WCC-CCA Consultation discusses ‘Evangelism and Missional Witness in a Multi-religious 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.

02 December 2019

IMG_4385

CHIANG MAI, Thailand: An international consultation on ‘Evangelism and Missional Witness in a Multi-religious Asia’ being organized jointly by the World Council of Churches (WCC), and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) started with analyzing the emerging trends in evangelism and mission in Asia’s multi-religious contexts.

The discussions of the first part of the week-long deliberations was summarized as,  “at a time when all religious communities are being reshaped by new encounters and relationships, the meaning and relevance of evangelism need to be rediscovered. Persistent plurality moves Christian communities to seek new and adequate ways to understand and relate to peoples of different religious traditions”.

Forty participants - an inter-generational and diverse group of missiologists, evangelists, young pastors, theological educators, and ecclesiastical leaders representing member churches and councils of WCC and CCA as well as representatives of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) and the Asian Evangelical Alliance (AEA) are attending the consultation being held at the CCA Headquarters in Chiang Mai, Thailand from 29 November to 5 December 2019.

Dr Mathews George Chunakara, General Secretary of CCA stated at the opening session of the consultation, “Churches and para-church groups, as well as their related mission and evangelism projects, compete vehemently with each other in Asia in the name of propagating ‘gospel to the unreached’. When they make exclusive claims in the name of the gospel,  such claims when shared and taken for granted, need deeper exegetical studies”.

“It is in this context that the consultation is expected to provide space for constructive dialogue on the challenges, possibilities, and potential for cooperation among churches and networks in different Asian contexts with regard to evangelism and missional witness in a multi-religious Asia”, added CCA General Secretary.

Kyriaki Avtzi, WCC’s  Programme Executive for Evangelism in Unity, outlined the initiatives undertaken since 2012 within a wider global process and implemented earlier in the contexts of Europe, North America, and Africa.

The fourth regional consultation organsied  in partnership with CCA is expected to address concerns pertaining to the multi-religious Asian context, and  “this will be an opportunity to examine how the good news is shared in the multi-religious context of Asia where evangelism can be both a dividing as well as uniting factor”, added Ms. Kyriaki, an Orthodox woman theologian from Greece working at WCC’s headquarters  in Geneva.

The first thematic address of the consultation by Bishop Dr Daniel Thiagarajah of Sri Lanka explained the context for the study of evangelism and missional witness in multi-religious Asia as one that is “significantly conditioned by the unintended consequences to God’s intention for shalom by the legacy of our missionary inheritance.”

Bishop Thiagarajah, a former Mission and Evangelism executive secretary of CCA raised a sharp critique saying “international mission partners cannot divorce themselves from the legacy of harm with which their forebears have burdened several Asian contexts.”

Sharing his experiences of working in a war-torn Sri Lanka, and the ongoing divisive practices of certain overseas mission partners in his ecclesiastical jurisdiction, Bishop Thiagarajah said, “What is missing in our evangelism and missional witness to God’s shalom today is a deep understanding of the severity of sin and its destructive, life-destroying, death-dealing effects.”

The starting point for addressing evangelism and missional witness in multi-religious Asia was to address the relationship between those who are harmed and their enemies, added Bishop Thiagarajah.

Three thematic presentations set the framework for dialogue in the consultation from different regions across Asia while participants make presentations outlining the existing situation of evangelism and mission in their respective contexts.

Evangelism and missional witness in local contexts in Asia were presented on the first day by Ven Perry Brohier of the Diocese of Colombo, Church of Ceylon (CoC); Dr. Lily Kadoe, Myanmar Institute of Theology (MIT), Rev Makato Kato, United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ); Rev Joseph Deva Komar, Seminari Theoloji Malaysia (STM); Rev Julius Caesar Barrameda, Iglesia Filipina Independiente in the Philippines (IFI); and Rev Dr Pradit Takerngrangsarit, Chruch of Christ in Thailand (CCT).

The week-long consultation is aimed at exploring the ways in which theological affirmations, education, and training programmes on evangelism have been placed in the diverse landscape of Asia; understand and reflect on the methodologies and strategies evolved by churches in Asia at local levels; and provide a platform to learn mutually from the experiences of Asian churches and their innovative evangelistic approaches and engagement in participating in God’s mission.