This month the Assembly Resourcing Unit has led a series of online conversations about the intercultural life and ministry of the Uniting Church.
In the final Let's Yarn conversation, Rev Dr Paul Goh will share his research on Intercultural communities within the Synod of South Australia.
Mapping Intercultural Neighbourhoods in SA: CALD and Intercultural Ministries Survey 2020-2021
This work-in-progress project explores how to engage and connect with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities from the majority world in South Australian Uniting Church congregations and their neighbourhoods.
Based on an online survey of 55 Uniting Church members, including both lay people and ministers, it investigates how congregations have responded to their increasingly multicultural contexts and reflects on the status of intercultural ministry in progressing and embodying the Uniting Church’s vision of being a multicultural church.
Data from 30 interviews with CALD faith community leaders including first and second-generation immigrants from Asian and African backgrounds were analysed in three categories: gifts and graces, felt needs and challenges, and aspirations and opportunities for building relationships and partnerships.
It concludes with recommendations for becoming an intentionally intercultural neighbourhood church.
You can join Let’s Yarn About Our Intercultural Church on Thursday 26 August, 7.30pm AEST via Zoom with the following link or by putting in the meeting I.D. and passcode below.
Meeting ID: 830 5473 8073
Passcode: 441517
Rev Dr Paul Goh holds a PhD in practical theology from Boston University School of Theology. Currently he is working with Mission Resourcing team of the Uniting Church South Australian Synod as Justice and CALD Multicultural and Cross-Cultural Officer and also providing supervisions to post graduate students at Adelaide College of Divinity. He taught at Alphacrucis College, Sydney College of Divinity, and Pilgrim Theological College in both undergraduate and graduate courses as a sessional lecturer and associate teacher. Originally ordained at the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) and now being a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia, Paul served three congregations in Melbourne including Anglo, Korean, and Fijian. He serves on the Australian Association of Mission Studies Executive Committee and a member of several scholarly Associations in the fields of missiology and intercultural theology.