International consultation to discuss revitalising the ecumenical movement in Asia

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.

06 July 2017

As a prelude to the commemoration of its Diamond Jubilee, the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) will organise an international consultation on ‘Towards Revitalising the Ecumenical Movement in Asia’.

The consultation is to be held on 11-12 July 2017 at the Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and will address a wide range of themes such as, the global and Asian ecumenical movement: emerging challenges’; peace and reconciliation in Asia, with a special emphases on the Korean peninsula, South Asia and the Philippines; religious intolerance and threat to freedom of religion and rights of minorities in majority Islamic, Theravada Buddhist and Hindu societies; migration, statelessness and human trafficking; ecumenical formation and ecumenical leadership development.

The representatives of three leading ecclesiastical and ecumenical bodies in Asia – the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) of the Roman Catholic Church, the Asia Evangelical Alliance (AEA), and the CCA will jointly address the theme, ‘Being the Church in Asia: Our Witnessing Together’.

Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, General Secretary of the CCA, stated that, “the deliberations during this consultation will facilitate a collective search for strengthening our common goal of mission and witness in Asia.”

“As we move forward with firm convictions of strengthening and revitalising the ecumenical movement in Asia, we need to ensure and recognise the role of the ecumenical movement in today’s Asian contexts. It is this conviction that motivates the CCA to bring together representatives of churches, councils, and ecumenical and mission organisations to reflect upon the future of ecumenism and the ecumenical movement in Asia,” said Dr. Mathews George Chunakara.

The CCA General Secretary further added that the consultation will aim to initiate serious reflection to envision, and plan for actions to revitalise the Asian ecumenical movement collectively, which will strengthen the mission and witness through our common ecumenical engagements in Asia.

“The need for increased ecumenical cooperation and journeying together by ecclesial, ecumenical and mission partners in a spirit of mutual solidarity is more urgent today, for which greater coherence and coordination among all stakeholders of the ecumenical movement is essential,” said Dr. Mathews George Chunakara.

The consultation will bring together sixty selected participants representing various international and regional ecumenical and mission organisations, ecclesiastical and confessional bodies, including World Council of Churches (WCC), Federation of the Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), Asia Evangelical Alliance (AEA), National Christian Councils in Asia, Council for World Mission (CWM), World Methodist Council (WMC), Young Men’s/Women’s Christian Associations YMCA/YWCA, World Student Christian Federation (WSCF), International Fellowship of the Least Coin (IFLC), Asian Christian Women’s Conference (ACWC), Foundation for Theological Education in Southeast Asia (FTESEA), Association of Christian Institutes for Social Concern in Asia (ACISCA), Asian Migrant Centre (AMC), etc.

The CCA, founded in 1957 at the Asian Church Leaders’ Conference held in Prapat, Indonesia and jointly organised by the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the International Missionary Council (IMC) on the theme, ‘Our Common Evangelistic Tasks in Asia’, will commemorate its 60th anniversary on Sunday 15 October, in conjunction with the Asia Mission Conference (AMC), which will be held in Yangon, Myanmar from 11 to 17 October 2017.