Excerpt from a speech given by Tamiko Suzuki on January 10, 2026
Today, the IPA invited the congregation to a party to celebrate changing the team’s name.
Some of you may be wondering, “Why?” or “Why now?”
Others, I’m sure, are thinking, “Well, it’s about time!”
So here’s a bit about our reasoning—and the history.
We’ve actually wanted to change the IPA’s name right from the beginning (it’s in our earliest meeting minutes!), but we were so busy planning events that this item slid right to the bottom of the priority list.
IPA stood for IBPOC Plus Allies, and IBPOC stood for Indigenous, Black, People of Colour. Unitarians love acronyms, and this was an acronym within an acronym—which was, frankly, awful. At every activity we ran, every event we organized, every post we made, we had to add explanations with asterisks just to say what IPA meant.
To make matters worse, IPA is also a type of beer—India Pale Ale—which many people just couldn’t get out of their heads.
Our name was long, clunky, and full of acronyms. Worse still, it became associated with a time of turmoil at VanU: the introduction of the 8th Principle, COVID, the retirement of our longtime minister, a tumultuous period for the new interim minister, and an atmosphere of uncertainty, disagreement, fear, and discomfort.
The difficulties with the team name all came to a head in October 2025. We had been working with the Carnegie Housing Project leaders for several months to organize a forum on homelessness. The forum went very well—but at the end, when the Carnegie speakers were thanking us, their hosts, they had no idea what our team’s name was.
And that’s when it really clicked.
IPA described who the group was made up of, but not what we do.
So the IPA core team decided to come up with a new name. The parameters were:
- It had to be one word, like Environment or Refugee
- It couldn’t be easily turned into an acronym
- In that one word, people would immediately understand our area of focus—bringing different cultures together
The IPA originally started with a mandate to fight racism, but we quickly realized that by promoting fun, educational, and community-building activities, we were lowering barriers in a gentle, non-judgmental, and joyful way. We were doing anti-racism work—with a spoonful of sugar!
Over the past four years, we have promoted learning about different cultures through food, art, music, dance, film, theatre, books, and talks. We will continue to honour and understand the many different backgrounds among us, while recognizing and celebrating the similarities and intersectionalities we share.
This team is one of a kind—the only such group among UU organizations in North America—and we’re still growing!
So today, Saturday, January 10, 2026, after several months and mountains of email discussions, we officially say thank you and goodbye to our old name, IPA (Indigenous, Black, People of Colour Plus Allies), and launch our new name…
(Drum roll…)
The Vancouver Unitarians Intercultural Team
Intercultural is a word that focuses on dynamic exchange, mutual learning, and building relationships between cultures—transforming everyone involved.
I want to emphasize that when we’re addressing different cultures, this includes white cultural backgrounds, such as those of European origin, which have long and far-reaching histories.
We are overjoyed that the VanU congregation has come along on this journey, learning and growing with us!
If you have ideas about promoting intercultural relations, or if you are not currently a member of the Intercultural Team and would like to join us, please email [email protected]