Christmas Message 2012

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).

First Preference:
Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF)
Second Preference:
Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia and Advocacy (PD)
22 December 2012
christian conference of Asia, Asia christianity

22 December 2012 

Christmas Message  

 

From:  

Rev. Rex R B. Reyes, Jr.,

Member, CCA Presidium  

 

To:      Member Churches and Councils,

Members of the General Committee,

Members of the PAC,

and Ecumenical Partners 

Dear brothers and sisters,           

Christianity which began in Asia remains a stranger in Asia.  Perhaps this is because paradoxically, the Asia region where Jesus Christ was born was a dominion of the Roman Empire.  The place where this great faith that declares peace and justice began is being shattered asunder by violent un-peace and so much injustice, in the hands of “powers and principalities”.

Never has human misery been so pervasive and mother earth so despoiled. Yet, Emmanuel continues to walk in Asia.  He walks with Christians who live out the affirmation that:  “mission movements are emerging from the global South and East which are multi-directional and many faceted.  Our mission practice should show solidarity with suffering peoples and harmony with nature.  Evangelism is done in self-emptying humility, with respect towards others and in dialogue with people of different cultures and faiths.  It should, in this landscape, also involve confronting structures and cultures of oppression and dehumanization that are in contradiction to the values of God’s reign.” (cf. A New WCC affirmation of Mission and Evangelism).

Emmanuel continues to walk in Asia.  He walks with Christians who consider themselves as members of pilgrim communities with a calling to be “on the move to transgress boundaries. He walks with Christians responsive to the call to challenge injustice and Christians who understand themselves to be “others to one another”.  (cf. WCC Resources:  “The ‘Other’ is my neighbor: Developing an Ecumenical Response to Migration”)

Emmanuel continues to walk in Asia. He walks with Christians who “commit to care for life unreservedly, to protect all life, and to speak the truth and breakdown misleading myths about nuclear power and nuclear issues to all our communities and with one voice to all people.  We do so while attentively and respectively listening to those who suffer most directly the consequences of nuclear accidents.  Indeed, we commit to stand with those who suffer, whoever they may be, and act in unison with them to address the injustice done to them which deny their right to live in peace with justice.  We further commit to monitor the movement of radioactive materials by governments and businesses and to sound the alarm against passing on the problem of nuclear waste disposal to marginalized communities, non- nuclear nations and future generations.”  (cf. No to Nuclear Power! Faith Declaration from Fukushima, December 2012).

Perhaps, it is for this paradox that Jesus Christ was born… and in Asia.  Emmanuel is God’s gift to the world.  May we who follow God-with-us proclaim him relentlessly until the unbelieving world who knows him not will know him and his own people who received him not will receive him (cf.  John 1:10-11).

This Christmas, sing of the God who cares for us and who empowers us to dare the “world rulers of this present darkness, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

REX R B REYES, JR.

Member, Presidium

Christian Conference of Asia