Sri Lanka’s alarming crises of economic bankruptcy, political turmoil, and social upheaval warrant international intervention, opines CCA’s ecumenical solidarity team

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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09 August 2022
Ecumenical solidarity team meets with inter-religious leaders in Sri Lanka

An ecumenical pastoral solidarity team that visited Sri Lanka from 3 to 7 August 2022, organised by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), expressed alarm over the deep economic crisis that led to unprecedented political turbulence and social upheaval in Sri Lanka; members observed that there was a dire need for immediate international intervention to help the crippled nation.  

The economic collapse and the worsening situation underway in the country—due mainly to high inflation, hikes in essential commodity prices, growing hunger and malnutrition, fuel crisis, a dearth of medicines, crisis in law and order, increased violence, arrests, and detention of human rights and social activists—are making the country a social volcano. 

The economic chaos follows an explosion of political unrest as well as anger and anguish of people from all walks of life as demonstrated in their struggle, now known as Aragalaya, the Sinhalese word for “struggle”.  Aragalaya is being used widely to describe the daily gathering of people at Colombo’s Galle Face and it began with the demand that the corrupt government under the leadership of the ruling Rajapaksa family resign and make way for a new dispensation. 

The people’s movement and their regular gathering marked 100 days on 17 July, initially forcing Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to step down on 9 May, and subsequently causing his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country on 15 July. The President was chased from his office by protesters, who then occupied the presidential residence. Subsequently, a new President was elected by the Parliament. 

The inflation in the country hit a record high of almost 55 percent while food inflation rose to 81 percent. The poor governance and snowballing economic and debt crises were deepened by the government’s hasty and botched agricultural policies, including the banning of fertilisers.

A four-member ecumenical pastoral solidarity team, led by the CCA General Secretary Dr Mathews George Chunakara, met with the church and ecumenical leaders in Sri Lanka, members of parliament, opposition political party leaders, civil society movement leaders, trade unionists, former cabinet ministers,  representatives of plantation workers, inter-religious groups, and leaders of minority religious communities as well as representatives of the Aragalaya movement who have been at the forefront of the people's struggle. The other members of the solidarity team comprised Ms Petra Oon, a lawyer (Malaysia), Dr Angelito Meneses, a Professor of Social Development (Philippines), and Rev. Jung Eun Moon, an ordained minister (South Korea).

During the course of the five-day visit, the team participated in intensive visits and meetings and learned about the ongoing crises and the subsequent deprivation of basic amenities and dignity of the Sri Lankan people. 

The CCA’s solidarity team summarised the feelings of the people they met during their visits and meetings and concluded that Sri Lanka is currently facing its worst economic and political crises. The situation has had profound and reverberating impacts on the daily lives of Sri Lankans. This crisis has also had a serious impact on human rights.

Sri Lanka is in fact facing its worst economic crisis since it gained its independence in 1948. The country defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in May this year, and due to a shortage of foreign exchange is struggling to pay for essential imports, such as fuel, food, and medicine. Miles-long fuel queues stretch along the streets, and sky-high food inflation has pushed people into poverty and malnourishment. The United Nations estimates nearly 5.7 million people, half of them children, need humanitarian aid. UNICEF says nearly one in two children in Sri Lanka requires some form of emergency assistance, including nutrition, health care, clean drinking water, education, and mental health services. 

In a meeting with the Sri Lankan church leaders at the end of the visit, CCA General Secretary said, “The pastoral team visit was an expression of the solidarity of Asian churches with the people and the churches and ecumenical organisations in Sri Lanka that are deeply concerned about the worsening situation; the message taken by the team will also be shared in wider international ecumenical platforms, and especially so during the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) to be held in Karlsruhe, Germany by the end of this month." 

"Sri Lanka, once considered a success story with its high levels of education and standard of living, has today become a nation of a large number of impoverished masses struggling to live with dignity and to overcome the economic crisis and political instability. It is still unclear to what degree the socioeconomic and political crisis has impacted the Sri Lankan people. Sri Lanka's economic collapse needs immediate global attention and rich countries must come to rescue the worst affected from the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka in order to avoid another human tragedy," added Dr Mathews George Chunakara.