CCA ‘s Training of Young Peace Activists worked out long Action Plans for Peacebuilding

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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20 June 2016

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A week long training of trainers program  organised by the Christian Conference of Asia ( CCA) to train  Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA) worked out long term action plans for training young committed peace activists in Asia.

Attended by 28 young  participants, the YAPA was held at the headquarters of CCA, Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 12 to 18 June. The young participants also included representatives from the Buddhist and Muslim communities who are committed to promote interfaith collaboration in peace building and conflict resolution.

While commenting about the outcome of the first YAPA training organised by CCA, the coordinators Dedi Pardosi and Angela Kim said that the YAPA was aimed at training the next generation of young peace activists in order to advocate and act for peace in their local contexts. The efforts by CCA  to plant the seeds of peace  will find fruits in the coming years through grassroots peace movements led by young people across Asia so that they could grow and pollinate their region for more peace work and conflict resolution.

The  youth participants  from different walks of life  selected were in leadership positions in their communities that mostly had little practical knowledge in peacebuilding, but with a large interest and passion for building peace in local communities.

Various sessions of the training program focused on teaching the foundations of peace with justice, inter-religious collaboration and overcoming of religious intolerance, theological underpinnings of peace, teaching of skills to implement peace programs at grassroots levels, and building inter-religious action plans for initiating peace education

The main objective of YAPA was to promote the presence and role of young people as positive actors of change in peacebuilding processes, and to build a network of young peacebuilders in Asia as key stakeholders in the future of the region to secure sustainable peace. At the end of the training program the youth participants created their own action plans that would work towards peace in their respective communities.

As a long-term project under the Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts program umbrella, YAPA will continue to uphold this network of young peacebuilders across the Asian region, and to help multiply the youth peacebuilding movements in Asia in the next five years.