Indian churches mourn the loss of two ecumenical leaders, who died of COVID-19

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 April 2021

As the world is reeling under COVID-19 crisis and India became one of the worst-hit nations with the catastrophic second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, two prominent church and ecumenical leaders have lost their lives during the past two days.

Rev. Dr Prof. M. Emmanuel Thathapudi, Secretary of the Board of Theological Education of the Senate of Serampore Colleges (BTESSC), passed away on 24 April in Bangalore, and S. Raju, a staff member of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) passed away on 23 April in Chennai.

Both battled for their lives while being hospitalised after contracting the coronavirus and testing positive.

An ordained minister of the Canadian Baptist Mission (CBM) Church in Andhra Pradesh, Dr Thathapudi was a distinguished Professor of Old Testament. He was principal of the Andhra Christian Theological College in Hyderabad. As a representative of theological educational institutions in India, Dr Thathapudi had been a member of the Working Group of Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) coordinated Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS). He participated in the CATS–IX held in Medan, Indonesia, in 2019.

Mr Raju had been working with the NCCI at its National Office in New Delhi for 22 years, as a liaison staff of the NCCI and its Christian Service Agency for relations with the government. He had demonstrated exemplary leadership in building NCCI’s relationships with governmental agencies as well as civil society and faith-based organisations in India’s capital city, New Delhi.

While expressing heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families and friends, the General Secretary of the CCA Dr Mathews George Chunakara stated that with the passing away of the two ecumenical colleagues, the Asian ecumenical movement lost true friends who had been accompanying CCA for several years, and that their contributions to the church and the ecumenical movement would be cherished and valued by a large number of people within and beyond the churches in India.

“As the world is caught up in the unexpected and turbulent storm of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are constantly reminded of our fragility. We need to beseech divine interventions to save humanity from the brutality of the pandemic; each of us is in need of comforting the other,” the CCA General Secretary added.

With the surge of the giant second wave, the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 in India surpassed 300,000 in a single day for the first time. India has recorded a total of 16.96 million infections and more than 192,000 deaths.