Bishop David G. Pothirajulu, a committed ecumenist and missiologist, passes away

Programme Review and Programme Direction

Two key deliberative sessions during the 15th CCA General Assembly are the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions.

The Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions will both be conducted in three groups relating to the CCA’s programme areas, namely, (i) General Secretariat (GS), (ii) Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF); and (iii) Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia (PD).

Assembly participants will have the option to join one of three groups for both the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions. For the sake of coherence, the assigned group will remain the same for both sessions.

General Secretariat

The General Secretariat oversees the coordination of programmatic, administrative, and financial activities of the organization. The GS comprises various departments such as church and ecumenical relations, relations with ecumenical partners, finance, administration, and communications, which provide crucial support and services for the implementation of programs and contribute to the overall functioning of the CCA.

Programmes: Relations with member churches and councils, ecumenical partners; advocacy at the United Nations; ecumenical responses to emerging issues in solidarity; income development and finance; and communications.

Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF)

Under the MU programme area, the CCA accompanies Asian churches to strengthen their mission and witness in multi-religious contexts, revitalise and nurture church unity and the Asian ecumenical movement, and develop contextual theological foundations.

Programmes: Asian Movement for Christian Unity (AMCU); Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS); Asian women doing theology in the context of wider ecumenism; contextualisation of theology in Asia and ecumenical theological education.

The EF programme area focuses on nurturing and developing ecumenical leaders in Asia. The programme aims to enhance spiritual formation and theological understanding, enabling people to actively engage in ecumenical dialogue and collaboration.

Programmes: Ecumenical Enablers’ Training in Asia (EETA); Asian Ecumenical Institute (AEI); Youth and Women Leadership Development; Ecumenical Spirituality and Nurturing of Contextual Liturgical Traditions; Asia Sunday

Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia and Advocacy (PD)

The BP programme area is dedicated to promoting peace, justice, and reconciliation in Asia’s diverse contexts. Through training, advocacy, and dialogue, the programme addresses the root causes of conflicts, empowers communities, and fosters sustainable peacebuilding initiatives.

Programmes: Pastoral Solidarity Visits; Churches in Action for Moving Beyond Conflict and Resolution; Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA); Ecumenical Women’s Action Against Violence (EWAAV); Eco-Justice for Sustainable Peace in the Oikos.

The PD programme area focuses on promoting justice, human rights, and social transformation in Asia. Through advocacy, capacity-building, and raising awareness, the programme addresses systemic injustice, empowers marginalised communities, and advocates for prophetic actions and meaningful change.

Programmes: Human Rights advocacy; Migration, Statelessness, and Trafficking in Persons; Asian Ecumenical Disability Advocacy Network; Asian Advocacy Network on the Dignity and Rights of Children (AANDRoC); Ecumenical Solidarity Accompaniment and Diakonia in Asia (ESADA); Health and Healing; Good Governance; Action Together to Combat HIV and AIDS in Asia (ATCHAA).

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06 September 2020
Bishop David G. Pothirajulu

The Rt. Rev David Gnaniah Pothirajulu, a prominent Indian Church leader and a committed ecumenist and missiologist, passed away on Saturday 5 September 2020 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. He was 84 years old.

Served as a pastor, preacher, and theological educator, Pothirajulu became the third bishop of the Madurai-Ramnad Diocese of the Church of South India (CSI) in 1978, and continued until he voluntarily relinquished the bishopric in 1994. He was Deputy Moderator of the CSI from 1988  to 1990.

Expressing his deep condolences on the passing away of Bishop Pothirajulu, CCA General Secretary Dr Mathews George Chunakara stated, “Bishop Pothirajulu was deeply committed to propagate the values of the gospel, and this Indian church leader demonstrated his great passion for mission and ecumenism until his death. He was constantly engaged in a special ministry of enabling people and communities at grassroots in mission and evangelism for more than half a century.”

“An alumnus of the first batch of the Course for Leadership in Lay Training (CLLT) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in the 1960s, Bishop Pothirajulu passionately promoted ecumenism and lay leadership. He was instrumental in motivating young faculty members of the Lady Doak College in Madurai to seriously involve themselves in the Asian ecumenical movement through CCA,” said Dr Mathews George Chunakara, who had personally known Bishop Pothirajulu for many years.

The CCA General Secretary said that Bishop Pothirajulu often wrote to him reminding the need for CCA to address some of the relevant missiological and ecumenical concerns in Asia.

Upon relinquishing the bishopric in 1994, he concentrated in providing ecumenical formation training through the Community College and Lay Training Center (COLT) he established in Madurai. He collaborated with the network of ecumenical formation training centres in Asia- Association of the Christian Institutes for Social Concerns in Asia (ACISCA), as well as with the global network of academy movement for lay training initiated by the WCC.

Bishop Pothirajulu took a keen interest in enhancing the leadership of women in church and society as well as the lay leadership in the Church. He was closely associated with the CCA’s Mission and Evangelism as well as Ecumenical Education programmes in the 1980s.

He has been deeply engaged in a mission and evangelism project, ‘Mission to Myanmar’ since 2006, especially in facilitating the theological education of Myanmarese refugee students in Bible Colleges in India and encouraging them to return to their own country as missionaries.

He was advocating for developing political consciousness among Indians to develop empathy for the plight of the Rohingya Muslim refugees living in India and impress upon the Indian Government not to deport the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

The CCA General Secretary recollected a letter he had received some time back from Bishop Pothirajulu in which he suggested the need for CCA to sensitise the Asian churches to be concerned about the plight of the Myanmar refugees. He articulated his convictions on the rights of the persecuted Myanmar refugees, especially the Chins and Rohingyas, with Biblical and theological undergirding, particularly through “the message of prophet Isaiah which comes out very powerfully in Isaiah 58:7; 'Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?'"

Bishop Pothirajulu is survived by his wife, two sons, and a daughter.  He was buried at the CSI Cemetery, Mahaboobpalayam, Madurai in Tamil Nadu on Sunday 6 September 2020.