Adriana Carla Milmanda, SSpS offers a brief explainer on interculturality, while Sr. Thuy Tran, CSJ reflects on the challenges and joys of interculturality in an essay on Giving Voice. Additionally, Giving Voice has a peer-led series of workshops aimed at letting younger women religious encounter each other as intercultural.
Books that treat elements of interculturality include Engaging our Diversity: Interculturality and Consecrated Life, eds. Sr. Maria Cimperman, RSCJ and Rev. Roger Schroeder, SVD (Orbis Books), Henning Wrogemann’s trilogy Intercultural Theology (IVP Academic), Rev. Anthony Gittins, CSSp’s Living Mission Interculturally (Liturgical Press), Sr. Sophia Park’s Conversations at the Well (Wipf and Stock), several chapters from In Our Own Words: Religious Life in a Changing World, eds. Juliette Mousseau, RSCJ and Sarah Kohles, OSF (Liturgical Press), and Sr. Chinyeaka C. Ezeani, MSHR’s Interculturality in Religious Life (Paulines Publications Africa, available here).
