CCA reaffirms commitment to gender justice in Asia on International Women’s Day 2017

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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08 March 2017

CCA-WomenCCA's Ecumenical Women's Empowerment Program in Pakistan - December 2016.

In a statement issued on International Women’s Day 2017, the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), urged its member churches and councils to join in with those working towards the dignity and equality of women in all walks of the contemporary world.

“Despite the fact that the world has been changing with significant progress in socio-economic and technological fields, an overwhelming majority of women are denied opportunities to lead a better life. They face persecution and violence in manifold forms in their daily lives. In many places in Asia, women experience daily threats to their dignity and rights as they are trafficked, physically, sexually and mentally abused, victimised in conflicts and face the primitive practice and culture of ‘honour killings’,” Mathews George Chunakara, General Secretary of the CCA, stated.

Women are denied their legitimate right to work in a decent atmosphere as they are forced to live and work in deplorable conditions in many parts of the world. Asia is not an exemption to this reality, most working women in Asia work in sectors of the informal economy as domestic workers, agricultural labourers, street vendors, migrant labourers in garment factories, small scale industries, construction sites as unskilled workers, and in other lowly paid occupations often without any safety or protection.

The CCA General Secretary further added that, “Gender equality in women’s workplaces is not recognised as an imperative for the well-being and dignity of women in most Asian contexts. The observance of International Women’s Day reminds us of the need to uphold the values of the dignity and rights of women at all times. The CCA supports the United Nations’ call for all actors to stress on gender equality towards a Planet 50-50 by 2030 by ensuring that the whole world works for all women.”

The CCA affirms the full realisation of women’s dignity and rights and encourages its member churches and councils to seek new paradigms of recognising the ability of women to contribute to the creation of a better and peaceful world.

The CCA places a strong focus on its women programs, based on themes of leadership development and empowerment of women, advocacy on prevention of violence against women, protecting the rights of women migrant workers and combating the trafficking of women.

Under its programmatic thrust, Ecumenical Women’s Action against Violence (EWAV), in 2016 the CCA launched an ecumenical network of women aimed at the advocacy on violence against women, and maintains the network’s momentum through national and sub-regional networks. The CCA will organise two sub-regional consultations in South Asia and South East Asia in 2017, as part of EWAV, with an aim to enhance the capacities of church women engaged in advocacy through grassroots women’s networks.

The CCA also engages in capacity building programs on conflict resolution, and awareness building on protection mechanisms that safeguard and protect women from violence and human rights abuses.

Read the full text of the CCA General Secretary’s statement on International Women's Day 2017.