Evangelization needs to be understood in the context of wider ecumenism, says Metropolitan Gabriel Mar Gregorios

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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03 December 2019

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CHIANG MAI, Thailand: “Evangelization should be accompanied by signs of the Kingdom, acts of love and compassion, miracles of faith, symbolic acts repudiating values of the world and evangelization need to be understood in the context of wider ecumenism”, said Metropolitan Dr. Gabriel Mar Gregorios, a prominent Orthodox theologian from India on the third day of the WCC-CCA consultation being held in Chiang Mai.

“The efficacy of the evangelical and missional enterprise needs to be measured in terms the quality of influence created by the gospel and not by the numerical increase in membership” elaborated Metropolitan Mar Gregoriose when defining the basis for understanding the quality of the propagation of the faith.

The emphasis on discipleship and the importance of nurturing good leadership in the ecclesiastical realm as well as the interrelatedness of discipleship, evangelism, and God’s mission were emphasized by the panelists of different sessions.

Grounding the backdrop of missional witness in India and Bangladesh, especially the growing restrictions placed on the propagation of religion, the promulgation of anti-conversion laws in several states of India, and the threats to freedom of religion, the participants began to look into the emerging situations in their local contexts.

They acknowledged the reality that the consequences of unethical practices of religious conversion and the proliferation of denominations funded by foreign missions add negative image and impact on Asian Christianity.

Describing the current reality of poverty, violation of human rights and gender justice and the urgency of addressing the ecological crisis in his native Timore Leste, a budding theologian from the Igreja Protestante Iha Timor Sa’e (IPTL), Levi Vasconceos Pinto said that “the history of evangelization and mission has been an integral part of the history of our struggles in Timor Leste; the gospel is not about a Church or religion, rather the essence of the gospel is a freedom movement and Jesus a freedom movement organizer devoted to the oppressed”.

“Our understanding of evangelization comes from diverse cultures of resistance in the Bible and other parts of the world and not necessarily from the four gospels alone. God’s mission must be understood comprehensively as a spirituality of living together to resist poverty and injustices” Pinto affirmed.

Listening to the parallels of challenges in multi-faith Asian contexts, especially when Christians were a minority, and the challenges to missional witness necessitating varied approaches to evangelism and mission, participants agreed that these should be addressed realistically in each context.

The scourge of denominationalism and how this has negatively impacted the life and witness of churches in Asia and the double-edged sword of foreign-funded missions that inhibits initiatives for indigenous self-sustenance were hotly debated.

The contextual presentations of missional challenges in Asia that livened the discussions on the third day were facilitated by Rev.Lalchhuangliana Tuallawt of Presbyterian Church of India (PCI), Rev Dr Simon Biswas of the Methodist Church in Bangladesh (MCB), Rev Bounthnh Chanthoumnivong of the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), Rev. Dung Quoc Nguyen of the Justified Baptist Church in Vietnam (BCV), Mindo Judica Pangaribuan and Janty Lim of Gereja Bethel Indonesia (GBI), Rev Daniel Bani Winni Emma of Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI), and Rev Kang Phaldaracheat of Kampuchea Christian Council (KCC).

Groups of participants had earlier visited seven different churches for Sunday worship to understand the differing liturgical and worship traditions including the migrant workers and Diaspora community churches based in Chiang Mai.