CCA Executive Committee Meeting Commits to Accompany the Cambodian Churches and the Ecumenical Movement

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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22 July 2019
Group photo NRParticipants of the CCA Executive Committee Meeting held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; 15-19 July 2019.

Cambodia, a country where the Church and Christianity was completely erased from history and was forbidden until the early 1990s became the venue of the Christian Conference of Asia’s (CCA) annual executive committee meeting last week.

The General Secretary’s report to the executive committee recollected the experiences of the church’s and the ecumenical movement’s complete obliteration in Cambodia during the brutal rule of the communist dictator, Pol Pot (1975-1979), who was also responsible for a genocide that killed more than two million people.

Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, CCA’s General Secretary stated, “The meeting of the CCA Executive Committee in Cambodia in the first time in the history of CCA is a very important and timely action as we try to find ways to continue ecumenical accompaniment in Cambodia in its new context.”

The history of Christianity and ecumenism in Cambodia has undergone several changes, especially after the country witnessed a new political beginning following the Paris Peace Agreement in 1992.

Archbishop Dr. Willem T.P Simarmata, the moderator of CCA in his opening address said, “We have many things to learn from the experiences of Cambodian Christianity and the Cambodians who have undergone traumatic experiences. The churches in Cambodia need more support and accompaniment, and the churches from other Asian countries should come forward to be in solidarity with the Cambodian Christians.”

“It is not easy to recognize from today’s developed conditions in and around Phnom Penh that this country has had a dark past, and that the people still possess horrific memories. The Cambodian church we see here is brand new, and can be traced only after 1990. Today, the Church in Cambodia is growing, and it has become a missionary battlefield. At the same time, there exists more disunity or competition among the Christians,” commented the CCA General Secretary. 

Held at Dvythin Hotel in New Phnom Penh, the executive committee arrived at several major decisions that included organizational/programme evaluation; theme and venue of CCA’s 15th General Assembly; CCA Headquarters building project; policies and guidelines to deal with Conflicts of Interests; Code of Conduct for Organisational Management and Governance; guidelines for processing new membership applications; a consensus model of decision making; and the staff rules and regulations.

The pan-Asian members of CCA’s decision-making body also visited the headquarters of the Kampuchea Christian Council (KCC), which was founded in 1997 with the support of the CCA.

A joint meeting of the CCA Executive Committee members and representatives of the KCC member churches was addressed by the Minister of Religious Affairs of the Royal Kingdom of Cambodia, Mr. Him Chhem, and the Vice Minister, Mr. Phlok Phan.