Preparation for CCA's Fifteenth General Assembly begins

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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12 February 2020
IMG_5155 (NR)Participants of CCA Assembly preparatory meeting

CHIANG MAI, Thailand: Preparations for the 15th General Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) slated to be held from 3 to 10 September 2020 in Kovalam, India, began with the meeting of the Assembly Worship Committee. This was followed by a joint meeting with an expert group of theologians gathered at the CCA headquarters with the specific task of preparing study resources and materials on the Assembly theme for use prior to and during the Assembly.

The theme of the Assembly adopted by the CCA Executive Committee after careful and detailed deliberations is ‘God, Renew Us in Your Spirit and Restore the Creation’.

The sub-themes developed are ‘Towards Affirming the Will of God’, ‘Towards Dwelling in Harmony with Creation’, and ‘Towards Attaining Life in Its Fullness’.

The Assembly Worship Preparatory Committee, which met from 3 to 4 February 2020 at the CCA headquarters in Chiang Mai, worked out the details of the liturgical resources for the worship sessions at the General Assembly.  Drawing from the richness of Asia’s ecclesiastical, spiritual, and cultural traditions, the Committee initiated the preparation of the worship resources and identified relevant Biblical texts and passages for meditations and reflections for the daily worship sessions of the week-long Assembly.

An expert group comprising mostly of Asia’s younger theologians who were specially invited from theological institutions and churches in Asia subsequently met. They pondered in intensive deliberations to work out theological and bible study resources based on Assembly theme and three sub-themes. During the joint meeting, plans for different thematic plenary and deliberative sessions were suggested. Emerging issues that were to be addressed from Asian perspectives within the overall context of the theme and the sub-themes were also identified.

The General Assembly in September 2020 is scheduled to focus around four thematic plenary sessions to cover the general theme and three sub-themes, as well as two slots of deliberative sessions titled Churcha (which means ‘conversations’ in different Indian local languages). The Churcha sessions will provide platforms to present, analyse, and discuss contemporary Asian issues in depth in relation to Assembly theme and sub-themes.

Each slot of the Churcha sessions will cover ten specific areas, and a total of twenty topics in two days. Churches, councils, and related ecumenical organisations will be invited to present and lead the Churcha sessions with the assistance of resource persons.

Dr Mathews George Chunakara, General Secretary of the CCA, explained, “The CCA General Assembly is the supreme body of the CCA which meets once in five years with the aims of celebrating the unity of the Church in Asia in worship, study, and action, and expressing the common vision of the churches for the direction and mission of the CCA.”

A quinquennial event, the CCA General Assembly brings together official delegates nominated by CCA member churches and councils across Asia, representatives of ecumenical partner organisations around the world, and delegated observers from the CCA member churches and councils.

Other participants expected to join the Assembly will be drawn from several pre-Assembly events such as the women’s pre-assembly, the youth pre-assembly, and the pre-assembly gatherings of CCA-coordinated networks and fora, like the Asian Ecumenical Disability Advocacy Network (AEDAN), and Asian Interfaith HIV and AIDS advocates. The students of the month-long Asian Ecumenical Institute (AEI) will also be given opportunities to be a part of the CCA’s 15th General Assembly.

The 15th General Assembly of CCA will be hosted by the member churches of CCA in India through the coordination of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI).

The online registrations for various categories of Assembly participants will be opened on 1 March 2020.