Younger Theologians from the South Claim their Ecumenical Space
In a consultation on interrogating and redefining power, younger theologians from the South claimed their ecumenical space, which they named AAPACALA. The acronym stands for Afro-Asia-Pacific-Caribbean-Latin America, where the 29 younger theologians came from, but has a deeper meaning, gleaning from its closeness in sound to the Indonesian word, 'apakala', meaning "what time is it"? For the younger theologians it signifies a kairotic moment in the ecumenical movement as younger theologians interrogate and redefine power.
Locating themselves as younger theologians from the South, they defined their ecumenical space as more than the geographical connotations of South and North but more as being aligned with the Empire (North) or with the voices of resistance (South).
Making critiques of the Bible and Christianity as having been made ideological tools of dominance, they called for relocating sites of power by making the central peripheral and putting the margin at the centre. They also portrayed Jesus as a Southerner, a symbol of resistance to oppressive power, subverter of situations and ways of seeing and living, and a symbol against misused of the prosperity gospel. For the news story on this, see CCA News, March 2004.