Building Inclusive Communities

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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28 June 2014
christian conference of Asia, Asia christianity

Partnership of Women and Men in Gods' Mission

Workshop on Gender Justice
Colombo,  Sri Lanka
24-26 June 2014

 

A gender justice awareness workshop, with the theme “Building Inclusive Communities: Partnership of Women and Men in Gods' Mission” was held at Hotel Pegasus Reef in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from 24-26 June 2014. Nineteen participants (10 Females and 9 males) representing CCA member churches from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, Taiwan, Nepal and India, came together to gain insights into building inclusive communities, where men and women could together as partners in mission, in co-operation and understanding.

The specific objectives of the training were to sensitize the participants about gender discrimination, to re-examine gender roles and theologically reflect on the partnership of women and men in church and society. They were also required to develop plans of action to provide opportunities to build partnership of women and men and new ways of being church in their own communities and contexts.

Distinguished theologians Dr. George Zachariah from The United Theological Seminary, Bangalore, and Dr. L. Jayachitra, Professor of New Testament at the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary, Madurai from India facilitated the workshop.

The training commenced with opening worship led by the women’s commission and staff of National Council of Churches in Sri Lanka followed by greetings and welcome from Rev Ebenezer Joseph, General Secretary of NCC Sri Lanka. Ms. Rasanthi Mendis and Dr. George Zachariah introduced the program to the participants and asked them to share their expectation of the program. Dr. Jaya Chitra led the discussions on the gendered autobiography of participants and broadened the discussion with defining or identifying male and female as opposed to the   ‘social constructs’ of gender. Participants were shown a film called “The stoning of Sorraya” based on violence against women and stoning of woman on suspicion of adultery. Participants shared comments about the film and found it very disturbing as the woman is innocent. More news is awaited about the rest of the program.

For 21-year-old Maria Kuruvilla, the youngest participant at the workshop, it was a great learning experience. In her own words, “I thought I knew a lot but when I came here I found that what I knew was just too little. I learnt so much these last 4 days, met amazing people from whom I can take back so many ideas and thoughts.”

The essence of Ecumenical formation lies not only in what is learnt in terms of knowledge, education and training, it also means building life long relationships and knowing more about the people we meet and the place we meet in, and also in being informal ambassadors of one's own country. As Maria so nicely puts it “Saying goodbye is always hard but you all will stay in my heart and memories forever. And to the beautiful country of  Sri-Lanka, I always dreamt of visiting you. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Namaste India!”