Church women demand zero tolerance to violence against women in Sri Lanka

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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01 December 2017

Group photo 1Participants of EWAAV consultation in Sri Lanka on the 29th of November 2017.

“The Church in Sri Lanka should ensure zero tolerance to violence against women at all levels, when the women in the war-torn Sri Lanka still face a rising rate of violence after decades of ethnic conflicts and civil war”, stated the participants of a CCA Consultation held in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 29-30 November.

Organised and facilitated by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) as part of CCA’s new programme initiative of Ecumenical Women’s Action against Violence (EWAAV), the consultation was organised in collaboration with the National Christian Council in Sri Lanka (NCCSL) at the headquarters of the NCCSL in Colombo on 29-30 November.

The focus of the consultation was on ecumenical women in action against violence in post war Sri Lanka.

Various sessions of the consultation provided opportunities for participants to deeply and critically analyse the situation of women and the difficult challenges of life in the post conflict and war situation, especially the situation of war- widows and women working in plantation sectors.

The participants shared experiences of women in the post war Sri Lanka and reported that about 40 per cent of women in Sri Lanka today suffer from some kind of violence, while more than 60 per cent of women across the country are victims of domestic violence and at least 85,000 widows have been identified in Sri Lanka’s conflict affected areas since the end of the civil war.

The bible studies (focused on violence against women encouraged participants to reflect the text from their local contexts and create new interpretations which are empowering and promoting peace with justice.

The participants highlighted the importance of mobilising women and men in the church and work beyond the church boundaries to work together to change gender roles and engaged in advocacy on violence against women and gender equality using biblical theological rationale, national international and regional mechanisms at various levels.

A plan of action developed by the participants proposed to continue the journey of empowerment and justice for women, and committed to create a network and coalition of women at local level to give awareness and transformation of communities.

The participants opined that increased theological, conceptual, moral, and practical awareness required among churches to ensure gender justice, equity, equality to combat the increasing violence against women.

Addressing the participants, CCA General Secretary Dr. Mathews George Chunakara introduced CCA’s new programme thrust of empowerment and ecumenical leadership development of women.

The General Secretary further added that CCA will organise an Asian Ecumenical Women’s Assembly (AEWA) in February 2019 , which will be hosted by the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.
Sunila Amar, programme consultant said that through the new programme initiative of Ecumenical Women’s Action against Violence (EWAAV), CCA will aim at creating more ecumenical women’s networks at local, national, sub-regional levels in Asia in the coming years to combat violence against women.