New WCC Publications book invites churches to become intercultural through companionship

New WCC Publications book invites churches to become intercultural through companionship

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Thu, 10/22/2026 - 14:20

Becoming an Intercultural Church: Companionship in a Wounded World, by Hyuk Cho, has been published by the World Council of Churches (WCC). The book is written for churches, particularly in North America and Europe, that find themselves between inherited certainties that no longer hold and futures not yet visible.

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Cho, a member of the WCC central committee, and an ordained minister of The United Church of Canada who teaches at Vancouver School of Theology, suggests that what is often named as decline may also be a site of formation. “ This does not deny loss, nor does it romanticize diminishment,” he writes.

Central to the book is the distinction between multicultural and intercultural. “ A multicultural church can be diverse in its pews and unchanged in its centre,” writes Cho. “ An intercultural church is one in which the centre itself is altered by the encounter.”

Structured around the liturgical year, from Advent to Pentecost, the book calls the church to move from servanthood to companionship. Cho…