Decade to Overcome Violence - Asia Focus in 2005

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).

No preference updated.

03 May 2004
christian conference of Asia, Asia christianity

In 2005, the focus of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) will be on Asia.

Recognizing that many churches in Asia have participated and continue to participate in the promotion of the Decade to Overcome Violence, CCA staff pointed out that the DOV focus on Asia will be a time to celebrate the various efforts to overcome violence, even as CCA shall seek to widen its network on peace to include civil society and other religious groups.

This was shared at the April 22nd meeting in Hong Kong between CCA staff and a team on DOV from the WCC.

The 12th CCA General Assembly theme, "Building Communities of Peace for All" will also be the theme for the DOV Focus on Asia in 2005. The theme reflects Asia's particular reality of diversity, i.e. the reality of many communities rather than one, yet bound by a common vision of peace for all.

CCA staff presented a list of causes of violence in the region, the forms and gravity of which vary widely and yet are so interrelated. These are: geopolitics, economic globalization and cultural domination; religious fundamentalism; ethnic conflicts; poverty and unemployment or underemployment; structural violence and culture of violence; discrimination, racism, inequality; gender injustice; colonial/cold-war legacy; ecological violence; and subtle forms of violence like mental and psychological violence and violence through education and textbooks.

Part of the plan is for CCA to explore the possibility of engaging in advocacy that will bring issues of violence to the attention of perpetrators themselves and to encourage churches and NCCs in Asia to share strategies in peacemaking, conflict transformation, and healing.

CCA staff and consultants were joined by CCA president Wong Wai Ching at the meeting while the DOV team was composed of Hansurlich Gerber (WCC DOV coordinator), Mathews George (WCC Asia Secretary) Kang Moon Kyu (WCC president), and Judo Poerwowidagdo and Augusto Kelly Lawig, WCC DOV Reference Group members.