Catholic Religious Australia’s recent workshop on Intercultural Awareness in Leadership, Ministry and Formation, not only explored barriers to, and strategies for, authentically living interculturally, but invited a focus on hospitality of the heart, said one of the presenters, Sr Geraldine Kearney SGS, in The Good Oil.
The workshop attracted participants from a range of religious congregations and highlighted the growing importance of interculturality in religious life.
From left: Jennifer Clarke SMSM, Jeffrey Crowe FMS, Frank Hoare SSC, Duyen Nguyen RSM, Geraldine Kearney SGS, Brian Vale SSC and Meg Kahler SGS. PHOTO: CRA.
“Living interculturally is a rapidly growing call in all of our lives, with the need for social cohesion never stronger,” CRA said in a post about the event on its Facebook page.
“It was fantastic to see so many people from diverse cultures and countries across the globe. Our speakers contributed their own lived experiences of interculturality, and our diverse voices made for rich conversations.”
Speakers included Jeffrey Crowe FMS, Frank Hoare SSC, Duyen Nguyen RSM and Brian Vale SSC, with Meg Kahler SGS as MC.
Geraldine has a Doctor of Ministry in Cross Culture from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Since 2012, she has been heavily engaged with religious congregations both locally and internationally, working with leadership, mission, formation and community across cultures.
This work has taken her to Hong Kong, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, the Philippines, New Zealand, Kiribati and Australia.
At the workshop, Geraldine co-presented with Columban priest Father Brian Vale, who also has extensive experience in intercultural ministry, including in congregational leadership.“ Mainly our presentation was talking about our own experience in ministry,” Geraldine said. “Brian and I have worked together often, including in Hong Kong, particularly in this area on interculturality.”
In her introduction, Geraldine described interculturality as “… the sustained interaction of people raised in different cultures, generations, religious perspectives and other dimensions of difference”.
“The focus is on relationship building, deep connections, interaction, mutual gifting, respect and learning from one another,” she said. “It is how we are transformed, shaped and moulded by the life of others.”
The presentation identified cultures as being composed of many layers, including attitudes, belief, language, customs, rituals, behaviour, religion, food, art, drama and music.
Participants in the Interculturality workshop hosted by CRA. PHOTO: CRA.
Geraldine later told The Good Oil that interculturality had been a lived reality for her since her family moved from Burma, where she was born, to Australia when she was a young child.
Her ministry has included five years in Kiribati and five years working in an indigenous community as Principal of St Michael’s School on Palm Island. She said this had further exposed her to a vast array of cultural realities and differences.
“I’ve had a very blessed life in terms of culture,” she said. “When I was living in Kiribati, I learned not to make a judgment about things you are confronted with in different cultures. Ask a question before you make a judgment.
“And don’t take things for granted. Be open to all the different areas of interculturality, whether that be the generation gap, the ethnic gap, and then all the different hats that you wear in different ministries. For instance, when you are on a leadership team, that’s a whole other culture.
“It’s important for us to be aware that we are not just operating in our own kind of realm and kingdom. We need to ask, where do others fit into that? How do we make room for others?”
Geraldine’s presentation included asking those present to think about the situations in their own lives and ministries where they are being asked to enter into interculturality, and to consider that many cultures have their own taboos, which are not always obvious to others.
“I’ve spent most of my life wandering around the Asia-Pacific, working in cross-culture,” she said. “And my own heritage has been a great influence and resource, moving to another country and another culture as a young child and really experiencing those differences. I’ve learned a lot of hard lessons in culture, but it always comes back to not making a judgment, to stepping lightly, and being vulnerable.”
Geraldine said crossing cultures in ministry was always a learning experience. “I was on Palm Island for five years and I learned so much. They taught me, I didn’t teach them. That was a wonderful cross-cultural experience,” she said. “Then I went from Palm Island to Chicago, which was another culture shock.
“I didn’t go back to my home country of Burma until I was 48 years old. I went with my mother, and I learnt all about the taboos there by breaking most of them, because I didn’t grow up there.”
Geraldine said that despite the challenges of interculturality, it provides a richness that enhances life and ministry, because at its centre, it is based on communion.
“We are called to respect, welcome and include the other. We are called to a hospitality of the heart,” she said.
She said that being part of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, a congregation that is present in Australia, Japan, the Philippines and Kiribati, has enlivened her experience of intercultural living and ministry.
“It has been wonderful for me to experience time with our Sisters from these four countries; living with them and learning from them first-hand,” she said.
Geraldine concluded her presentation with a quote from the Bishop of Broome, Tim Norton SVD, highlighting the importance of interculturality for authentic ministry and leadership: “Our growth in intercultural sensitivity will surely open us more to the Spirit that lives in each of us.”
This article is a slightly amended version of an article by Debra Vermeer which was published in The Good Oil, the monthly e-publication of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan.