Ecumenical youth leaders from the Greater Mekong Subregion narrate the plights of young people

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.

26 August 2016

IMG_1395

“The youth in the Mekong Subregion often face the hardest hit by the consequences of the increased negative impacts of globalization of the region. The young generation in Mekong subregional countries – Vietnam, Lao, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand - today are faced with challenges of inadequate and unaffordable education, limited financial resources, poor health standards, lack of opportunities and upward mobility in employment, and increasing poverty. Due to this, many youth become victims human trafficking, and in various forms of  human rights abuses. Many young people have been forced into economic migration, making them vulnerable to ethnic, religious, and racial intolerance, as well as inhumane treatment in their new surroundings”, described the participants of the ecumenical youth leadership training organized by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) .

Twenty one youth leaders representing various churches in the Greater Mekong Subregion of Southeast Asia attended an ecumenical leadership formation training organized by CCA from 22 to 25 August at the headquarters of CCA in the Payap University Campus, Chiang Mai, Thailand.

The four-day long training with focus on “Youth Shaping a New Ecumenical Paradigm in Asia” helped the participants to discuss and learn about ecumenism and the Asian ecumenical movement. The other issues covered in various sessions included issues pertinent to the Mekong Subregion, such as environmental justice, HIV/AIDS and Christian self-understanding in a multi-religious society. The participants presented on the main challenges of youth in their countries, and the efforts of their churches on battling these issues.

The participants committed themselves to helping the plight of youth in their churches and continuing to build upon the ecumenical movement in their countries and in their local contexts. Towards the end of the training program, the participants discussed within their country groups on how to move forward with bringing ecumenism into their contexts in order to develop Christian youth with a stronger vision of God’s mission and Christianity in the Mekong Subregion.

As youth are an integral part of the church and the ecumenical movement, CCA facilitated this training to encourage and train young Christians to witness God’s mission in Asia and build stronger communities of sustainable justice and peace.