“The Church of the twenty-first century will be, as it has always been, a Church of many cultures, languages and traditions, yet simultaneously one, as God is one - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – unity in diversity. ” ( Welcoming the Stranger Among Us: Unity in Diversity, USCCB, 2000, 56)

In response to the emerging needs of the multicultural Church and Society in the United States , MACC offers a four-phase comprehensive curriculum for adults and youth leaders as they develop and implement processes for multicultural understanding, racism awareness and systemic change within their communities. Authentic leaders must first look into their own hearts and deepen the experience of conversion as they learn strategies and skills to create and facilitate multicultural communities. Success in bringing cultures together demands a liberating journey through acquisition of cross-cultural skills and critical reflection steeped in Gospel values and spirituality. This curriculum is for all who want to make the journey into becoming more welcoming and inclusive.

 

Phase I: The Heart of Multiculturalism - Look Within Our Hearts

Focus: Personal cultural identity, formation and healing – Becoming a multicultural leader first means becoming aware of one's cultural identity with all its gifts and limitations. Intercultural exchange and communication brings us face to face with our own ethnocentrism. Without a commitment to personal conversion and healing, multicultural education is shallow and superficial. It remains in the externals of culture and never changes hearts.

Phase II: The Heart of Multiculturalism - Look at the Many Faces in God's House

Focus: Intercultural understanding & reconciliation – Becoming a multicultural leader means learning to see reality from a variety of perspectives. We learn that understanding our own culture is incomplete without also respecting and learning about other cultural viewpoints. Racism distorts the identity of both the oppressed and the oppressor. Phase II invites participants to examine their own prejudice, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation.

  

Phase III: The Heart of Multiculturalism - Look at What Our Hands Build:

Understanding the Roots of Racism

 

Focus: Social analysis and planning – Becoming a multicultural leader means critically looking at the systems we build to maintain power and control as cultural groups. Participants look at how systems of power institutionalize prejudice, resulting in racism. A commitment to social analysis builds an understanding of how race is socially constructed. At the same time a commitment to discernment builds viable strategies for deconstructing racism.

 

Phase IV: The Heart of Multiculturalism - Look Where Our Feet Must Journey

 

Focus: Systemic change – Becoming a multicultural leader means not only learning about theory but also applying it to concrete situations through liberating practice. This phase of the program integrates faith and action through exploration of processes and consultative services to help participants develop, plan, and implement strategies for systemic change whether through organizing, educating, advocating, or investing.

 

(Invite MACC Mobile Teams to bring these workshops to you.)

Individualized Plan of Study can include a semester or a year of immersion study at MACC or one, two, or three weeks at a time.

Mexican American Cultural Center
3115 West Ashby Place
P.O. Box 28185
San Antonio, Texas 78228-5104
Phone (210) 732-2156 • Fax (210) 732-9072