CCA General Secretary applauds Indonesian Churches’ contributions to 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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31 January 2019
Indonesia NewsCCA General Secretary addresses PGl Central Committee  Meeting - 2019

Addressing the participants of the annual gathering of the Central Committee of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), the General Secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), Dr. Mathews George Chunakara said that Indonesian Churches had demonstrated their profound commitment to strengthen wider ecumenism in several significant ways.

The Central Committee meeting being held from 28 to 31 January 2019 at Bogor is attended by about 250 representatives of PGI’s 89 member churches, including 125 Central Committee members, Commission members, special invitees and fraternal delegates.

“In a situation of an increasing trend of social divide, communal hatred and political polarisation create serious threats to peaceful co-existence of people and communities; the efforts made by the churches in Indonesia to nurture communal harmony through inter-religious collaboration became a model for other Asian churches”, stated CCA General Secretary.

The CCA General Secretary applauded the solidarity and support of Indonesian churches to the Asian ecumenical movement through CCA during the past several decades with their active participation and significant contributions in various ways including sharing of financial and human resources.

Meeting of CCA member churches in Indonesia

A special meeting of CCA member churches in Indonesia and the member council, the PGI, held on the second day of the PGI Central Committee was attended by representatives of 29 churches out of a total of 31 member churches of CCA in the country.

Ecumenical responses to migration and trafficking in persons, especially the situation of Indonesian female domestic workers stationed in neighbouring countries and in the Arabian Gulf, militarisation and human rights violations in West Papua, ecumenical formation and leadership development, and religious intolerance were the issues discussed at the meeting of CCA member churches.

The church leaders expressed  concern over the increasing number of Indonesian domestic migrant workers persecuted, tortured and killed overseas during their employment.

The church leaders quoted incidents of more than 120 female Indonesian domestic workers deaths in 2018 during their employment abroad; the dead bodies had been transported to Indonesia.

The need for churches engagements in advocacy together with civil society organisations and churches in migrant worker receiving countries as well as at the inter-governmental level, especially through the UN to protect the rights of the domestic workers, was emphasised during the discussions.

The CCA General Secretary shared information about the strategic programme plan as well as the programmes and major events of CCA in 2019  such as the Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS), Asian Ecumenical Women’s Assembly (AEWA), Asian Ecumenical Institute (AEI), Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA),  Asian Inter-religious Leaders’ Summit on Building Peace, CCA-WCC International Consultation on Stateless and Trafficked People, Observance of the Asia Sunday-2019 on the theme ‘ Stateless and Trafficked People: Our Co-Pilgrims’.

The meeting of Indonesian member churches of CCA was facilitated by CCA Moderator Archbishop Willem T.P Simermata, the General Chairperson of the PGI Rev. Dr. Henriette Hutabarat Lebang, and the General Secretary of the PGI Rev. Gomar Gultam.