Christian Conference of Asia 13th General Assembly 2010 Kuala Lumpur

The Asia Ecumenical Course: What an experience!

2010-04-30T11:27:00.001+08:00

Poulima Salima, a young Samoan man from the Mt Albert Methodist Parish in Auckland attended the Asia Ecumenical Course in April. This included participation in the Christian Conference of Asia General Assembly. He has come back enthused about ecumenism. Some extracts from his presentation to the Mt Albert congregation follow.

The overall theme for the ecumenical course and assembly was Called to prophesy, reconcile and heal. A powerful and purposeful theme that resonated in the hearts of all participants during the course and assembly.

The theme resonated through the music, lyrics, art, performing arts; through testimonies, sharing of faith and reflections, and faith-powered prayers. The theme was very appropriate, reflecting the complex and conflicting Asian realities such as: institutionalised corruption, bad governance, human trafficking, human rights violations, and religious extremism.

All participants including the course leaders were very energetic, courageous and fun to be with! I was amazed with the creativity, passion and enthusiasm, the unity and family spirit within group. It was strong, encouraging and infectious. We had fun learning, speaking and singing in various languages. It was an uplifting experience!

The richness and diverse cultures represented, the uniqueness of languages, and seeing the hearts of all participants worshipping God their way - was an experience to remember. I remember our group preparing for the opening worship for conference. We had to come up with our own cultural dance. The music set-piece was short and catchy so we had to translate it into our own language. The choreography and dance gestures represented the identity of each culture. The power and spirit of the lyrics sung in their respective languages was soul-stirring and edifying. It was a performance to see! We had all the Asian instruments and percussion you could possibly think of to accompany the action songs. Participants were encouraged to wear their cultural costumes, outfits that represented their country and culture.

Some of the church leaders commented that it was the best opening worship service since they had been coming to CCA general assemblies. This was encouraging because all of the ecumenical course participants worked very hard. We wanted to deliver well, and it was important that we did because this was our message to the church leaders: that the up-and-coming ecumenical leaders were just as passionate about the ecumenical movement as they were.

In the evenings before worship at the conference I was inspired by the testimonies from pastors and church ministers who shared their faith, hardship and the darkest moments of their lives, of being beaten and tortured because of their faith in Christ and mission. Hearing them testify about God’s goodness and faithfulness during times of suffering and hardship was inspiring for all participants to carry their cross as well!

I thoroughly enjoyed the Asian Ecumenical Course and the Christian Conference of Asia General Assembly. It was definitely the highlight of my life and the beginning of my ecumenical journey. My prayer for the Methodist Church of Aotearoa-New Zealand is continued unity, celebrating and sharing our diversity, with the purpose of advancing God’s kingdom.

The Methodist Church’s delegates to the CCA General Assembly were Manukau Synod Super-intendent, Prince Devanandan and Te Taha Maori Tumuaki, Diana Tana. Prince was elected to serve on the CCA General Committee which is the oversight body between CCA assembly meetings. Diana has been appointed Moderator of the Ecumenical Formation, Gender Justice, & Youth Formation Programme Committee. Prince and Diana are producing a joint written report that is still in process. There will be more news about the CCA Assembly in the June issue of Touchstone the Methodist Church newspaper.

[Source: http://www.methodist.org.nz/mission_and_ecumenical/newsletters_2010]

The Organisational Structure, Committees and Office Bearers of the CCA (Updated since the 13th General Assembly 2010)

2010-04-29T01:11:00.001+08:00

The Organisational Structure,
Committees and Office Bearers of the CCA

Member Churches and Councils

For a full list of member churches and councils see Member Churches and Councils.

General Assembly

The General Assembly is the supreme body of CCA. It meets every five years to celebrate the unity of the church in Asia in worship, study and action, and to review and set directions for the work of CCA. The last General Assembly was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in April 2005. See General Assembly.

Officers

Presidium

Honorary Treasurer

Mr. Augustine KARMAKAR, Church of Bangladesh

General Secretary

Dr. Prawate KHID-ARN, Church of Christ in Thailand (until November 2010)
Rev. Dr. Henriette Hutabarat LEBANG, Toraja Church, Indonesia (from November 2010)

General Committee

The General Committee has the powers of the General Assembly between meetings of the Assembly. The current membership is:

The Officers (see above)
Rev. Prince Devananda, Methodist Church of Aotaeroa New Zealand
Ms. Svenja von Dietze, The Anglican Church of Australia
Mr. Joyanta ADHIKARY, Bangladesh National Council of Churches
Rev. Lhatru, National Council of Churches in Bhutan
Mr. Phally Som, Kampuchea Christian Council
Rev. PO Kam Cheong, Hong Kong Christian Council
Bishop Philip Phembuar Marandih, The Church of North India
Rev. Gomar Guktom, Communion of Churches in Indonesia
Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, Armenian Orthodox Church of Iran
Rev. Hiroko Ueda, United Church of Christ in Japan
Rev. KWON Oh Sung, National Council of Churches in Korea
Mr. Kingphet Thammavong, Lao Evangelical Church
Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri, Council of Churches of Malaysia
Rev. Saw Shwe Lin, Myanmar Council of Churches
Ms. Tara Bhushal, National Council of Churches of Nepal
Bishop Samuel Azariah, Church of Pakistan
Ms. Johanna May Cantor de la CRUZ, National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Ms. Devashire de SILVA, National Christian Council of Sri Lanka
Ms. Natalie (Ming-Chu) LIN, Presbyterian Church of Taiwan
Dr. Penpilai Rithakatanont, Church of Christ in Thailand
Mr. Admin Pinto, Igreja Protestante Iha Timor Lorosae
Rev. Dr. Pradit TAKERANGRANGSARIT, Church of Christ in Thailand

Executive Committee

Fr. Rex REYES, National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Dr. K.B. Rokaya, National Council of Churches of Nepal
Ms. Van Arun Rasmey, Kampuchea Christian Council
Ms. Retno Ngapon, Pasundan Christian Church, Indonesia
Mr. Augustine KARMAKAR, Church of Bangladesh
Rev. Dr. Henriette Hutabarat LEBANG, Toraja Church, Indonesia
Rev. Dr. Hermen SHASTRI, Council of Churches of Malaysia
Rev. PO Kam Cheong, Hong Kong Christian Council
Ms. Natalie (Ming-Chu) LIN, Presbyterian Church of Taiwan
Rt. Rev. Dr. Philip P. MARANDIH, The Church of North India
Ms. Svenja von DIETZE, The Anglican Church of Australia

Program Area Committees

Program Area Committees are responsible to develop and implement programs in accordance with the mandate of the General Assembly.

Faith, Mission and Unity

Rev. Mangisi Simonrangkir, Christian Protestant Church in Indonesia GKPI (Moderator)
Rev. Tobias BRANDNER, Hong Kong Christian Council
Rev. Subodh Mondal, Methodist church in India
Rev. LEE Se Young, Korea
Rev. Jason Selvaraj, Anglican Church of Malaysia
Rev. Dr. San Myat Shwe, Myanmar
Rev. Pamela TANGKERSLEY, Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand
Rev. Saman PERERA, National Christian Council of Sri Lanka
Rev. Dr. CHU Shu Ping, Taiwan
Ms. Prescila, National Council of Churches in Bhutan
Ms. Kitani Kanan, United Church of Christ in Japan
Ms. Nary Sous, Kampuchea Christian Council
Ms. Anashe Begjannian, Iran

Justice, International Affairs, Development and Service

Ms. Vijula Arulananthan, Sri Lanka (Moderator)
Rev. Timur Citra Sari, Indonesia Christian Church GKI
Rev. HO Baekki, Japan
Rev. BAE Tae-Jin, Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea
Rev. Saykham Singtthiphon, Lao Evangelical Church
Rev. Augustino de Vasconcelos, Igreja Protestante Iha Timor Lorosae
Ms. Tess KEAM, Uniting Church in Australia
Mr. Rakesh, National Council of Churches in Bhutan
Dr. James Tejos Das, Bangladesh
Mr. Saw George Shey, Myanmar Council of Churches
Dr. Rommel LINATOC, Philippines
Mr. Taweechai Termkunanon, Church of Christ in Thailand
Ms. Shunila Ruth, National Council of Churches in Pakistan

Ecumenical Formation, Gender Justice and Youth Empowerment

Rev. Diana TANA, Methodist Church of Aotaeroa New Zealand (Moderator)
Rev. Dr. J Fortis JYRWA, Presbyterian Church of India
Mr. Angus BROWNLIE, The Anglican Church of Australia
Ms. CHUAH Ee Chia, Council of Churches of Malaysia
Mr. Asher Qadir Bakhsh, Church of Pakistan
Mr. Warit Anuchiracheewa, Church of Christ in Thailand
Ms. Araz Khodabakhshian, Armenian Orthodox Church of Iran
Mr. Rajesh Rai, National Council of Churches of Nepal
Mr. Ronald CARIAIG, National Council of Churches in the Philippines
Ms. Elora Antonia, Bangladesh
Ms. TONG Wing Sze, Hong Kong Christian Council
Ms. Clare YEH Jia Yann, National Council of Churches of Taiwan
Ms. Elen ira Maia, Igreja Protestante Iha Timor Lorosae

Executive Staff

General Secretary

Dr. Prawate KHID-ARN, Church of Christ in Thailand (until November 2010)
Rev. Dr. Henriette Hutabarat LEBANG, Toraja church, Indonesia (from November 2010)

Associate General Secretary (Finance)

Dr. Rienzie PERERA, Anglican Church, Sri Lanka

Joint Executive Secretaries for
Justice, International Affairs, Development and Service

Mr. Charlie O'CAMPO, Uniting Church in Australia
Rev. Freddy de ALWIS, Baptist Church, Sri Lanka

Joint Executive Secretaries for
Faith, Mission and Unity

Dr. Hope ANTONE, United Church of Christ in the Philippines
Rev. PARK Sung Kook, Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea

Joint Executive Secretary for
Ecumenical Formation, Gender Justice and Youth Empowerment

Ms. Moumita BISWAS, Church of North India

Consultants

Communication

Liza B. LAMIS, Baptist Convention, Philippines

Ecumenical Formation, Gender Justice and Youth Empowerment

Mr. Adam ROW, Methodist Church, Malaysia

HIV/AIDS Concerns

Dr. Erlinda SENTURIAS, United Church of Christ in the Philippines

Project Coordinator for Mekong Ecumenical Partnership Programme

Ms Janejinda PAWADEE, Church of Christ in Thailand

The Malaysia Insider: Local church leaders dubious even as PM reaches out

2010-04-24T00:50:00.001+08:00

Local church leaders dubious even as PM reaches out

Najib (left) was preaching to the choir, said a local church leader. — Picture by Choo Choy May

By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak told regional Christian church leaders gathered here today that there was a place in Malaysia for all cultures and religions, but his message appears to have been met with some scepticism.

Church leaders came away from the closed-door lunch address unconvinced, citing recent examples of intolerance such as the controversy over the use of the word “Allah,” the firebombing of churches and the strident rhetoric of newspapers like Utusan Malaysia.

Najib’s message of unity among people of diverse ideologies and cultures was applauded by the Asian church leaders, but their local counterparts felt the words still rang hollow, and expressed doubts that Malaysia was moving from mere tolerance to acceptance and mutual respect as espoused by the prime minister.

Najib had flown from Japan early this morning to fete some 100 church leaders from around the region at the Grand Seasons Hotel here, which, coincidentally, also houses the offices of vocal Malay rights group, Perkasa.

A leading local Christian figure told The Malaysian Insider that Najib was preaching to the choir.

“Utusan Malaysia should be here,” the church leader said on condition of anonymity, referring to the Malay-language national newspaper.

The Umno-owned daily has been at the forefront of criticism against a recent Cabinet-endorsed committee to promote harmony and understanding among religions in Malaysia.

Another local church representative noted that the PM’s speech steered clear of mentioning religion, and focused instead on the social and economic elements to promote unity and mutual understanding among communities from diverse backgrounds.

“He said: ‘There’s a place under the Malaysian sun for everybody’,” the church leader said, citing the PM, but he appeared sceptical of Najib’s sincerity in his own message.

“He may say this here but he likely says something else in front of a different audience,” he pointed out.

“He’s got to add substance to his stand,” he added, noting that as a Malaysian delegate, he was hoping to hear “something more tangible” from the PM.

But the president of the Malaysian Consultative Council on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) Reverend Thomas Philips told The Malaysian Insider that the general assembly was not a suitable platform for the prime minister to speak on national issues, noting the local Christian community had other avenues to engage Najib.

A churchman who asked not to be named said that Najib kept his speech general and repeated his 1 Malaysia concept for the benefit of the regional audience, stretching from Iran to Australia, who had flown in to town for the week-long 13th general assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) which ended yesterday.

Among delegates at the assembly were the newly-elected general secretary of the CCA, Reverend Dr Henriette T. Hutabarat Lebang, who is also the director of the Institut Telogi Gereja Toraja in Indonesia; Anglican Archbishop of Perth Roger Herft; and the Vatican’s diplomatic representative to Southeast Asia, Salvatore Pennacchio.

Former general secretary of the CCA, Dr Prawate Khid-Arn, told The Malaysian Insider Najib’s speech was “very encouraging, particularly for other Asian countries”, which, being similarly multicultural, face a struggle to unite the different communities.

“I see Malaysia as more advanced than Thailand in people’s unity,” Khird-Arn said, comparing the situation in his home country to here.

He explained that while religion on its own was not a problem for Thailand, unity was a huge challenge, and pointed to the current riots in its capital, Bangkok.

The Thai church leader said he had been concerned about the religious situation in Malaysia earlier this year, when he heard of the attacks on houses of worship following a controversial High Court ruling over the use of the word “Allah” by a Catholic newspaper.

“But I see Malaysia’s religious situation improving over the last few months,” he said, and expressed confidence that Malaysia’s multi-religious, multi-ethnic community would be able to overcome the divide peacefully.

UCANEWS: CCA calls for peace in conflict zones

2010-04-24T00:48:00.001+08:00

CCA calls for peace in conflict zones

Published Date: April 23, 2010

Logo of the Christian Conference of Asia's 13th General Assembly

KUALA LUMPUR (UCAN) — The 13th general assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) ended here with a call to “build communities of peace in Asia, irrespective of class, color or creed.”

In a statement, some 300 participants of the April 15-22 assembly also urged the main protagonists in the Korean War, which began 60 years ago, to scrap the armistice that ended the conflict and to replace it with an official peace treaty.

Some 2.5 million Koreans lost their lives in the war, the statement noted.

It added that a lack of peace has meant that North Korea suffers famine and acute poverty through ongoing sanctions. It called on the United Sates and other countries to lift sanctions imposed on North Korea, which are obstructing the free flow of aid and economic development.

The ecumenical body also called on churches and national church councils to provide humanitarian aid to those suffering in North Korea.

The CCA also expressed concern over tensions between India and Pakistan, where people are not able to live in “peace, hope and fullness due to the ongoing threat of an outbreak of hostilities.”

The general assembly comprises representatives of the CCA’s more than 100 member churches in Asia and Oceania, and 20 national councils. The Armenian Orthodox Church of Iran and the National Council of Churches in Bhutan were among four new members of the assembly.

The CCA’s supreme decision making body gathers every five years.

Meanwhile, at a lunch on April 21, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak told the Asian Christians that his government was committed to pluralism and social justice in the Muslim-majority country.

Local media reported that Asian Church leaders applauded Najib’s message, but their Malaysian counterparts were skeptical. They cited recent examples of intolerance such as opposition to the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslims, and the firebombing of churches.

AS09518/1598 April 23, 2010 29 EM-lines (306 words)

New leadership for 2010 to 2015

2010-04-20T13:04:00.001+08:00

The Rev. Rex RB Reyes, Jr is an Anglican priest and currently the General Secretary of NCC Philippines, the first indigenous person to hold that position. He was formerly the Program Secretary for Christian Unity and Ecumenical Relations of NCC Philippines and also taught Ecumenics at St. Andrew’s Theological Seminary.

The Rev. Ms Retno Ngapon is 28 years old and a pastor of the Pasundan Christian Church in Jakarta, Indonesia. She is currently the Moderator of the Jakarta district of GKP (Gereja Kristen Pasundan) consisting of 12 local congregations.

Mr Augustine Karmakar holds a masters degree in accounting from the University of Dhaka and is a partner in a chartered accountants firm. He is also currently the honorary general secretary of the Church of Bangladesh and a member of the NCCB Executive Committee. He has been honorary treasurer of NCCB and of the national council of the YMCA.
He is keen to develop the accounting and financial management system of CCA and find creative means to raise funds in addition to promoting CCA Sunday and focusing on members’ contributions.

Formerly the Vice Chair of the Kampuchea Christian Council (KCC) and Chair of its Women’s Committee, Ms Van Arun Rasmey is currently its acting General Secretary.

Dr Kali Bahudar Rokaya is General Secretary of NCCP Nepal, lay pastor of Sagarmatha Church, Vice-President of the Interreligious Council of Nepal, National Coordinator of Nepal Intellectuals’ Forum, and Member of the National Human Rights Commission.
He is part of the Concern Movement for human rights and is founding member of the University of Christian Students Fellowship. He is married to Draupadi Rokaya and has two sons.

No easy answer: reconciliation requires justice

2010-04-20T12:49:00.001+08:00

The need to keep justice included in efforts for reconciliation has been raised in Bible Studies, lectures and forums during the Assembly.

In the Bible study on Monday, April 19, Metropolitan Geevarghese Mor Coorilos, of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church, said there was a dangerous trend in some quarters to de-link justice from the discourse on reconciliation and healing.

In the new globalised world it was claimed not all issues were justice related, but Metropolitan Coorilos said economic globalisation had made global problems worse. It had broken down some walls, but still others remained and new walls were being erected; new barriers of exclusion, exploitation and domination.

The “no entry” signs in the global south could be seen in such things as special economic zones and intellectual property rights.
Metropolitan Coorilos was preaching on Paul’s first epistle to the Ephesians, which he said was distinctive because of its perspective on the gentiles, the loathed, the underdogs: in Christ the gentiles had a new identity; discrimination had been overcome.

But Paul’s act of breaking the partition in the temple by bringing in a gentile eventually led to Paul’s torture, imprisonment and death.
Metropolitan Coorilos said, “All this suggests that the risk of reconciliation is indeed a costly one.” He said, “I have always held that ecumenism — one form of a reconciled community —in its perfect form is encountered in a house where someone has died.”
That was unlike a house where a wedding takes place and people must be invited, he said. In a house where someone has died people gather naturally, irrespective of their class, caste, race, gender or religion.

They all gather in solidarity and to share the pain and loss of the family. Sadly, for this vision of ecumenism and reconciliation to be actualised, someone needs to die.

It was death on a Cross that brought Christians together, he said. It had dismantled all walls of hostility and discrimination.
Metropolitan Coorilos said, “In the midst of old and new forms of division that perpetuate enmity, discrimination, domination and exploitation, we are called to prophesy, to reconcile and to heal.”
Reconciliation in the modern globalised context was more than mere conciliation. It was more than reconciling with the status quo; it was not about reconciling with the normative and dominant in an unjust society.

Reconciliation was a Trinitarian state of being; a perfect relationship between God, humanity and nature. “It is about restoring and reinstating just values and relationships. It is about reclaiming justice, peace and integrity of creation.

Discussions in the forum on a culture of violence and impunity touched on how attempts at reconciliation without justice resulted in impunity and the perpetuation of violent cultures.

For instance, Timorese who fought with the Indonesians and
No easy answer: reconciliation requires justice committed offences in the struggle for independence had been freed. That might have appeased Indonesia, but it did not build reconciliation among the Timorese. Justice was not seen to happen.

The healing of memories forum said healing involved forgiveness, acceptance, repentance, and a safe space to share of pain and suffering. There were two aspects of memories, it said: collective and individual memories of healing.

It said there was no healing without forgiveness from the oppressed and repentance for oppressor. “Healing is restoration of justice. It is a process of liberation and transformation between the oppressed and oppressors.”

In her D. T. Niles Lecture “Reconciliation and Healing in the Midst of Conflict and Brokenness”, Dr Ruth Manorama focused on the experiences of her struggles for the rights of India’s Dalits. She said true reconciliation meant recognising the root cause of a problem and having the courage to say things that the state would not entertain.

Reconciliation, she said, entailed justice and even reparation. She was critical of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which she said led to no action.

She spoke of the influence the early ecumenical movement had on her as an Indian, Dalit, Christian; how it provided a forum for other movements to network; and how it gave her courage and confidence.

Dr Manorama compared empires of state with the empires of the church and said Asian churches should not settle into the stereotypical styles of the empire.

She said state militarisation was occurring throughout Asia while poverty persisted in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Nepal. In Asia, she said, pain was immense. And pain destroyed life. But she still had not seen Christ’s promise of abundant life.

The church still had not denounced the caste system, she said. Christian missionaries criticised idol worship but not the caste system. If theology spoke of washing away all sins, how could Christians still talk about untouchables or polluted people, she asked.
The church must stand up and talk, she said, and casteism needed to be addressed at the Asian level. “Reconciliation and healing can happen in Asia when you get involved.”

Dr Manorama said building movements was a witness to Christ and that the church needed to recognise that God used other people.
She said, “The best of the missionary enterprise is solidarity with the poor … The church must recognise those at the forefront of the struggle and give up its status of empire.”

“Bishops, pastors, leaders,” she said, “you must be with the people. But you are sitting and building and protecting the empires.”
Dr Manorama said the healing process was very risky work and that reconciliation needed a bold and courageous stand by believers.

Stephen Webb

~ Berita Terkini CCA Assembly 2010 April 20

New leaders to chart ecumenism’s future in Asia

2010-04-20T12:41:00.001+08:00

The Christian Conference of Asia has elected new officers, who are expected to help chart the future of ecumenism and help strengthen the prophetic voice of Christianity in a culturally diverse continent, which, they say, needs “reconciliation and healing” more than ever.

Elected on 19 April during the CCA’s 13th General Assembly were four members of the Presidium. They were Ms Van Arun Rasmey, Kampuchea Christian Council general secretary; Rev Rex RB Reyes, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines; Rev Ms Retno Ngapon (Youth), Indonesia; and Dr K.B. Rokaya, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Nepal.

Members of the presidium have vowed to help make CCA a strong voice in Asia. “We have to exert more effort in playing our prophetic role in engaging with governments, civil society and other sectors,” said Dr Rokaya.

“We have to raise our voices against authoritarian and repressive regimes, religious extremism, human trafficking, militarism, human rights violations, institutionalised corruption and bad governance, even as we seek to help address modern epidemics such as HIV and AIDS,” he added.

Rev. Reyes also stressed on possibly “restructuring CCA to make it relevant and responsive” to current challenges and issues.
For his part, newly elected treasurer Augustine Karmakar promised to develop and improve CCA’s financial management system and raise funds “the best ways possible.”

Karmakar, the general secretary of the Church of Bangladesh, also said he would help promote self-reliance by encouraging more membership contributions. “We must also encourage richer Asian churches to give more,” he said.

Also elected were members of the General Committee and the three programme area committees – Ecumenical Formation, Gender Justice and Youth Empowerment (EGY); Faith, Mission and Unity (FMU); and the Justice, International Affairs, Development and Service (JID).
Members of the General Committee, however, will be announced only today after questions were raised about lack of balance in representation for the youth, laymen and laywomen.

It all adds up

2010-04-20T12:22:00.001+08:00

We have a lot of ministries to do. How much do we contribute to the work? Delegates from Korea.

With few comments and little debate the Assembly has received and recommended for implementation the reports of the Pre-Assembly forums and program reviews, giving the new General Committee the task of dealing with additional demands with decreasing funds.
Among recommendations of commitment, advocacy and encouragement in the Women’s Forum report were tasks for the General Committee to help CCA develop and implement a sexual harassment policy and a gender policy, conduct a gender audit, planning and budgeting.

Taking on recommendations from the Youth Forum, the General Committee has to find a way to re-establish a joint executive secretary for Youth. It also needs to find resources for CCA, NCC and member churches’ youth programs and facilitate a bi-annual meeting of youth secretaries.

But a priority, according to the call accepted from the Forum on PLWHIV+, is the resourcing of churches for competent HIV and AIDS ministry.

Meanwhile, following the resolve of the People’s Forum, CCA needs to develop ecumenical and pastoral visits, incorporating fact-finding, study and solidarity missions and provide support to constituent members to protect victims of human rights violations.

The reports from program reviews also have implications for CCA’s budget.

The review of the General Secretariat was concerned that the program area committees were not meeting frequently enough.
It also said a Youth secretary was a priority and that HIV and AIDS should be in a separate program area with more staffing.

Stephen Webb

~ Berita Terkini CCA Assembly 2010 April 18

Movements and institution must prophesy together

2010-04-20T12:17:00.001+08:00

We have decided what to love: justice. The Women’s Forum participants present their message to the Assembly.

The need to improve the relationship between church as institution and the church as movement has been raised during several Assembly lectures, Bible studies, forums and program reviews.

Dr D. Preman Niles, in the first D. T. Niles Memorial Lecture, said, “In the conflicts that flare up between church as institution and church as movement, the ecumenical movement has either taken one side against the other or attempted to go it alone without the support of the churches.

“Neither option is desirable if the ecumenical movement in Asia is to grasp and sustain the challenge of prophetic ministry and costly discipleship as a call to the churches.”

The Rev. Dr Hyunju Bae, in her Bible study on “The Prophetic Challenge to the Church in Asia”, said the call for the church to respond to the prophetic calling derived from its discernment of the times and from its firsthand experience of all the layers of accumulated problems in Asia.

However, the church often became the target of criticism, as it made mistakes by uncritically reinscribing injustice and discrimination within itself.

She said, “The eyes of the local churches are sometimes not clear enough to discern the prophetic commitment both inside and outside them, and sometimes they even condemn it.”

Dr Bae said, “It is sometimes the case that prophetic Christian individuals do not receive the spiritual and moral support from the church, rather finding themselves misunderstood and even mistreated. No wonder that many of them fall into disappointment and disillusionment about the church!”

The true miracle that the Holy Spirit performed, she said, was found in the building of the first faith community that lived up to the alternative prophetic vision which covered economic and politico-cultural dimensions of the communal life.

“‘The leader’ of the earliest churches was the one who was in charge of what we call now ‘advocacy’, giving the voice to the voiceless, making them visible, and taking side with them. To realise that prophetic advocacy was part of

The report from the People’s Forum, held in Kuala Lumpur April 12-13, accused the ecumenical movement of becoming empire-building and ecclesial-techno-bureaucratic.

“Instead,” it said, “the ecumenical movement must amplify the voice of the voiceless and accompany them in their struggle.”

It said, “The abandoning of Urban Rural Mission has resulted in the grassroots being alienated from the ecumenical movement.”
Absence of the poor in the ecumenical movement questioned its very nature, purpose, meaning and existence and it needed to redefine itself, the forum said.

CCA had lost its engagement with basic communities and people’s movements and should reclaim its involvement with transformational grassroots organising.

Dr Niles said the church needed to embrace an understanding of its position as scattered communities, to understand its place among the nations and view itself as the people of God in the midst of all God’s peoples. He said the church should have a positive appreciation of plurality as within God’s plan for creation and its place and mission within it.

Then it would understand the call to prophetic ministry as an imitation of the example of Jesus, who confronted the empires of the world with the Empire of God, which had the expendables, the least, as its centre of concern.

He said, “We have to abandon the debilitating confrontations between church as institution and church as movement. On the one hand, church as institution is primarily a community of worship that besides other things is able to spiritually support and sustain the church as movement. “On the other, the church as movement is called to manifest the prophetic ministry of the church with all the marks of discipleship.”

Stephen Webb

~ Berita Terkini CCA Assembly 2010 April 18

CCA’s hands full in next 5 years

2010-04-20T12:06:00.001+08:00

A barrage of issues and concerns in the world’s most populous continent awaits the Christian Conference of Asia.
Confronting the CCA are the growing militarism in Kashmir and the Korean peninsula, continuing nuclear armaments buildup, forced migration, displacements, human rights violations, sexual abuse of women, rising numbers of persons living with HIV and AIDS, climate change, and a litany of other issues and concerns reported by various participants, who participated in four pre-assemblies.

On the tension in Kashmir, participants of the 12-13 April People’s Forum on 17 April urged the CCA to “strengthen the peace initiatives of the National Councils of Churches in Indian and Pakistan” so
they would cooperate with each other in addressing the concerns of troubled people in the Kashmir Valley.

The CCA must also ensure that the conflict and tension in Kashmir and in the Korean Peninsula be taken up as “significant agenda items” during the 2013 World Council of Churches Assembly in Pusan, South Korea, the Forum added.

The Forum likewise resolved that the CCA encourages member churches and organizations to support the Korean Ecumenical Forum and other similar initiatives that promote trust and understanding between North and South Korea.

Supporting constituent members in peace-building through negotiations and other processes is another arena, which the CCA, according to the Forum, must explore.

The Forum also suggested the CCA supports its constituent members
to protect victims of human rights violations, the displaced, refugees, other sanctuary-seekers, and migrant workers.

The CCA must “reclaim its involvement in transformational grassroots
organizing with basic sectors” and promote “a critical discussion on
the dominant development paradigm and the co-option of churches
and chart directions for a new approach,” said the Forum.

Participants from the pre-assembly forums of the youth, women and
people living with HIV and AIDS have also forwarded proposals, which
the CCA must implement or address in the next five years.

The youth challenged the CCA and National Church Councils to
provide programs through which young people could channel their
energies.

They particularly sought for ecumenical formations, leadership
trainings, internships and programs like the School of Ecumenical
Leadership Formation.

The youth also reiterated calls for the CCA and National Church
Councils to become Asia’s prophetic voice in denouncing human
rights violations.

Education for all, peace-building, reconciliation, inter-religious and
interfaith dialogues, HIV and AIDS, single motherhood, abortion,
substance abuse, environment, climate change, destructive
government development programs among others are very much at
the heart of the youth’s concerns.

Among other recommendations, the youth urged the CCA to strengthen its relationships and networking with various ecumenical and interfaith youth organizations such as the World Student Christian Federation-Asia Pacific, Ecumenical Asia Students and Youth Network and the Asian Methodist Youth Network.

For people living with HIV and AIDS, participants of the pre-assembly on this modern scourge called upon the CCA General Assembly to “priotise the resourcing of Churches for competent HIV and AIDS ministry.”

For their part, participants of the women’s pre-assembly urged the CCA General Assembly to “reclaim its history of theological engagement by imagining new contextual theologies that address the issues of militarism, violence, hierarchy and ecological and economic justice.”

The women also recommended that the CCA commit to, and encourage member churches to, help eliminate all forms of violence against women and children.

Among other recommendations, the women urged the CCA to “affirm the special and unique place held by indigenous peoples and Dalits in Asia, Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand.”

CCA indeed needs more and many hands, as well as material resources for the ministry ahead.

Maurice Malanes

~ Berita Terkini CCA Assembly 2010 April 18

Young prophets, healers and reconcilers

2010-04-20T11:24:00.001+08:00

Twenty-two young ecumenical leaders responded to the call to be prophets, reconcilers and healers of our time through the Asian Ecumenical Course (AEC) 2010. The AEC participants who come from Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, India, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Taiwan, Aotearoa New Zealand, the Philippines and Malaysia will also be observers and animators of the Bible Studies and worship for the 2010 CCA assembly.

A two-week intensive course, the AEC is one of the highlights, if not a turning point in every participant’s faith journey. We shared life stories, social realities where each one grew up, and the big role the church plays in our formation. The Church, we learned, has an important role to play in our societies in ensuring peaceful co-existence and equity of resources. The unity of the Church is a powerful witness of the message of love.

We are challenged to be active participants in the ecumenical movement as it is an evangelical imperative to bring people to Christ. We are reminded of Jesus’ prayer for unity and to focus on the Church’s efforts on things that unite. People of other faiths are not objects of conversion but people whose religious beliefs must be respected. At AEC we are taught to uphold the Asia-ness of our Christian practice in the use of our own songs and instruments in worship, and in contextualizing the Bible in Asian realities. We celebrate our gift of diversity and affirm our Asian spirituality.

As prophets, reconcilers and healers we dare speak against repression of the people in Asia. We dare speak against disunity that crippled the Church to action, losing its powerful witness. We dare speak against globalization that promotes consumerism, dehumanizes Asian communities and destroys our environment. We dare speak love to communities of other faiths and blessings to the delegates and participants of CCA’s 13th General Assembly. Finally, we dare speak peace based on justice to abound in Asia as was never known before.

CCA’s Dr Hope S. Antone and Rev Dr. Joseph Kumar, dean of the AEC 2010 are our nurturing hands at the AEC. We sincerely thank them.

Friends, we are here to help make our assembly experience more enriching and more stirring for all of us.

Ariel Siagan, with the AEC participants

~ Berita Terkini CCA Assembly 2010 April 17

Good stewardship: more than figures

2010-04-20T11:10:00.001+08:00

When CCA Treasurer Thomas Yee-po Soo delivered the Financial Report to the General Assembly on April 16, he twice mentioned stewardship.

In the executive summary of the report of the CCA Review, delivered in the following session, the word appeared once.
The topic of responsible financial management was mentioned often, however, in questions from the floor.

Bishop Soo sought questions and constructive comments after his report “to improve the financial status and management of the CCA”.
He hoped that member churches and councils would take more responsibility for the growth and the stability of the CCA. “What I am presenting is not merely figures but behind these figures are the commitment and the stewardship of member churches, councils and ecumenical partners for God’s mission.”

Support from member churches and from ecumenical partners was decreasing. But partners from beyond the region, who provide 80 per cent of CCA’s budget, wanted to know when the Asian churches would take responsibility for the Asian ecumenical movement.
Bishop Soo said, “I believe the time has come for us to demonstrate that we are no longer babes in Christ but mature Christians who can take responsibility for our own actions.”

He said he would ask the churches and councils in Asia to consider seriously making donations regularly to CCA. “However,” he said, “we also have to ask ourselves, as CCA members, how can we serve the churches and councils better.”

He said the Asian churches seemed to have the resources to give to the CCA when the need arose; they were willing to give to the CCA programs, but were they willing to give money to maintain the structure?

Non-cash contributions were a different way Asian churches took responsibility for the ecumenical movement. Nevertheless, Bishop Soo said to maintain an organised and centralised structure like the CCA it needed to receive cash contributions from member churches and councils on an annual and regular basis.

Relationship with churches and councils and the sustainability of programs were also key reference points in the report of the CCA Review.

Recommending a review of CCA’s entire governance structure, it said churches and councils wanted to see changes in the structures so they would be effective, accountable and responsible to the members, transparent, confidential where necessary, fully participatory, professional, and above personal and political interests.
Among weaknesses listed, it said in order to mobilise sharing of resources among CCA member churches, CCA needed to increase information sharing, capture the needs of Asian churches, plan regular church visits, introduce and encourage Asian churches to host CCA programs, and facilitate the leadership development of member churches.

For their part, CCA member churches also needed to take their membership seriously, integrate their financial contribution to CCA in their annual budget, facilitate information sharing to cultivate ecumenical understanding and support, and develop strategic leadership.

The mention of good stewardship in the report from the Review was that CCA had never been accused of any major financial misappropriation of funds.

There was mention, however, of the value of time and money spent on large committees with little strategic outcome, poor management practices and outdated office procedures, and no value added from CCA programs.

Bishop Soo included in his report part of a letter from Heiner Knauss of ecumenical partner EED. It said, “Churches in Germany and their agencies will not feel responsible any longer to maintain a regional council if churches in the region would not show commitment themselves. And commitment is much more than funding.”

Mr Knauss said the CCA delegation going to Europe needed to convince church leaders there theologically of the role CCA could play in a situation where ecumenical leadership was highly demanded.

“The task before you during this trip is to explain the indispensable necessity of the existence of an ecumenical body like CCA … The answer must be sought in participating as churches in Asia’s discourse on inter-religious relations, on poverty, violence, human rights violations, justice (including gender justice) peace and integrity of creation.”

One comment about the review document was that, while it said CCA had no mission statement, the Assembly seemed happy not to have one.

As CCA proceeds to develop strategic directions, financial sustainability and good stewardship practices, the new General Committee and General Secretary have, as the General Secretary-elect Henriette T. Hutabarat Lebang said concluding the review presentation, a lot of work to do.

Stephen Webb

~ Berita Terkini CCA Assembly 2010 April 17

Worship with meaning and creativity in an Asian Way

2010-04-20T09:13:00.001+08:00

Dr Rommel Linatoc from the Philippines is actively involved in the liturgical renewal work of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and is currently the program secretary of the Unit on Christian Unity and Ecumenical Relations of NCC Philippines. He holds a doctor of philosophy in theater and media for development, and had been an artistic director of various people’s theater groups in
the Philippines. His other passions include ecological justice and peace and human rights advocacy. Rommel facilitated the creative ministry topic of the 2010 Asia Ecumenical Course. CCA appreciates
and enormously thank Rommel for helping make the Assembly worship experience meaningful and truly creative in the Asian way.

“Mutual fertilisation”

2010-04-20T09:09:00.001+08:00

Dr. U Kyaw Than was associate general secretary (later general
secretary) of the East Asia Christian Conference (now the CCA) at
a time when there was no Internet and mobile phones.

But he and the late D.T. Niles, the first general secretary were
so efficient and effective in their work of promoting and nurturing
ecumenism in the region that they made an impact both at the
regional and grassroots level. What could have been their secret?

“Part of the secret was that we were in our own country so were
part of our own context,” Dr. Than said in an interview.
At that time Niles, who was the general secretary, was based in Sri
Lanka, and Dr. Than, in Myanmar. “Our country was our own base
so we were in touch with the grassroots,” Dr. Than said. “Since
we were in our own communities, we were able to implement our
programs even with shoestring budgets.”

Under the setup then, Dr. Than said the EACC leadership and the
grassroots “mutually fertilised” each other. “We were acting on real issues from the grassroots and not on imagined problems,” he said. “The issues of the grassroots thus defined our programs, instead of us defining them.”

Maurice Malanes

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 April 19

Moderator seeks consensus

2010-04-20T09:07:00.001+08:00

Lu Yueh Wen from Taiwan has been the youth member of CCA’s
Presidium for the past five years. She doesn’t want to be known
as the “youth president”; rather, she sees herself as president on
behalf of those who are under 30.

Ms Lu said the past five years had been a very rich journey
together with friends. “It is amazing to see and witness how
churches respond to events and suffering in their own countries
and in others,” she said. “It shows a spirit of solidarity.”

The five years of being president have sometimes been painful for
her. She has had to negotiate the obligations and responsibilities
of being an officer of CCA with her job as a product manager for
a company in Taiwan.

Her role in the Assembly’s hot seat has not always been easy.
Moderating plenaries could make her nervous at times, she said,
but it was interesting to see people’s responses to questions and
discussions.

Even being a good English speaker, she still needed help sometimes understanding what people were talking about. But being in such a position was how young people learned, she said.

Ms Lu said would really like to see CCA adopt the consensus model of decision making because it created a friendlier opportunity for newcomers to express their opinions. She was nurtured in the consensus model by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and sometimes found moderating in CCA’s parliamentary style confronting.

Ms Lu had dedicated one of the most valuable periods of her life to the church and hoped and appealed to church leaders to understand that, as a young woman, she didn’t want to carry so many “categories”. She said, “It is not fair for a young person and a woman. I know there are category requirements to meet but, if
we are serious about gender and age justice, this is not the way to reconcile them.”

Ms Lu regards being a member of the Presidium a privilege because not many young people received that amount of trust from their church. She is very grateful to the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan for trusting and supporting her.

Stephen Webb

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 April 19

Malaysian official hails CCA’s mission

2010-04-20T08:57:00.001+08:00

A Malaysian top official has lauded the Christian Conference of Asia’s prophesying, reconciliation and healing mission.

“I am confident that your deliberations will further enhance your faith and fraternity and that you will make even greater contributions
to harmony, peace and prosperity in our respective countries and in Asia as a whole,” said Malaysian Senator Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon. Sen. Koon was the guest of honour during a welcome dinner for the CCA 13 General Assembly delegates last Saturday.

He also expressed the government’s “heartfelt appreciation to the Christian Churches and community in Malaysia for having contributed tremendously in nation-building, especially in education and spiritual development.” He cited himself and the prime minister, who were first educated in Christian schools.

Maurice Malanes

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 April 19

Confronting violence, impunity in Asia

2010-04-20T08:53:00.001+08:00

State-sponsored systematic violence and the inability or refusal of governments to bring to justice perpetrators are rising facts of life in various parts of Asia, which, ecumenical leaders say, the Christian
Conference of Asia and its member churches must confront head on.
Members of the Assembly forum on violence and impunity on Sunday cited the cases of East Timor, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Nepal and other Asian countries.

In East Timor, where almost 200,000 people were killed during the armed conflict from 1975-1999, the official Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been harping on reconciliation “but there has
been no prosecution,” said a Timor Leste delegate.

He added that a militia commander, who was reported to have been involved in a massacre during the armed conflict, was released shortly after he was arrested last year because of pressures from the Indonesian government.

Pastor Berlin Guerrero of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines shared how his country, through its counterinsurgency
and anti-terrorism policies, has justified extra-judicial killings and illegal arrests of activists and church workers advocating for human rights and justice.

He lamented that no perpetrator has been prosecuted or punished.
Nepal has the same situation. “Impunity is the biggest problem in Nepal and this is due to the criminalisation of politics and corruption in the courts and the police,” said Dr. Kali Bahadur Rokaya, secretary
general of the National Council of Churches there. He was referring
to “political parties full of criminals or protecting criminals” or criminals elected into office.

The forum members have yet to reflect on how the CCA and the churches could possibly respond to this rising institutionalised violence and impunity for lack of time yesterday. But in an interview, Rev. Guerrero said other churches could learn lessons from his church. He cited the “creativity and capacity” of the UCCP in
mobilising international support when he was arrested and detained
without charges in 2007.

“Through their creativity, my church (UCCP), the National Council of
Churches in the Philippines and human rights groups were creative
enough in bringing my case to international arenas like the UN Human
Rights Commission and the US Senate,” he said.

The international church community also immediately responded to
Guerrero’s case mainly because “my church and the churches overseas have reached an equal level of partnership in mission or in journeying together rather than one based simply on donor-beneficiary relationship,” he added.

Maurice Malanes

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 April 19

Conflicts and Culture of Impunity in Asia

2010-04-19T09:35:00.001+08:00

CONFLICTS AND CULTURE OF IMPUNITY IN ASIA

(Presented by Carmencita P. Karagdag, Coordinator Peace for Life, at the CCA pre-assembly People’s Forum, Kuala Lumpur, April 12-13, 20010)

Wars and conflicts have always plagued humankind since time immemorial, causing untold misery and despair. But in this time of militarized globalization and US exceptionalism, wars of plunder and occupation under the guise of war on terror—specially in oil and resource-rich regions of the world—have become the order of the day. This notwithstanding the so-called politics of hope inspired by US President Barack Obama, now the US leader invested with the task of securing the world, that is, of saving, the global Empire.

But wars are not only among nations and states. Internecine wars—be they racial or ethnic, sectarian, communal and civil conflicts—have in fact proliferated specially in Asia, a region of vast racial and cultural diversity and home to the world’s most ancient religions predating Christianity. Moreover, of special interest to us, people of faith. is the rise of religious fundamentalism (whether Islamic, Hindu or Christian) and the all-too glaring fact that religion has been used and misused to legitimize the immoral project of empire as well as to justify jihad and terrorism on the part of those who are aggrieved..

Some of these internal conflicts may not get the same media currency as the outright wars of invasion and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet while often hidden and less visible, these wars are said to have cost more lives than the two world wars put together; the number of displaced people resulting from these internal conflicts is believed to far outpace that of traditional wars.

Allow me to make a quick scan of the Asian political landscape and highlight some countries where conflicts have become endemic, resulting in widespread human rights atrocities and a prevailing culture of impunity.

SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka, where an NCC Sri Lanka staff Shanta Fernando continues to languish in jail, has been one dramatic case of massive humanitarian catastrophe since the collapse of the Permanent Ceasefire Agreement between the Sri Lankan government and the insurgent Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), giving free rein to the government’s total war against the LTTE which ended in May last year with the defeat of the insurgents and the capture of their strongholds.The government’s apparent success in decimating the insurgency has been attributed to its all-out military offensive, that is now being hailed as model. Already there are reports that Sri Lankan military advisers have been briefing the Philippine counterinsurgency operatives.

During the final months of the 28-year old conflict, which already cost 80,000 lives, the government confined nearly 300,000 people displaced by the conflict in what are euphemistically called "welfare camps" in the north. This apart from the mayhem and human rights atrocities inflicted on entire communities.

Today, nearly a year after the so-called victory of government forces, some 100,000 Tamils are still kept in camps where they are routinely denied basic rights and freedom of movement. Worse the authorities have forcibly separated more than 11,000 individuals with suspected ties to the LTTE and detained in "rehabilitation centers." Also, more than 550 children were among those transferred to these centers. The lack of information about the fate and whereabouts of some of the detainees raises concerns about the possibility that some may not only have been tortured, but also forcibly disappeared. Enforced disappearances have been a longstanding problem in Sri Lanka, and thousands of people remain unaccounted for.

Much of the blame for the collapse of the peace process that led to last year’s bloodbath centered on what is perceived as the negative role played by the international community. In 2006 the European Union added the LTTE to its list of terrorist organizations, destroying the parity of status believed to be necessary for the continuation of the peace process. Indeed as the findings of the Permanent People’s Tribunal on Sri Lanka held in Dublin early this year pointed out, the so-called “global war on terror” has produced a new security paradigm that has led to the justification of human rights violations against those members of the population labeled “terrorists”.

INDIA

In India communal violence has escalated specially after September 11, fanned by a rightwing Hindutva ideology in which cultural nationalism, casteism, communalism, and religious fundamentalism find convergence and feed on one another. The result is even greater persecution, including outright massacres, if not genocide, of religious minorities like Muslims in Guijarat and Christians in Orissa, not to the mention the abominable treatment of the long-discriminated Dalits and oppressed adhivasis.

Also the escalation of conflicts between government forces and Maoist insurgents, labeled as terrorists and considered the principal threat to internal security by the government, has resulted in massive human rights atrocities specially victimizing tribals, many of whom have been forced to retreat deep into the jungles which are hideouts of the insurgents. Even government authorities have thus expressed fears that police atrocities in the tribal areas of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Bengal and Andhra Pradesh are pushing the tribals into the arms of the insurgents.

Not surprisingly tribal areas have rich mineral deposits coveted by profit-hungry Indian and multinational mining companies and other landgrabbers, with Orissa alone having 70% of all of India's bauxite reserves, 90% of India's chrome ore and nickel and 24% of its coal.

Displaced from their land and discriminated against, tribal people are the most marginalized section of Indian society. They are thus now struggling to defend or reclaim their land, their only remaining resource. The government’s response is one of massive military offensive to eliminate the Maoists in largely tribal areas, involving the recent deployment of nearly 100,000 troops. To strengthen the military’s hand, draconian anti-terrorist legislations like the Armed Forces Special Powers Act have been reintroduced and harsh provisions from previous counterterrorism laws that had either been allowed to lapse or been repealed have been resurrected. Also cause for concern is the proliferation of so-called peace committees organized by landgrabbers to counter legitimate tribal organizations and local vigilante groups funded by mining interests and armed by the state.

NEPAL

Another South Asian country that is threatened with renewed violence is Nepal, where following a popular revolt that ended the repressive Hindu monarchy, a comprehensive peace agreement to end the 10-year armed conflict is now fast unraveling. In May last year the Maoists, who were then the largest bloc in the coalition government, withdrew from the government and went into opposition. They also boycotted the Constituent Assembly, tasked with drafting a new constitution by May this year and formed after a 2008 election when members voted overwhelmingly to abolish the monarchy and restructure the country into autonomous states.

Several contentious issues have frustrated efforts to hammer out a new constitution. At the center of the controversy is the question of the integration and rehabilitation of nearly 20,000 Maoist combatants verified by the United Nations Mission in Nepal, who have been held in cantonment sites around the country for nearly three years. The Maoists are demanding the integration of their combatants into the security forces, a demand opposed by the mainstream parties who insist that the combatants be integrated into the society.

Other issues over which the different political forces are at loggerheads includes the question of federalism, the proposed referendum to address Nepal’s status as Hindu state which was abolished in 2008 when Nepal became a republic. More than 80% of the Nepalese are Hindus.

Moreover there has been lack of political will and consensus to investigate and prosecute those responsible for crimes and human rights violations during the armed conflict, as set out in the 2006 peace agreement.

What is clear is that Nepal is now suffering from grave political instability and a fragile government, hobbling efforts to make progress on crucial issues of economic development, including the dismantling of the feudal economy. Moreover tensions are rising regarding the lack of progress in framing a new constitution which, if not decisively resolved this year, may well plunge the country into another civil war worse than the previous one.

BURMA

One of the countries in Asia particularly notorious for blatant political repression and culture of impunity is Burma, where a military junta that restricts the basic rights and freedoms of all Burmese remains entrenched. The ruling State Peace and Development Council systematically denies citizens the basic freedoms of expression, association, and assembly. To date more than 2,100 political prisoners continue to languish in jail. Moreover, the military continues to perpetrate human-rights atrocities against civilians in ethnic conflict areas, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and sexual violence.

Elections are supposed to be held this year for the first time in 20 years. However concern has been raised that the recently released Burmese election law may undermine the participation of opposition parties. This and the continuing house arrest since 2003 of opposition leader and human-rights icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, gives credence to the widely-held view that the military will not allow genuine political participation in the electoral process and is simply using the elections to legitimize its continuing hold on power. An ostensibly civilian parliament will be but mere front for continued military control. In fact under the new constitution, a quarter of the parliament’s seats are reserved for the military. Moreover, continuing uncertainties and a high degree of secrecy surrounding the election process, including the actual election dates, have raised tensions in the country. Already the opposition National League for Democracy, which won the previous elections but prevented by the military to assume power, have announced a boycott of the polls.

PAKISTAN

Pakistan, an Islamic state, has been the site of some of the worst sectarian violence perpetrated by religious extremists with apparent connivance of the military. Suicide bombings, armed attacks, and killings have targeted civilians, minority religious groups, and the political elite.

Though it has a parliamentary system and democratically elected government now in place after eight years of disastrous military rule, the military has continued to assert its power and perpetrate human rights abuses with impunity, thus effectively subverting the political and judicial systems in the country. .

Meanwhile rising religious extremism and militancy as well as recent efforts by military elements to destabilize the civilian regime have been fuelled by a growing anti-US sentiment which deepened markedly in 2009 due to the US aerial drone strikes on suspected militant hideouts in the tribal areas, viewed by many as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and prompting allegations that US attacks that killed hundreds of civilians violated the laws of war. The current US military strategy after Bush is to shift focus to Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan in its drive to contain Al Quaeda and the Talibans.

The military also instigated a nationalist backlash when Obama signed into law last year the Enhanced Partnershp with Pakistan Act, linking its US$7.5 billion in non-military aid over five years to conditions relating to military conduct, dismissed by the military as compromising the country’s national security. This includes a requirement for the US secretary of state to certify that the Pakistani military is combating terrorism, not engaged in nuclear proliferation, and not "materially and substantially subverting the political or judicial processes of Pakistan."

Also a matter of concern to the ecumenical movement and human rights groups is Pakistan’s Blasphemy Law which has been used to quell dissent and oppress religious minorities specially Christians.

PHILIPPINES

I will not dwell lengthily on the Philippines, another Asian country plagued by human rights atrocities, notably extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances, that has victimized not only left-wing mass leaders and activists but also lawyers, doctors journalists, human-rights advocates and clergy, including a bishop. Suffice it to say that in the Philippines, the US’s first and hence highly prized colonial possession, both the communist and Muslim rebellions are being systematically subverted through a revitalized counter-insurgency campaign fashioned after the US-inspired “dirty war” in Latin America. No less than UN Rapporteur Philip Alston has asserted that extra-judicial killing is an integral component of this US-instigated counter-insurgency strategy the aim of which is to dismantle the mass base of the political left which has seen a resurgence with the onslaught of globalization and the war on terror.

Later I shall introduce my fellow churchworker from the Philippines, Rev. Berlin Guerrero, who will expand on the issue and offer a testimony of his own experience as victim of state terror.

As all these country cases illustrate, assaults on human freedom and grave threats to life have in recent years reached a new level of magnitude and barbarity. Untrammeled economic globalization, the US war on terror in the aftermath of September 11, and the immoral project of global hegemony and Empire have radically altered the Asian political landscape, resulting in more widespread impoverishment, massive displacement of entire communities and thus even more virulent strifes and blatant denial of political, economic, social and cultural rights. A lot of the insurgencies and conflicts, including terrorism as a response of the disempowered, do in fact have underlying social, political and economic causes, rooted as they are in the exclusion and marginalization of vast numbers of the Asian population.

Indeed peace advocates today face nearly insurmountable odds. For one thing, wars are profitable. Though wars result in large-scale destruction, enormous profits are made from lucrative defense contracts for reconstruction, for refurbishing the army, for further research to build sophisticated weaponry and nuclear technology.

To conclude, human rights advocacy from an ecumenical perspective cannot but cannot but go hand in hand with prophetic denunciation of globalization and empire building, accompanied by concrete work for justice, understood as distributive and transformative justice, which alone can build the regime of peace and universal rule of law that we in the ecumenical community have been called by our Christian faith to strive relentlessly for.

Women prophets, healers and reconcilers

2010-04-19T09:22:00.001+08:00

In solidarity, women gathered to celebrate Life as they journey
together in weaving stories of healing, reconciliation and prophesying.

Seventy women and some men attended the Pre-Assembly Women’s Forum with the theme, “Celebrating Life: Women Prophets, Healers and Reconcilers” in Kuala Lumpur on April 10-13, 2010. The participants united and re-committed themselves to the
sacred task of strengthening the Asian ecumenical movement and
in pursuing gender justice. The gathering also affirmed women’s
prophetic voices and their valuable contributions to the task of peace building.

The Women’s Forum started with a meaningful inaugural worship
and keynote address delivered by Ms. Ivy Josiah from Malaysia.
Three distinguished women leaders - Dr Ana May Say Pa form
Myanmar, Rev Kyun In Kim from Korea, Ms. Gabriel Russel-
Mundine from Australia – shared their respective life journeys and
on the prophetesses of peace who gave meaning to their tasks. Small group workshops tackled different issues and stories on the theme: “Weaving Our Tapestry of Peace”.

A joint biblico-theological reflection with the Forum on PLHIV+ led by His Grace, Geevarghese Mor Coorilos of the Orthodox Church provided a well grounded theological perspective and understanding of HIV and AIDS and human sexuality. A panel presentation on being “Called to be Healers and Reconcilers” included topics on
Women’s Reproductive Health Justice, by Susan Eleanor Claro from the Philippines, Healing our Memories: Restoring the Sacredness of Broken Bodies by Shunila Ruth from Bangladesh; and Theology of Positive Masculinity, by Rev. Dr. Joseph Dayam Prabhakar from India.

An exposure to the YWCA, The House of Single Mothers and a Shelter for Abused Women was followed by a networking and strategizing session to strengthen solidarity work among women. The participants also issued a statement addressed to the CCA assembly

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 Day 2

UCANEWS: Church ministry aimed at healing, pastor says

2010-04-19T09:17:00.000+08:00

ASIA - Church ministry aimed at healing, pastor says

Published Date: April 19, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR (UCAN) — The head of an international ecumenical organization has urged Churches to be critical but not “destroy, deteriorate or diminish the dignity of others.”

Reverend Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), told a gathering of Asian Christians here that the prophetic witness of Churches is a “ministry aimed at healing” which creates “new hearts and a new future.”

The pastor was speaking to some 300 Christians gathered for the 13th general assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) April 15-22 on the theme Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal.

CCA associate general secretary Reverend Rienzie Perera said the general assembly theme is a reminder and call to Churches in Asia to respond to God’s call to engage in prophetic, reconciling and healing ministries without counting the cost.”

Reverend Wati Longchar, director of the South Asia Theological Research Institute explained that “prophetic witness implies discerning the signs of our times and the willingness to be part of seeking justice.”

Reverend Tviet told the assembly that religion has the potential to give strength and courage to people to speak out for justice. He noted there are examples of how religion has inspired the fight for justice and peace. But he warned that religion can also be used terrorize innocent people and legitimize oppression.

Some of the challenges that we face today in the world “can be seen as a result of a one-sided and uncritical use of religion which has ended up being very destructive and bringing neither justice nor peace,” he noted.

The WCC general secretary urged Churches to reflect on “how the prophetic, critical ministry can be a ministry of real reconciliation and healing” to bring new visions for the future.

Reverend Perera termed prophetic witness as the courage given by God to take sides with the poor and oppressed in society.

CCA general secretary Prawate Khid-arn said on the sidelines that the CCA has “broken new ground by forging relationships and moving on a journey towards better understanding, collegiality and cooperation” with the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences.

Sri Lankan theologian Reverend Preman Niles, another CCA associate general secretary, said the ecumenical movement needs to be a forum “to support those engaged in the prophetic ministry of the Church.”

This is the third time the CCA general assembly has been held in Malaysia. The CCA was formally inaugurated in 1959 in Kuala Lumpur.

The CCA comprises 16 national councils and more than 100 Protestant and Orthodox Churches in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Timor Leste, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

Among the many objectives of the CCA are the promotion and strengthening of unity among Asian Churches, and the development and promotion of relationships with people of other faiths in the region.

AS09472.1598 April 19, 2010 56 EM-lines (476 words)

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‘We must learn to grieve before we can heal’

2010-04-19T09:09:00.001+08:00

In addition to bringing the alleviation of pain and suffering, Christians have to ask themselves how their Christian conviction enhances the lives of others, including other faiths.

Speaking at a media conference on April 15, the Most Rev. Roger Herft, Anglican Archbishop of Perth, Australia, said the Church was called upon to prophesy, reconcile and heal.

He said, “We must ask ourselves, ‘Where is there pain?’ and respond to it in a healing way, recognising that we need each other to be a wholesome community.”

Archbishop Herft was referring to his sermon earlier in the day during
the opening worship of the 13th Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia, when he said the suffering of the prophet Ezekiel was linked to the vision of God. Without pain and suffering the vision was not of God.

Archbishop Herft told the press conference, “That is why the Church, called to be a reconciling community, must take the tears of the poor seriously. It has to be a reconciling force in the community.”

He said, “We need to have a righteous anger at injustice as well as hope that, among the foolishness, we can make a difference.” The Assembly’s opening worship had begun with community singing and dance.

There was a procession of symbols from each delegation’s culture and thanksgiving for CCA’s ecumenical journey.

Archbishop Herft preached on the Assembly theme, “Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal”. He said the prophet Ezekiel and the
apostle Paul in his Letters to the Corinthians reminded the Church that “to be called to prophesy and to reconcile we must know what it is to grieve. To be called to heal we must experience the onfusion that comes with seeking the causes that bring about illness,
brokenness, disease, the demonic within individuals and society.”
He said he was saddened that religious people, captive to diabolical
forces, continued in the name of God to bring division, conflict, persecution and death to many peoples in Asia and across the world.

He said, “As Christians in Asia, we who seek the call to prophesy must first ask God to gift us with tears that wash our eyes and burn our hearts to see the suffering and pain of the world in which God
has placed us.”

The call to prophesy, reconcile and heal was addressed But he said,
“The sad and sinful reality is that our history is one of competition and rivalry in which we refuse to see in each other the image of the reconciling son of God.”

He said, “We rightly critique the Colonial powers for their exploitation
of our peoples, yet continue to live by the labels placed upon us by
those who brought the Gospel into our midst. We use consumer choice and capitalist marketing and competitive mechanisms
to peddle our particular Christian brand to the world, often
engaging in propaganda that diminishes and belittles others who
claim the name of Christ.”

He posed for the Church Jean Vanier’s question: What is it
about your deepest conviction that denies the humanity and divinity
of the other? “Reconciliation is more than us living happily
together. It is the invitation we are given to be the ‘sign’ and witness of the costly unity found in the very essence of God,
the Holy and Blessed Trinity.

“It calls us to be healers, whose motivation comes from the One who was broken, wounded, forsaken and whose dying and rising offers the world the forgiveness that heals.”

Stephen Web

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 Day 2

Recipe for a vibrant Youth Pre-Assembly

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1.Book hotel rooms.
2.Warn the hotel management that it would probably get loud and apologize multiple times in advance
3.Begin by adding two tablespoons from Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, Cambodia and Bangladesh.
4 .Drop in a handful from Korea, Thailand and Sri Lanka.
5.Add a dash from Japan, Taiwan, Nepal, Timor-Leste,
India, Hong Kong, Laos and Pakistan for flavor.
6.Sprinkle Malaysians according to taste.
7.Chill and serve.

Around 38 youth from all over Asia gathered for the CCA Youth
Pre-Assembly which began on 11 April 2010. In the opening
service we lit candles to symbolize our unity and prayed, and
were welcomed by Dr. Prawate Khid-arrn, CCA general secretary.
We were introduced to the theme “Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal” and had one session by Rev Dr Rienzie Perera, two by Rev Reuel Marigza and one by Rev Sivin Kit to explain the theme and our purpose here. Most of us heard about CCA for the very first time
and were thrilled to discover that we were part of something
bigger.

Despite being a mixture of stewards and voting delegates,
we didn’t allow our ‘titles’ to hinder us from bonding. In fact,
we don’t think anything could stop us from mingling because
we all treated one another as family and just ‘clicked’ instantly.
We had many fun activities such as folding boats and
learnt many new songs from different countries. We had icebreaking
games too.

The discussions were a ton of fun and were extremely productive
at the same time. We discussed the many problems
faced by the youth in our own respective countries and realized that it does not really matter where we were from.

We share the same type of problems and in all our countries, we, the
Christians, are the minority. We had presentations from each
country that dealt with what we thought should be done about the
issues youth in our respective countries are facing. We came up with the same conclusion that prayer is needed and that we need to revive the lost passion in our youth and continue to spread the Word.

On the last night, everyone dressed up in their respective national costumes for the closing service. We prayed for the current issues in the world and also took a Skittle each and prayed for the first thing that came to our mind when we looked at it. We also wrote our personal messages and placed our thumbprint on a huge card.
That showed that even though we may be unique and wonderful as
individuals, we are still one in the body of Christ.

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 Day 2

On the Pre-Assembly HIV Forum: “I have lost only my immunity, not my humanity”

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“I have lost only my immunity, not my humanity” -- these words from a person living with HIV+ won’t go away from the memory of His Grace Dr. Geevarghese Mor Coorilos. He shared the HIV+ person’s sense of alienation, with participants to the joint biblico-theological reflection session on Human Sexuality and AIDS, of
both the HIV Forum and Women’s Forum pre-assemblies on April 12 at the Dynasty Hotel.

It is the first time in the history of CCA assemblies that a pre-assembly forum of people living with HIV+ and Asian theological reflection process on HIV and AIDS was ever convened from April 10-13, bringing together 55 participants comprising people living with HIV+, care givers, pastors, theologians, medical professionals,
social workers, community organisers and consultants who “listened to each other’s experiences and stories and identified the need for the church to engage further in reflection and develop a theological perspective of health, healing and wholeness for the 21st century” (from Pre-Assembly HIV Forum “Message to the CCA 13th General Assembly”).

Esther (not her real name), is a 47 year old Malaysian Christian woman who contracted HIV+ from her husband, that eventually led to their divorce. She confided her health condition to her pastor. Two days before she was set to join a church retreat in Port Dickson, she was informed by the pastor that she could no longer
join because of her HIV+ status.

Go, 16 from Chiangmai, Thailand was the youngest participant at the HIV preassembly forum. He was born with HIV+ which was transmitted by both his parents. Through empowerment processes by the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT) AIDS Ministry called CAM, Go says “he has many opportunities to take part in activities that help him understand how to live with HIV better, and how to have a
good quality of life. Through CAM, he has had special times together with his family, alongside other families who also are living with HIV. Last year, he joined in a special programme with 20 other young people to learn ways to tell their story through a photographic album of their lives by making a scrapbook. This helped him to express himself and understand his feelings better, as well as help keep good relationship with family members.”

There were more such living stories in relation to HIV from Myanmar,
migrant workers in Hong Kong, human trafficking in Japan, Thailand
and transgender in India.

Among the most attended skills building workshops at the HIV Forum
were the workgroups on HIV-competent churches and theological
education and that on theology, human sexuality and AIDS. In the light of the 2009 Policy Statement on HIV and AIDS unanimously approved by the CCA General Committee in Bangkok, Thailand “Equipping Churches in Asia to be ‘HIV and AIDS Competent’”, the participants came to a consensus on what the Good News is for all, put forward affirmations, encouraged creating sacred places and spaces and making calls to the CCA General Assembly and Asian churches. The Pre-Assembly HIV Forum Message is to be presented on April 17 by Rev.Tara Curlewis, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches in Australia.

The HIV Forum was organized by the CCA jointly with the World
Council of Churches, the United Evangelical Mission, Lutheran World
Federation, Malaysian Care and Council of Churches of Malaysia. Six
participants of the Pre-Assembly Forum of People Living with HIV+
and the Asian Theological Reflection Process on HIV and AIDS are
present in the General Assembly as Observers. They are: Ms. Naw
She Wah (Myanmar), Dr. Manoj Kurian (WCC), Dr. Alphinus Kambodji
(Indonesia), Rev. Dr. Wati Longchar (India), Rev. Pax Tan
Chiow Lian (Malaysia), and Rev. Sanan Wutti (Thailand).

Marrio Mapanao

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 Day 1

Leaving a legacy

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Dr. Prawate Khid-arn, the seventh General Secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) would like to be remembered as a leader who made visible the plight of the people in the margins.

During his watch, he provided an ecumenical space for the visible unity of member churches in Asia in working together to share the concerns of people living with HIV and AIDS, migrant workers, people who have been trafficked and abused, people suffering from environmental calamities, people in conflict situations, people unjustly detained and suffer repression and oppression, refugees who have been ignored and rejected, and people who live in poverty because of unjust structures.

According to him, CCA had its ups and downs in the course of its long ecumenical journey. He noted this even during his leadership. He started the weekly letter to member churches and councils of churches to provide updates and stimulate the involvement of the
churches in the vision of building communities of peace for all.

Dr Khid-arn sees a lot of challenges ahead such as in the area of developing a Christian theology that is prophetic and relevant for the people. Together with ecumenical leaders from Asia and church leaders in South Korea, Dr. Khid-arn visited North Korea during his
term as General Secretary.

The visit encouraged him to support the idea that isolating North Korea is not the solution. He sees the need for dialogue of people with different ideologies for the sake of uplifting human dignity. He expressed solidarity with Philippine churches struggling with extrajudicial killing and illegal detentions as in the case of the illegal arrest of Rev. Berlin Guerrero and the current detention of 43 health workers, among them Dr. Alexis Montes, a member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

Dr. Khid-arn hopes that the theme of the 13th General Assembly will encourage the churches to work together towards being prophetic, reconciling and healing communities in the midst of our broken world.

~ Berita Terkini CCA 2010 Day 1

CCA at a Glance: A Short Introduction to the Christian Conference of Asia

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CCA at a Glance: A Short Introduction to the Christian Conference of Asia

Introduction

The Christian Conference of Asia began as the East Asia Christian Conference, which was constituted by a decision of churches, national councils of churches and national Christian councils whose representatives met at Prapat, Indonesia, in March 1957. It was inaugurated at an assembly at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in May 1959. In the light of changing circumstances the 1973 Assembly, meeting in Singapore, agreed to change the name to Christian Conference of Asia (CCA). In doing so, it retained the purpose of the East Asia Christian Conference and provided for continuing work along the same or similar lines.

Purpose

Believing that the purpose of God for the church in Asia is life together in a common obedience of witness to the mission of God in the world, CCA exists as an organ and a forum of continuing cooperation among the churches and national Christian bodies in Asia within the framework of the wider ecumenical movement.

CCA is committed to the equal participation of women, men, youth, clergy and laity in church and society.

Functions

As a regional ecumenical movement, the Christian Conference of Asia continues to strive for:

the promotion and strengthening of the unity of the church in Asia
the exploration of opportunities and the promotion of joint action for the fulfillment of the mission of God in Asia and throughout the world
the encouragement of an Asian contribution to Christian thought, worship and action throughout the world
the development of mutual awareness, fellowship and sharing among the churches in the region, and of relationships with other regional ecumenical organisations and the World Council of Churches
the promotional of common study and action in such fields as evangelism, service, social and human development and international relations
the stimulation of initiatives and experiments in dynamic Christian living and action
the development of effective Christian response to the challenges of the changing societies of Asia
the development and promotion of relationships with people of other faiths in Asia
the protection of human dignity and the promotion of caring for the creation.

Priorities

CCA seeks to act, from deep spirituality and theology, as a facilitating agent for dialogue and action on issues of common concern and for the breaking down of barriers that separate and cause division between the peoples of Asia.

Its current priorities include:

engaging and sustaining efforts to deepen, strengthen and enliven the koinonia of Asian churches and Christian communities
making more real the 'inclusive character of the ecumenical fellowship'
healing some of the unfortunate divisions and separations that have occurred in the life of Asian churches and society as a result of past political and ideological conflicts
strengthening ecumenical formation in order to make the ecumenical movement a reality to Asian churches, Christian groups and society
pursuing further the expansion of the ecumenical fellowship in Asia to involve both Roman Catholics and evangelical churches and communities
revitalising the ecumenical vision, thought and action in regard to the emerging challenges in the life of Asia and of Asia's place in the world.

Membership

Churches joining the CCA are those that confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the scriptures and that therefore seek to fulfil their common calling to the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. National councils or similar bodies joining CCA must be councils or bodies that approve this basis.

The CCA family includes the membership of sixteen national councils and over 100 churches in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kampuchea, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Timor Lorose.

Structure

The quinquennial Assembly, where delegates chosen by member councils and churches meet for a time of fellowship and enrichment as well as to set forth the priorities and programs for the next five years, is the supreme policy-making body, under Christ.

The General Committee is elected by the Assembly. It is composed of the elected officers and one representative from each country represented in CCA. It has the powers of the Assembly between Assembly meetings and normally meets in the year of the Assembly, and thereafter at least once in eighteen months.

The Executive Committee is elected by the General Committee and is composed of officers and three to five members of the General Committee. It meets in the years when the General Committee is not meeting and other times as required by the General Committee.

Activities

There are nine program committees elected by the Assembly.

These are:

Communications
Development and Service
Education
International Affairs
Mission and Evangelism
Theological Concerns
Urban Rural Mission
Women's Concerns
Youth

The program committees are responsible to develop and implement the programs in accordance with the mandate of the General Assembly and the guidelines provided by the General Committee. Each program committee, accountable to the General Committee, is served by a staff person, and is presided over by a moderator chosen by the Assembly.

In addition there are working groups on:

Indochina (VLC) Concerns
Migrant Workers, Refugees, and Internally Displaced Communities in Asia (MRIA)
CCA - UNESCAP (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) Joint Program.

Also, there are task forces on:

CCA - FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences) Relations
Relationship with Churches in China
East Timor Concerns

Financial Basis

Contributions are received from CCA member churches and councils and other ecumenical partners.

Ecumenical Relationships

In the context of the ecumenical task of the church, CCA continues to strive for mutual and reciprocal relationships with other ecumenical bodies, both global and regional, so that the common witness of the churches in Asia is fostered for the benefit of the peoples of Asia.

Sermon: “CALLED TO PROPHESY, RECONCILE AND HEAL”

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“CALLED TO PROPHESY, RECONCILE AND HEAL”

A sermon by the Most Reverend Roger Herft Archbishop of Perth

Wednesday, 15 April 2010 13th CCA General Assembly Opening Worship

Ezekiel 37:1-10 I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude (vs 10).

The Easter Anthem

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us (vs 19).

St Mark 16:1-8 So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid (vs 8).

God of holy dreaming, Great Creator Spirit,

from the dawn of creation you have given your children

the good things of Mother Earth.

You spoke and the gum tree grew.

In the vast desert and dense forest,

and in cities at the water’s edge,

creation sings your praise.

Your presence endures

as the rock at the heart of our Land.

When Jesus hung on the tree

you heard the cries of all your people

and became one with your wounded ones:

the convicts, the hunted, and the dispossessed.

The sunrise of your Son coloured the earth anew,

and bathed it in glorious hope.

In Jesus we have been reconciled to you,

to each other and to your whole creation.

Lead us on, Great Spirit,

as we gather from the four corners of the earth;

enable us to walk together in trust

from the hurt and shame of the past

into the full day which has dawned in Jesus Christ. Amen.

A Prayer Book for Australia, Broughton Books, Victoria, 1999

Ko te Karaiti te hepara pai,

e mohio ana, e atawhai ana i nga hipi katoa o ia kahui.

I roto i a te Karaiti,

kahore he tangata whenua, kahore he tauiwi,

Kahore ano hoki he tau-arai.

I roto i a te Karaiti,

ka tohungia te rawakore,

ka hunaia te pono i te hunga kawe mohio,

ka whakaaturia ki te hunga ngakau papaku.

Christ is the good shepherd

who knows and cares for every one of the sheep

in different folds.

In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile;

in Christ there is no discrimination

of gender, class or race.

In Christ the poor are blessed,

the simple receive truth hidden from the wise.

Areruia!

Kororia ki te Atua o te tika, o te aroha,

Nau i toha nga mahi ma matou,

I rumakina ai matou ki te mamaetanga,

puea ake ana ki nga hua o te aranga.

Pupu ake i a koe te mana atawhai,

kia ai ta matou atawhai i etahi atu,

kia mau ai te rongo ki te hunga katoa

e manawa pa ana, ki tau nei ao.

Alleluia!

God of justice and compassion,

You give us a work to do

and a baptism of suffering and resurrection.

From you comes power to give to others

the care we have ourselves received

so that we, and all who love your world,

may live in harmony and trust.

New Zealand Prayer, He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa, Collins Publishers, Auckland, 1989, p478

Invocation to the Holy Spirit in Sinhala and Tamil.

I greet you in the name of the Holy and Blessed Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit; God the Creator, Redeemer and Giver of Life in whom and through whom we are called to prophesy, reconcile and heal.

I was born and lived most of my life in Sri Lanka. The call to worship from temple, mosque, kovil and church form an essential part of my sound bank. Many of the religious traditions that are so evident in Asia nourished the community that shaped me into adulthood. I share their profound aspirations for peace, compassion, mercy and love for all creation. As a Christian I try to engage with their radical yet different views concerning ultimate reality in an attitude called for by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of “living with the dignity of difference”. I am saddened that religious people captive to diabolical forces continue in the name of God to bring division, conflict, persecution and death to many peoples in Asia and across the world.

I stand as an in-between half caste, a living expression of the colonial leftovers – a mixture of the Portuguese, Dutch and British invasions. I am inextricably linked to the major races, Sinhalese and Tamil through marriage and family ties that form a part of who I am.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s definition of the human being through the African word ‘Ubuntu’ is one that I find helpful. I, as an individual, do not exist in any meaningful way – I am because you are. My identity receives its integrity when I become deeply aware of the you before and around me, be they friend, family, stranger or foe.

In the Christian tradition my inheritance has an ecumenical flavour; baptised by an English missionary, I was confirmed by Bishop Lakshman Wickremesinghe, a visionary leader whose memory is cherished in the CCA. My father’s faith allegiance caused me to be attentive to the Methodist Church with stalwarts like Dr D T Niles, one of the most significant contributors to the ecumenical movement and a founder of the CCA.

In school and seminary I was influenced by Roman Catholic Bishops of prophetic zeal, Baptists, Churches of Christ, Presbyterian, Pentecostals, Orthodox, liberals and the in-betweens. The many strands of Reformed and Catholic theology and practise held in dynamic tension in the Anglican Communion is the world that I inhabit. Scottish theologian Dr Elizabeth Templeton describes Anglicans eloquently in her courageous intervention at the Lambeth Conference of Bishops in 1988:

Both internally and in relation to other evolving Christian life-forms, you have been conspicuously unclassifiable, a kind of ecclesiastical duck-billed platypus, robustly mammal and vigorously egg-laying. That, I am sure, is to be celebrated and not deplored.

Elizabeth Templeton, Appendix 4, The Truth Shall Make You Free, The Lambeth Conference 1988, Anglican Consultative Council, London, 1988, p292

The Marxist socialist element present in Sri Lanka’s history was not to be lost to me as my family had links with leaders in society and the church who were renowned for their strong Communist ideals. On hearing of my desire to be a priest, one of my uncles remarked that he did not wish to have a clerico fascist in the family!

I am conscious that I stand here today on the shoulders of giants. Those women and men who through their faithfulness to the Gospel have shaped me in ways that I can hardly comprehend. All I can do is to give thanks and praise to God for them and for movements like the CCA that continue to shape Christian leadership in the servant mould of Christ (Philippians 2:5-11).

I do not stand here alone. I am surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Those from my childhood, adolescence and early adult life in Sri Lanka who shaped me in my formation as a human being and as a Christian. The elders of both Maori and Pakeha in Aotearoa New Zealand who challenged my comfortable church zones and who continue to disturb me when I settle into patriarchal captivity or a comfortable church culture. The Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander leaders and communities and the many elders in the Australian community who constantly remind me that faith has twin sisters – “anger at the way things are and hope that change can happen” (St Augustine).

I am also deeply conscious of the members of the L’Arche Community across the world, those beloved of God who in their disability, pain and vulnerability have given me a deeper vision of what it is to be a Christian, a human being called to follow the Christ of Galilee, the prophet, reconciler and healer. Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche, reminds us that Christ comes to us through the weak, poor, the dispossessed, the physically and mentally disabled. We are not there to offer to them acts of charity in the form of patronising welfare. In mutual encounter we discover the face of Christ and recognise our common woundedness caused by rejection and dislocation. We receive healing through the prophetic word and action that awakens and reconciles us, calling us to be “wounded healers”.

In the next few minutes you may wish to spend some time in silence and then speak to your neighbour and exchange a memory of a person, a moment that shaped and continues to shape you as a person.

What does it mean for church and individuals to be called to prophesy, reconcile and heal? How may the Holy Scriptures read to us today point us through the Living Word of God to gain an understanding of how we may in Christ be prophets, reconcilers and healers?

Ezekiel the prophet, whose name means ‘God strengthens’, lived in a particularly challenging context in the history of the people of Israel.

The so-called unified kingdom of David and Solomon, much the envy of the ancient world, had been divided into the North and the South. In 721BC the Assyrian powers took control of the North and in 587BC the Babylonians occupied the South. The strategy deployed by the Great Empires to destroy a nation’s hopes and aspirations was to forcibly move people out of their land. Buildings, houses and places that gave meaning and purpose were destroyed adding to the desolation of an already vanquished people. The poor, the weak, the so-called rabble were left behind to eke out an existence amongst the ruins.

Ezekiel is in a displaced persons’ camp, a refugee in Tel Abib. Here he receives his call to be a prophet. He is overwhelmed by the context and experiences a profound sense of grief. The death of his wife adds to his lament. He cannot even mourn for her with the customary rituals associated with the death of a loved one. He uses his experience of anguish and lament to proclaim in word and symbol God’s activity in bringing about the fall of Jerusalem. He shocks the people by suggesting that the presence of the Sanctuary of God will be discovered in exile. His message is shaped by the pain and rebellion of the people and journeys from judgement, to calls for repentance, to salvation and healing.

The call Ezekiel receives comes as a surprise. He is caught up in a vision of God’s action and movement, fluttering wings and whirring chariot wheels – symbolic expressions of God’s sovereign power. The sounds of hope in the birds’ wings interact with the jarring instruments of war. To be called to prophesy is to never let go of the vision of God – God’s sovereign power over all creation, over all time, over all ages. The call to prophesy can only arise, be nourished and nurtured in an atmosphere of prayerful discernment.

Prayer awakens the soul, opens the eyes of the heart and gives space for a vision of God beyond our imaginings. Dr D T Niles, in his significant theological reflection on Christian mission, takes cognizance of God’s ultimate reign over every aspect of the world:

The Christian message is not addressed to other religions, it is not about other religions: the Christian message is about the world. It tells the world a truth about itself – God loved it and loves it still; and, in telling that truth, the Gospel bears witness to a relation between itself and the world.

. . . the world is non-Christian only in a temporal and, in fact, a temporary sense (Rev.11:15). It is already in God’s purpose a world for which Jesus died and over which He rules (Matt.28:18).

D T Niles, Upon the Earth, p235

The State of Western Australia is blessed by the memory of a pioneer saint who saw God at work in the ancient continent of Australia long before any Christian missionary set foot on the land. In his Journal of 1842 he wrote:

The view on such occasions was cheerless, depressing & almost awful, not a living creature to be seen. – the sky glowing with a misty fervent heat, & the deep silence unbroken by the slightest sounds.

In that which I have seen – generally speaking – the absence of animal life, the want of verdure & the terrible effects of fire, render it melancholy and distressing. – I did not experience that effect upon the mind which is caused by the magnificent or sublimity of Nature, yet, notwithstanding, I must own I felt the truth of the lines;

“Midst Forest Shades, and silent Plains,”

Where Man has never trod;”

There in Majestic power He reigns,”

The ever-present GOD!”

Geoffrey Bolton, Heather Vose and Genelle Jones (Eds), The Wollaston Journals, Volume 1,

University of Western Australia Press, 1991, p187

To be called to prophesy is to take time to pray in joyful praise and in deep pondering. Prayer makes us humble and reminds us that God travels ahead of us and that the world is in God’s hands. Ezekiel’s vision of God’s sovereignty comes from being overwhelmed with the pain and suffering of the people in exile.

Then the spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord rose from its place, I heard behind me the sound of loud rumbling; it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, that sounded like a loud rumbling. The spirit lifted me up and bore me away; I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me. I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who lived by the river Chebar. And I sat there among them, stunned, for seven days. At the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, I have made you a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.

Ezekiel 3:12-17

I remember as a part of my theological training living in a slum in the heart of Colombo. Most of the people lived on the street. The tin shed that I was given hospitality in had six adults, three children, two babies feeding at their mother’s breasts, and a goat hung from a make-shift beam. The local Buddhist temple, mosque, church and kovil were arguing about the naming of the street. Fierce debate raged about which religious tradition would receive the naming rights for this street in a slum that held within it the poorest of the poor!!

How easily can the prayerful lose perspective? Tagore’s call for religions to bear the integrity of dust come to mind:

Leave This

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads!
Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?
Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!
He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground
and where the pathmaker is breaking stones.

He is with them in sun and in shower,
and his garment is covered with dust.
Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!

Deliverance?
Where is this deliverance to be found?
Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation;
he is bound with us all for ever.
Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense!
What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained?
Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

Ezekiel finds himself standing in a valley of dry bones, the place of death, of despair and hopelessness. Whether this was in Babylon, the place of exile, or in Jerusalem, the city that was left in ruins, we do not know. All we do know is that it is a place in which there is little or no hope of life. Grief overwhelms him at the sight of such horrible devastation. He recognises yet again that the call to prophesy can only take place when we learn to grieve, to lament and to mourn with prayerful attentiveness to “what is”.

Tears are a way of solidarity in pain when no other form of solidarity remains . . . This tradition of biblical faith knows that anguish is the door to historical existence, that embrace of ending permits beginnings.

Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination, Fortress Press, USA, 1978, pp59-60

It is good to ask ourselves what is it that causes us to deeply groan and grieve. One of my most poignant memories is as an eight year old travelling with my mother to the bakery. Racial riots had broken out; gangs were moving down the street in search of people from a minority race. They grabbed a person hiding in a nearby shop. The roads were being tarred and there were barrels of boiling tar ready to be put on the gravel path. They lifted this man and put him into the boiling liquid. The terror in his eyes and his screams mingled with the brutality and callousness of his murderers remain with me to this day, as does the silence of those of us who became paralysed spectators to this snuffing out of life.

I deeply grieve the ways in which we humans act with such hatred and bitterness towards one another.

As Christians in Asia we who seek the call to prophesy must first ask God to gift us with tears that wash our eyes and burn our hearts to see the suffering and pain of the world in which God has placed us. The tears of Jesus, the living, pulsating Word of God, come from an anguished heart. A heart that refuses to let dry bones have the last word. God’s living word of hope bursts forth as the breath of God inspires the dry bones to rattle, to shake, to grow sinew, muscle and flesh and to take life. The Word that called creation into being brings new life to bear – it heals and reconciles, even as it brings the prophetic vision to bear.

I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.

Ezekiel 37:10

The call to prophesy, reconcile and heal is addressed to the church. In the Corinthian correspondence the apostle Paul is at pains to remind the various parties, factions and groups in the church that they are called to be a community growing in reconciliation.

Still steeped in their old Corinthian ways they judged others not on the things that mattered but on superficial, outward appearances. They prided themselves in status and used their newfound place in the Christian church to look down upon those who were not endowed with one gift of the Spirit or another. They failed to see that the greatest gift of God to them in the death and resurrection of Jesus was not theirs to possess or monopolise.

But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

2 Corinthians 4:7

Paul challenges them to be the “new creation” they are called to be and become in Christ. God has initiated the primary act of reconciliation on the cross. The sinless Son of God has become Sin in order that we may become the righteousness of God. The church exists to be the reconciled community of God and to be ambassadors of this reconciliation to those within the household of faith and to those to whom the church is called to bear witness of God’s reconciliation to the world.

In defence of what Leslie Newbiggin called the ‘scandal of denominationalism’, it is argued that the growing variety of churches we have today is an expression of God-given diversity, a tangible revelation of what it means to be the “Rainbow People of God”. The sad and sinful reality is that our history is one of competition and rivalry in which we refuse to see in each other the image of God. We rightly critique the Colonial powers for their exploitation of our peoples, yet continue to live by the labels placed upon us by those who brought the Gospel into our midst. We use consumer choice and capitalist marketing and competitive mechanisms to peddle our particular Christian brand to the world, often engaging in propaganda that diminishes and belittles others who claim the name of Christ. Indian Saint Sadhu Sundar Singh observed that Christians worship the pot in which the Gospel came to India rather than the plant. We fight about which pot is better and brighter and forget how damaging this sinful madness is to our witness to the life-giving, radical, transforming Gospel – to the Saviour who prayed for our unity in Him and with each other “so that the world may believe”.

Elizabeth Templeton’s call for us to be the reconciled community in Christ makes challenging reading:

My first conviction is that there are no outsiders, or that all ‘outsiderness’ is to be regarded as provisional, since God’s lively and inviting love is without bounds. The Church exists to represent, cradle and anticipate the future of all our humanness, which is hidden, with the healing of creation, in the love and freedom of God.

Any unity we seek must be to enact and articulate that. It cannot then be the unity of a strong and exclusive club, which makes the outsider more outside, more alien, more at bay. . . It is not a separate enclave, not separable. As Hooker so gently puts it in his ‘Sermon on Pride’:

God hath created nothing simply for itself: but each thing in all things, and of everything each part in each other have such interest, that in the whole world nothing is found whereunto any thing created can say, ‘I need thee not’.

Her comments remind us of the metaphor of the body used in 1 Corinthians 12 and in the breaking of walls that divide in Ephesians 2:14f. Templeton warns those of us committed to the ecumenical journey that:

Outsiders, too, are properly sceptical about much of our inter-Church activity, recognising in it, better than we may ourselves, the permanent lure of a Superchurch, corresponding to the Superman God of much popular religious longing, and created in his image for our exclusive self-preservation.

This Superchurch tempts many in all our Churches, offering instant relief from panic, from the pain of facing the complexity of life, and the diversity of human responses to it. It even tempts some in the world, battered as they are by the threat of nuclear winter, sexual catastrophe, economic disaster and ideological impasse.

Templeton puts her finger on the throbbing pain of our deepest division, that dislocation which haunts Christianity and permeates all faiths and ideologies.

. . . the hardest underlying polarity in all our interdenominational and intradenominational battles is that there are among us those who believe that the invincibility of God’s love discloses itself in some kind of absolute, safeguarded articulation, whether of Scripture, Church, tradition, clerical line-management, agreed reason, charismatic gifts, orthopraxis – or any combination of such elements. And there are those among us who believe that the invincibility of God’s love discloses itself in the relativity and risk of all doctrine, exegesis, ethics, piety and ecclesiastical structure, which are the Church’s serious exploratory play, and which exist at an unspecifiable distance from the face to face truth of God. What unity is possible in concrete existence between those on either side of the trans-denominational divide seems to me our toughest ecumenical question. If we can find a way through that one, I suspect that all our specific problems of doctrine, ministry and authority will come away as easily as afterbirth. But if we seek in any of our bilateral or multilateral shifts to mask, suppress or smother that divide, our so-called unity will be a disastrous untruth.

Elizabeth Templeton, Appendix 4, The Truth Shall Make You Free, The Lambeth Conference 1988,

Anglican Consultative Council, London, 1988, pp289-91

To be called to reconcile is to take these polarities seriously, to refuse to demonise the other and to grieve at our divisions. May our Christian traditions, wherever they are on the scale of the faith map, be gifted with the magnanimity spoken of by the prophet Isaiah:

Enlarge the site of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords.

Isaiah 54:2

To see Christ in the eyes of other Christians is to be gifted to see Christ in all and to conduct the mission of the church with humility and grace.

The confession is ‘Christ in you the hope of glory’; this is the secret hidden in past times, and now to be made known in the midst of Asian life and history. Christ is incognito within us who know and acknowledge Him, but is in each and all, as the hope of life glorified and divinised, by surrender to the Father’s will, and by lowly service to all who are His children. This is the way, the life and the truth. As we share the way and the life, we make known the truth to our neighbours and fellow-wayfarers, about Christ Jesus. Whom He calls He will make His disciples, and lead to baptism and sharing in the breaking of bread, and in the apostolic fellowship. Our duty is to testify, but who accepts that testimony is the work of His free and sovereign grace. As Dr T Niles says:

Cognito and incognito

and never the one without the other

He comes constantly challenging discovery.

To discover Him

Is to discover God and neighbour too.

Lakshman Wickremesinghe, “Living in Christ With People”, A Call to Vulnerable Discipleship,

CCA Seventh Assembly, 1981, p45

The Jesus event is a breathtaking risk that God takes to be Immanuel. And the risk continues as we are called to be that “living body” in the world.

Reconciliation is then more than us living happily together. It is the invitation we are given to be the “sign” and witness of the costly unity found in the very essence of God, the Holy and Blessed Trinity.

It calls us to be healers, whose motivation comes from the One who was broken, wounded, forsaken and whose dying and rising offers the world the forgiveness that heals.

St Mark’s Gospel places the cross at the centre of the Christian message and in a strange and unexpected way leaves the resurrection as an open-ended healing event.

We are left with the disciples outside the tomb on that first Easter morning in a shocked state. They are not sure what to witness to.

The had watched Good Friday unfold. They experienced darkness and despair as Jesus is crucified. In the space of 24 hours the “hands that rocked the universe into being” are nailed to a cross. Muslim novelist Kamel Hussein of Egypt reflecting on Good Friday in his book City of Wrong notes:

‘The day was Friday. But it was quite like any other day. It was a day when men went grievously astray. Evil overwhelmed them and they were blind to the truth . . . They were caught in a vortex of seducing factors . . . They did not realize that when men suffer the loss of conscience there is nothing that can replace it. When humanity has no conscience to guide it every virtue collapses, every good turns to evil and all intelligence is crazed. On that day men willed to murder their conscience and that decision constitutes the supreme tragedy of humanity. The events of that day do not simply belong to the annals of the early centuries. They are disasters renewed daily in the life of every individual.”

Quoted by John V Taylor, Weep not for me

St Mark’s resurrection narrative begins with ‘When the Sabbath was over’. Good Friday does not move directly to Easter Day. There is a pause in the story as the body of Jesus is laid in the tomb. The ritual of embalming and anointing cannot take place as the Sabbath comes upon them. Remember Ezekiel who had no time to provide for the rituals of mourning for his wife.

The prophet Ezekiel and the apostle Paul in his Letters to the Corinthians remind us that to be called to prophesy and to reconcile we must know what it is to grieve. To be called to heal we must experience the confusion that comes with seeking the causes that bring about illness, brokenness, disease, the demonic within individuals and society. The creation in its groaning birth pangs awaits a new dawn to arise with “healing in its wings”. Our wanton waste of natural resources, the pollution of the earth, the degradation of the environment, our repeated abuse of this fragile planet has finally caught our attention. Little comfort that Asian theologians like Dr M M Thomas almost 60 years ago heard the “death rattle”. He warned that blatant consumerism and greed would fatally disturb the sensitive equilibrium of the earth and threaten the sustainability of our environment.

The death of Jesus and his burial brought forth the grief of creation – darkness, clouds, earthquakes and a sign in the temple that the God imprisoned in a sanctuary had sanctified the whole of creation. The day set aside in the Jewish tradition to remember restfulness in God’s goodness, the Sabbath, proves to be a Holy Saturday – a pause for repentance, a time of regret, to take stock of the unfulfilled hopes and shattered dreams for humanity and the whole of creation.

To be healers in our world is to know what it is to live in such a Sabbath time. Words written in response to a service held in the cemetery of Bergen-Belsen, the Nazi concentration camp where many died of starvation and illness even after the camp was liberated, is provocative in its questions:

To look at the promised land from afar and not set foot on its soil.

To dream of milk and honey and not to taste the mixture.

This was the lot of Israel’s greatest prophet.

There are many prophets in the wilderness, who die outside the promised Land.

Squeezed between Good Friday and Easter,

ignored by preachers and painters and poets,

Saturday lies cold and dark and silent

an unbearable pause between death and life.

There are many Saturday people to whom Easter does not come.

There are no angels to roll the stones away.

There are many Saturday people in the world today;

children dying of want, of food and affection,

brides who bring little or no dowry,

mothers who break stones and carry bricks,

boat people waiting for the end of the right to asylum debate,

prisoners who die in custody and those killed while trying to escape,

hostages who do not see the light of day

and detainees who do not see a courtroom,

tribes evicted from forests and fisher folk separated from the sea,

generations without nations and peoples and tribes doomed to die without hope.

The prophets who lead the Saturday people

die with them outside the promised land.

There is a cross in every Resurrection.

Is there a Resurrection in every Cross?”

John Carden, A Procession of Prayers, pp285-86

To be called to be healers means that we grieve with Saturday people, with the created and with creation. With all who live in a Good Friday world unable to hear or to join in the Alleluias of Easter.

The Gospel of St Mark ends with the word “Gar” which means “for”. It stops halfway through a sentence that speaks of fear and amazement. The reason why the Gospel ends in this way has been and is the subject of great debate - was the original torn in the travels, was Mark forced to stop halfway through a sentence as the authorities surrounded the place in which he was writing? We will never know. One group of scholars suggest that the writer has deliberately left the sentence suspended, pointing to the truth that while Jesus is raised from the dead and goes before the disciples, each disciple must accept his risen presence and move from the death on Good Friday, through the waiting of the Sabbath to a place of new beginnings.

One of the pectoral crosses I wear is a gift from the Sri Lanka Diaspora in Auckland, Aotearoa, New Zealand. Many of the families had their houses burned during racial riots. Others have faced personal tragedy as a consequence of the battles, both from the Tiger movement and from the military. The cross is one associated with Sri Lanka’s early Christian traders, it depicts the cross rising in the midst of a lotus blooming in a dark pond. In giving it to me the senior elder of the Sri Lankan community, Tom Navaratnam, prayed that I would be a healer. Christ has broken all the cycles of violence we perpetrate on humanity and on the fragile earth we inhabit. Christians are called as forgiven sinners to live with prophetic zeal and reconciling love.

The other is from the Tainui Maori community. Bishop Manu Bennett placed it on my head. He observed that he had faced racial tension in the church and in the wider community. In the Hongi, the touching of our noses, he reminded me that the breath that I breathe and the breath that he breathed came from the same source. The cross a symbol of God’s breath offered fully to the world. He invited me to live in the breath of God, for God alone is the source of our call to prophesy, reconcile and heal.

As we journey into this Assembly may we receive the breath of God, with awe, reverence, repentance and prayer and may we be Blessed in the words attributed to St Francis of Assisi:

May God bless you with discomfort,

at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,

that you may live deep within your heart. Amen.

May God bless you with anger,

at injustice, oppression, and exploitation,

that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. Amen.

God bless you with tears,

to shed for those who suffer pain,

rejection, starvation, and war,

that you may reach out your hand to comfort them

and turn their pain to joy. Amen.

May God bless you with foolishness,

to believe that you can make a difference,

that you may do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

And the blessing of the Holy and Life-Giving Trinity,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

be with you now and always. Amen.

The Most Reverend Roger Herft

Archbishop

April 2010

Assembly begins CCA called to prophesy, reconcile and heal

2010-04-17T17:06:00.001+08:00

Against a backdrop of diversities and differences in the world’s biggest multi-cultural continent, members of the Christian Conference of Asia are “called to prophesy, reconcile and heal” during its 13th General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur.

“Deep-seated differences over political and economic systems, ethnicity, gender, religion/beliefs and cultural traditions have prevented (Asian) countries from seeking and working towards a
shared destiny,” said outgoing CCA general secretary Prawate Khid-arn.

CCA is a regional ecumenical body of close to a hundred member churches and 16 National Councils, the largest ecumenical organization representing different Christian denominations.

Like other upbeat ecumenical leaders in the region, Prawate hopes and prays that this Assembly’s theme will help the over 380 delegates and guests to address the various issues of Asian peoples
“crying out for justice, peace and a sustainable society.”

The Malaysian national capital was chosen as the Assembly’s venue for good reasons. “Malaysia is a microcosm of Asia,” said the Rev.
Dr. Thomas Philips and Rev. Dr. Hermen Shastri of the Council of Churches in Malaysia in a statement.

Although men still dominate the meeting, women are a growing voice in this ecumenical exercise. The voting delegates’ gender ratio,
for example, is 63 percent men as against 37 percent women.

The youth are also an emerging force. Under the voting delegate category representation, 21 percent represents both male and female youth; 21 percent, women; nine percent, lay; and the
clergy, 47 percent.

With the theme, the delegates will plan the direction and programme priorities of CCA in “accompanying the churches in responding to
situations of injustice and conflicts that affect millions of people in many parts of Asia,” also said CCA in a statement.

Maurice Malanes - Berita Terkini CCA 2010 Day 1

Berita Terkini CCA 2010

2010-04-17T16:47:00.001+08:00

The daily news of the assembly is organized by the media team, written, edited, and designed in a simple format so all the delegates can get some update and perhaps additional insights.

Below is the first edition for the first day.

LIVE Blogging at CCA 13th General Assembly 2010: Day 4

2010-04-17T14:29:00.001+08:00

Day 3

Called to prophesy, reconcile and heal: an ecumenical perspective

2010-04-17T14:20:00.001+08:00

Document date: 15.04.2010

Called to prophesy, reconcile and heal: an ecumenical perspective, Thematic Address by WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit

Christian Conference of Asia
13th General Assembly
15 – 20 April 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1. Introduction

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ!

In these days you are bringing your costly experiences and your prophetic dreams for tomorrow together.

I am asked to address you on the very theme of the assembly, “Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal” and to offer what you have called “an ecumenical perspective.” I am humbled to do so in front of this body of Asian church representatives and distinguished, specially invited guests of the Malaysian churches. Together you represent the Asian contexts, you know your ecumenical challenges, you have the experience and insight into what it means and what it might cost to give a Christian prophetic witness aimed at reconciliation and healing here in Asia.

Let me also express my congratulations to the newly elected general secretary of CCA, Rev. Dr Henriette Hutabarat Lebang, the first woman elected to this post. This is another important milestone in the ecumenical movement. I look forward to cooperation and collegiality with you and all your colleagues, exploring ways to mutually support and empower one another in our different tasks and roles.

2. An Asian Ecumenical Theme

The theme chosen for this 13th assembly is ambitious, appropriate – and Asian. It is ambitious and challenging not least because it is a combination of three challenging themes. This is a comprehensive expression of what it means to be church and a disciple of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we shall let others remind us (and we shall remind ourselves, too) that God has given us a great privilege when we are called to serve God in this world. I am impressed that you do not shy away from seeing yourselves as prophets, reconcilers and healers. As if any one of these roles was not demanding in itself, you are willing to take on all of them, all at the same time!

Still, this ambition seems appropriate for the Asian churches. Actually, my first thought when I heard this theme was that it sounds Asian. This theme expresses the ability to see the wholeness of life, holding quite different perspectives together. From your Asian tradition I believe you are enabled, maybe more than many others, to see different perspectives together as a whole, in a wider harmony. This is a significant contribution to our common, ecumenical and global reflection of what it means to be one. Different roles do not exclude one another.

The theme gives an appropriate picture of the role you have been given and taken upon yourselves as churches here in the Asian region. We always receive a call from God somewhere, in a certain context. I see this combination of callings in your theme as your description of what is particularly needed in the Asian context and how you interpret the specific task of being church in Asia today. And when we look at the contributions from the churches in Asia, and some of them in close cooperation with the global fellowship of churches expressed through the World Council of Churches, we should together give thanks to God for how these roles have already been fulfilled in the past years.

The Asian contexts represent realities of great developments and growth: growth of population, of economic capacity, of geopolitical influence and power. The fact that Asia occupies one-third of the Earth's land surface, has more than half of the world's population and its countries play a growing role in international affairs makes whatever happens here more and more important for the rest of the world. However, there are also other aspects of growth. We can mention general pollution, the emissions of gases that contribute to global warming, and some of you see the growth in negative effects of climate change. We hear about growth in tensions and violence, some of it related to the use and abuse of religion, and we recognize a growth in political resistance to carry out the responsibility to protect basic human rights.

From last year’s conference in Bangkok on Dalit discrimination, jointly convened by the WCC and the Lutheran World Federation, I cannot forget the message of a woman saying to me: “In many places there is no safe space for a Dalit, Christian woman.” This is one of many, but maybe one of the most complicated and grave examples of discrimination and defamation of human dignity that we are facing in this region. There is also a growth in the numbers of people affected by HIV and a growth in the gap between the poorest and the richest. There are still divisions in many countries, and, in some, even growth in violent conflicts.

These are realities, shaping and affecting the lives and threatening the dignity of Asian people. I feel it is not quite proper to list all these issues as if they were not important and each deserving much attention in their own right. However, I do not pretend to be in the position of addressing some of them in depth. You know them so much better than I do. You struggle to be free from poverty, violence, ethnic conflicts, militarization, external intervention, domination, authoritarianism and different kinds of abuse of religion to exercise violence and oppression. But to ignore this context would be to ignore the call of God coming to you and to all of us here in Asia.

It is true to say that far-reaching socio-political reforms have been put into effect in Asia over the past decades. In the midst of the aforementioned struggles and realities, the prophetic witness of Asian churches and the ecumenical movement has been demonstrated in various ways and widely recognized. The ecumenical movement has been contributing by accompanying the Asian churches in your prophetic witness of reconciliation and healing. This was visible as the CCA focused on various themes and addressed a number of pertinent issues since the 1960s, like “The Christian Community within the Human Community”, “Christian Encounter with other Faiths”, “Christian participation in Nation Building”, “Human Rights and the Right to Life”, “Claiming Economic Justice”, “Seeking Peace in Vietnam”, “People Against Domination in Asia”, “U.S. Military presence in Asia”, “Militarism and National Security”, “The Church and Political Reforms in Asia”, “Peace and Reconciliation on the Korean Peninsula”, the “Campaign against the proposed changes in Article 9 of Japanese Constitution” and “Rights of migrant workers and internally displaced people’s in Asia”.

In these many ways, the Asian churches together with the wider ecumenical movement have been engaged in the mission of God, sharing the gospel, contributing to reconciliation and healing in various national contexts over the past decades and engaging with suffering Asian people. I am proud of being given leadership of a global fellowship of churches of which many of you are formally members. I am also proud of being a partner to the Christian Conference of Asia. I am deeply thankful for being a part of a global ecumenical movement that has been accompanying the churches in various Asian contexts. Let me mention some: the struggle against authoritarian dictatorships in the Philippines and South Korea during the martial law era; the struggle for the right to self determination in East Timor and for peace and reconciliation in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; the struggles against discrimination of Dalits in India, against persecution of Christians in Pakistan using the blasphemy laws, the denial of freedom of religion and persecution of Christians in India; and efforts to promote peace, reconciliation and unification of the Korean Peninsula through the Tozanso process and many others.

These examples are echoing the words of my predecessor, Dr. Visser t’Hooft, the first general secretary of the WCC, who stated that “the ecumenical movement has never been just a family party of the church, with the world left out.” This is also what Archbishop Desmond Tutu expresses as a lesson from our ecumenical journey: “if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

We are accountable for what we teach and preach, and for the effects of what we teach and preach. And, we are accountable for the consequences of not addressing the issues affecting those who need the gospel of the Kingdom of God in this world. This leads me to reflecting on the theme of this assembly.

3. Some ecumenical theological perspectives on the theme

I find this theme indeed inspiring from an ecumenical perspective. We are called to keep these roles together, we are called to fill them together. We together are called to be one church, not to exercise these roles individually or announce ourselves individually and autonomously to be prophets or reconcilers or healers. The fruits shall be the proof of our work.

The day after my election to this post, I was greeted by some Pentecostals in my wife’s family, reminding me of the words of the prophet Isaiah, in 58:12, describing some roles of the servant of God:

”The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
You shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.”

These words were particularly encouraging, challenging and humbling as they come from people who have been taught by their preachers that the WCC represents the other side, even Anti-Christ. However, the Pentecostals reminded me that together we should be servants of God, following the prophets who call for repentance. We should be the servants who are raising up the foundations for many generations, repairers of the breach, restorers of streets to live in. We need both the foundations upon which to build our common house and the streets to live in, to be in an open fellowship, to communicate, to meet with all our neighbours, close and far.

There is no true prophecy that does not speak both the critical truth and contribute to the building up of a vision, a dream of the new life in common. The church is called to share the good news of God’s love for the world – the whole world, the love that is ultimately expressed in God’s giving of his own son (John 3:16). The ministry of the church is, according to the New Testament, in its essence the ministry of reconciliation (II Cor 5). But, “all this is from God” (5:18). God has taken the initiative. God has created a new reality in Christ. Therefore, our ministry is always given by and related to God. It is always flowing from our given relationship to God and not to satisfy God. We are not sending ourselves. We are not calling ourselves. The gifts we can share are given to us by God. The vertical dimension in our call cannot be lost. If it is, then we are lost.

God has offered reconciliation through the death and resurrection of Christ. The church is the fellowship of the receivers of God’s gracious gift of reconciliation in Christ. The mission of the church has always been and will always be to bring reconciliation by offering a new perspective. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation (II Cor 5:17). The term "reconciliation" is used in the New Testament almost as an all-embracing term to articulate what is at the heart of the Christian faith. The visible expressions of such faith are demonstrated through ecumenical commitment and actions. The very notion of reconciliation presupposes the experience of brokenness in relationships, fellowship and communion. This may be in the form of estrangement, separation, enmity, hatred, exclusion, fragmentation or distorted relationships. The church is called to bring something that can reconcile and heal broken relationships; between God the creator and human beings, among human beings, and between human beings and creation. This is a common, holistic and basic perspective on mission as the ecumenical movement comes again to Edinburgh in 2010 to celebrate the centennial of the World Missionary Conference that took place there in 1910.

The call to share the gospel with all is forever the basic call of the church. The call to share the gospel will, however, forever be the call to share the realities of the kingdom of God as announced by the gospel. The discussions of what salvation means in the ecumenical movement, some of them very vital here in Asia, have been difficult but probably also necessary. Today most of those involved in evangelism emphasize the wholeness of the gospel, the wholeness of God’s saving work, the wholeness of God’s reconciliation. In that sense the clothes of the ecumenical movement are today worn by many, also those who felt it at times to be their role to distance themselves from the new challenges brought to the churches from the ecumenical movement.

The struggles for new, even critical, and changing perspectives for the churches have their roots deep in the faith in God the creator of all, the freedom of Christ, the life of the Holy Spirit.

There is a liturgy after the liturgy. This is presented in one of the assets of the ecumenical movement, the document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (BEM): “All kinds of injustice, racism, separation and lack of freedom are radically challenged when we share in the blood of Christ. Through the eucharist, the all-renewing grace of God penetrates and restores human personality and dignity… As participants in the eucharist, therefore, we prove inconsistent if we are not actively participating in this ongoing restoration of the world’s situation and the human condition. The eucharist shows that we are inconsistent in the face of the reconciling presence of God in human history.” (E 20)

The ministry of reconciliation will always have an element of prophetic ministry as a critical voice. To preach the forgiveness of sin will always be a critical word of repentance, pointing to the need for change, to resist, even to fight against injustice, oppression and violations of human dignity and basic human rights. The reconciliation of God through Christ is not ignorance of what is wrong, a minimizing of the problems of evil, sin and death. The description of Christ’s death as atonement for sin, as described in the Bible, is an expression of taking the sin seriously, as well as taking those seriously who are hurt and affected by sin, and, finally, taking the sinner, seriously. The forgiveness of sin is a proactive act of God to stop sin, to break the evil circle, so that we shall not sin. Thus, the proclamation of the gospel of reconciliation will always also be a word of truth, a prophetic witness, a critical approach.

At the same time there is no true Christian prophetic witness that does not aim at reconciling and healing. The prophetic and critical word is also a transformative word speaking of something new. The prophets were both critical to their contemporaries and pointing to the possibility of another future, a vision of new life, of salvation, of the shalom. The word of God lets us recognize the truth of what must be changed and the promise and power of God to bring forgiveness and change.

The prophetic witness of the church can and should be critical, but not destructive, deteriorating or diminishing the dignity of others. The prophetic ministry of the church is always a ministry aimed at healing. The witness of the South African churches in their local contexts is a clear example of this. It is also an example of the accompaniment of the ecumenical movement. There are other significant examples of how religion can give strength and courage to speak for justice for you or for others. This is also an important dimension of the history of ecumenical ministry. This is the just peace that we are focusing on as we plan for the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation in Jamaica in 2011.

There are, nevertheless, examples of how religion does not only motivate a fight for what one group finds to be a struggle for justice and peace, but also legitimizes oppression or terrorizes innocent people. Pakistan is an example of this discouraging trend in your own Asian region. The strong link between prophetic witness and healing must be kept in place to maintain a genuine Christian prophetic witness. There is no prophetic witness only for our own sake and interest, for our own well being or for me or my group at the cost of others.

We have many challenges today and some of them can be seen as results of a one-sided and uncritical use of religion ending up being very destructive and bringing neither justice nor peace. Therefore, it is very appropriate that we as churches reflect precisely on how the prophetic, critical ministry can be a ministry of real reconciliation and healing, not only criticizing but also bringing new visions for the future, of what God can create for you and with you today and tomorrow.

To come to recognition of truth, there must be both a critical and a visionary, open perspective. At the 9^thassembly in Porto Alegre in 2006, we prayed and cried together: “God in your grace, transform the world!” In the end, the prophetic witness of the church is a cry and a prayer to God that can give new hearts and a new future. The 10^th assembly shall be held in Asia, in Busan, Korea in 2013. This assembly will be a manifestation of how the churches worldwide pray and work together with those of you here in the Asian region.

4. Some Ecumenical Perspectives of Today

4.1 Mission

We will be celebrating in June this year, the centenary of the World Missionary Conference of 1910 in Edinburgh, as well as the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement. However, the question before us is, are we together in mission today? Just as before the great meeting in Edinburgh one hundred years ago, the mission of the church can be seen as dividing. Then the activity was divisive; now, both the understanding and the activity of mission sometimes are divisive. Can it be that there is not enough reflection on how the mission of the church always is a response to all three roles at the same time: prophecy, reconciliation and healing?

Even after the missionary era ended, to a great extent in most Asian countries, Asian churches have remained with their denominational identities. This is, however, not the whole picture. In other cases, important unions of churches have been fulfilled in Asian countries. I am also seeing more signs of inter-confessional work and common prophecy than was reported some decades ago, but some also see tendencies towards a stronger denominational emphasis. Nevertheless, engaging the local churches in common ecumenical mission is a great challenge yet to be achieved in Asia, as in other continents.

The holistic approach, representing the whole gospel and the whole message of Jesus Christ is more and more a common understanding of what mission means. Still there might be some misunderstanding of the position of the WCC in this respect. And there might be some questions to raise to others as well.

Another related challenge to the whole ecumenical movement is addressing together with you here in Asia the issue of religious pluralism. Asia has been acknowledged as the birthplace of major world religions and a majority of the world’s people belong to these religions. We need to frankly admit our struggles to come to common terms with the relationship to people of other faiths. But this is not a question of theological luxury; it is a matter of how to live in the context of where God has created us.

4.2 Towards 2013

The early Asian ecumenical leaders were conscious of their theological responsibilities and missiological tasks and tried from time to time to set the directions for the ecumenical movement urging the churches to make contributions to the entire ecumenical movement from the distinctive character of Asia.

The decision to have the assembly of the WCC in Korea in 2013 gives us a unique opportunity to reflect on these and other issues with the wisdom, experience and perspectives you as Asian churches are providing.

Towards the assembly we will hear together with you the call to be one, the call to share the gospel and the call to find ways to live as a good neighbour to all people, whatever faith they may have. And we cannot make a choice between these callings or eliminate some of them. We have to realize that there are no easy answers to how to combine them, just as you focus here on the challenge of the complementary roles of being prophetic, bringing the word of reconciliation and working for healing. I am most sceptical of any attempt to promote an easy answer and solution to some of these dilemmas. But this is the way of the cross in this world, as we follow Christ together. And there are great promises of God’s presence to those who together follow Christ. I also would say we should have many dreams for what our life together can be in faithfulness and solidarity, in openness and sharing, in accountability and transparency, in serving and worshiping God together.

4.3 Kairos

The emphasis of the prophetic witness and mission of reconciliation and healing by the ecumenical movement has come to the fore in many different contexts and attracted the imagination of people inside and outside the churches. The ecumenical movement needs to manifest a bold accompaniment and costly solidarity with its member constituencies in their engagement for peace with justice and in their response to the call to prophetic witness and mission of reconciliation and healing.

One of the longstanding engagements of the global ecumenical movement is in the context of the ongoing violent Arab-Israeli conflicts due to the unsettled Palestinian question. In 2002, responding to a call from the churches in Jerusalem, the WCC created the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and in 2007 launched the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) as a platform to promote prophetic witness for peace with justice and to prepare for reconciliation and healing processes in Palestine and Israel. The global ecumenical fellowship’s commitment towards this direction is an honest contribution to a comprehensive just peace in the whole Middle Eastern region.

In this context, it is important for me to bring to your attention a very significant development for us in the ecumenical family pertaining to the situation in Palestine. Last December 2009, Palestinian Christians from a variety of church traditions issued a call to churches around the world, a call that they refer to as the “Moment of truth: a word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering.” It came to be known as the “Kairos Palestine” document because the ecumenical family saw in it an opportune moment to intervene and put an end to the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis. This “Kairos call” is a cry of hope that asks Christians to see the realities in this situation, to see that in the name of justice and peace this situation cannot continue and to stand against injustice, violence and occupation. One way to do so is to revisit Christian theologies that justify dispossession of the land and legitimize occupation. This is not an expression of theological triumphalism over and against Jews, but a criticism of Christian theologies openly supporting or legitimizing the occupation of Palestine.

The document also contains an important call to non-violent resistance as a right and obligation and as an act of liberating love for Palestinians and Israelis. The discussion among Palestinian Christians includes what means of non-violent resistance are important and appropriate, and it presents itself, for instance, in discussions of a possible call to boycott goods from Israel. These are complicated issues. From the World Council of Churches the call to not buy products illegally produced in occupied territories and the call to member churches for proper stewardship of investments so as not to benefit from occupation remain both well known and unchanged.

The document is based on a deep conviction of the need for prophetic critical speech against injustice and occupation from the perspective that this is a prerequisite for much needed reconciliation and healing. I mention this Palestinian ecumenical initiative to encourage the churches in Asia to make it known and also to invite you to play a key role in a global ecumenical effort to bring reconciliation and healing. Here our prophetic witness needs to be expressed through our love for the Palestinians as well as for the Israelis, as all parties need healing and reconciliation. The “Kairos Palestine Call” has the potential to become an important rallying point for justice and peace within a context that threatens world peace. It is, therefore, something we cannot delay our common actions on.

The reconciling love God has demonstrated through Jesus is an important biblical theme and central element in the life and ministry of the church. There are several reasons for the ecumenical movement to focus more on the ministry of reconciliation in today’s world. As the world experiences a situation of division, hatred, hurt, grievances, enmity and imbalances of power, our Christian witnesses are called upon to ensure healing and reconciliation in afflicted societies and situations. The hope and aspirations of the churches to address these concerns have been evident in various actions initiated by the ecumenical movement. The most recent of such initiatives was evident as the churches sought reconciliation and healing, peace with justice, when the WCC launched the ecumenical mission of the Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010).

4.4 Those among us living with HIV

In the Christian faith, the suffering servant referred to in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and in the Psalms, points to Jesus. In the rabbinic tradition of the Jewish faith, the "suffering servant" is a community – the post exile – remnant who carries the burden of the larger community. Even as followers of Jesus, who aspire to reflect the values of the reign of God, this can be applied to all of us. Prophesying, reconciling and healing is the role of the whole community.

We are one – with the marginalized, the people living with HIV, those who are carrying the burden of the injustice that humanity metes out on humanity. The widow who experienced the miracle of oil and liberation from slavery, due to Elisha’s prayer – was a widow of a fellow prophet.

Facing these issues we have to reflect with accountability, what is sound theology? This is of course a difficult question as there are so many branches of theology that are sometimes contradictory. But in my own experience, in situations where there is deep respect for unity, communities come to ways and mechanisms of discussing and debating various difficult issues to reach common understandings on very basic questions for our faith, particularly when we see that we believe in the creator of all human beings created as equals. For HIV one of the most important issues now in our deliberations, commitments and actions is to discern what is sound theology and in relation to culture and values. We need to be both accountable and courageous in our theological reflections for the sake of the true values in our religions. Many teachers and prophets in different religions have been very honest and daring. Some have had to contradict their religion’s leaders in their time and values in order to save lives. Most issues in the field of HIV are about saving lives: physical lives, spiritual lives, religious lives. HIV is an issue of relationships. Therefore, it has a profound component of theology. HIV is what we do to each other and how we relate to each other in this life. Theology is about how we relate to God, particularly how this is expressed in how we relate to one another. The need for a prophetic self-critique of stigmatization and discrimination, together with reconciliation and healing, is desperately needed.

5. The Ecumenical Dream

Many other perspectives could be mentioned. I will stop here and let you continue to think – and dream. Let me end by reading to you one of the poems of a Norwegian poet, Olav H. Hauge, known for his great love of Asian poetry.

This is the dream we carry through the world
that something fantastic will happen
that it has to happen
that time will open by itself
that doors shall open by themselves
that the heart will find itself open
that mountain springs will jump up
that the dream will open by itself
that we one early morning
will slip into a harbour
that we have never known.

(English translation by Robert Bly)

We shall let the Spirit lead us in our dreams for those with whom we are serving and sailing together on the ecumenical ship.

UCANEWS: Asian Churches consult on HIV ‘healing’ ministry

2010-04-17T13:56:00.001+08:00

ASIA - Asian Churches consult on HIV ‘healing’ ministry

Published Date: April 16, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR (UCAN) — An Asian Christian meeting held here April 11-15 has urged Churches to be “centers of healing” for people living with HIV and AIDS.

Fifty-five participants, including people with HIV/AIDS, pastors, theologians, medical professionals and social workers, attended the consultation organized by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA).

They listened to each others’ experiences and identified the need for Churches to engage in further reflection and develop a theological perspective on “healing.”

Stories from Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and India were shared during the discussion.

In a statement, participants noted there are approximately 1.7 million people in Asia living with HIV and AIDS.

The consultation took place prior to the general assembly of the CCA, which started April 15 and is due to end April 22. The intention of the consultation was to enable the Churches to be “HIV competent,” CCA general secretary Prawate Khid-arn told UCA News.

The participants described HIV as a problem intensified by poverty, gender inequality, migration, human trafficking, conflicts and discrimination, and in Asia it is “becoming an increasing concern for women, children and young people.”

They called on Churches to be inclusive, engage in creative listening, and share the people’s life journeys with love and respect, so that “all people feel safe and valued as being made in the image of God.”

The participants pledged to continue to work “collaboratively with other faiths and civil societies to overcome the influence of HIV and AIDS in Asian society.” They also called on Churches to develop a “holistic HIV and AIDS Christian ministry” and to develop and promote more resources and liturgies with an Asian theological perspective on HIV and AIDS.

Prophets, healers and reconcilers

“The silence of persons living with HIV and AIDS, and their families can only be broken when they know they will not be judged, excluded and discriminated against,” they added, noting that discussions in church about HIV and AIDS have been “difficult and too intimidating, thus limiting open and honest conversations.”

They also warned that the “criminalizing of behaviors, law enforcement and moral policing cannot overcome HIV.”

They said Churches and faith-based organizations have great potential to be “prophets, healers and reconcilers.” They also said they wanted more attention given to increasing the competency of Church leaders and building capacity for all organizations working with people with HIV and AIDS.

Reverend A Ko Lay told participants that people with HIV must be treated as subjects and not objects. “They must be provided with opportunities to take leadership roles in their life and work to provide them with a sense of self-reliance, self-confidence and selfhood.”

CCA consultant Erlinda Senturia told UCA News that the presence of some 20 people with HIV/AIDS giving their testimonies was the most important achievement of the consultation.

The CCA comprises more than 100 Protestant and Orthodox Churches in New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Timor Leste.

AS09452.1597 April 16, 2010 52 EM-lines (494 words)

UNICEF Conference Highlights Religious, Cultural Challenges In Fighting HIV/AIDS

AMEIA: Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) Holds 13th General Assembly in Malaysia

2010-04-17T08:12:00.001+08:00

Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) Holds 13th General Assembly in Malaysia

“Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal”
April 15-22, 2010
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) is Asia’s oldest ecumenical organization which draws its membership from nearly 100 churches and 15 national councils from 19 countries. Once in five years CCA holds its General Assembly and gathers more than three hundred members to celebrate life, discuss and set policy to re-enact God’s mission in Asia. CCA is holding its 13th General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from April 15-22, 2010.

Theme of the Assembly

The theme of the Assembly is: Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal. This is an appropriate theme and has to be reflected upon and wrestled with in light of complex and conflicting Asian realities. God’s call to people to prophesy, reconcile and to be a healing community is a tremendous challenge and a call to a costly discipleship. Very often the voice of prophecy is ignored and the prophets are marginalized or expelled from churches. This type of attitude towards prophets was there during the biblical times and prevails until now.

Reconciliation and healing are understood in the bible as ways to mend broken and distorted relationships and building up community and relationships anew. Hence, reconciliation is not an artificial fixation of relationships or putting things right and allowing the status quo to prevail. Reconciliation looks at a transformation of the present which involves addressing root causes in order to bring about authentic and lasting renewal. The “peace” which Paul speaks about in Romans 5:1, 11 is certainly peace with God. But, it also involves transformation of human relationships and building of a just community. The radical peace which Paul speaks of is rooted in the idea of Jesus the Christ breaking down all forms of barriers and walls of hostility (Eph. 2:14). An integral part of the reconciliation involves a process of healing of the body mind and spirit of the human person on the one hand, and at the same time it also involves healing of broken relationships, communities and nations. The role of the Holy Spirit in this entire process of prophesying, reconciling and healing is to empower people and the entire creation to move towards the realization of reconciliation, healing and wholeness.

Finally, what is entailed in reconciliation and healing is rooted in the story of Jesus of Nazareth. Reconciliation is rooted and flows out of Jesus’ birth, passion, death, resurrection and ascension.
The assembly theme is a reminder as well as a call to the churches in Asia to respond to God’s call and engage in prophetic, reconciling and healing ministries without counting the cost.

Ecumenical News International: First woman elected to head Asian church grouping

2010-04-17T07:57:00.001+08:00

First woman elected to head Asian church grouping by Maurice Malanes

(ENI). The first woman elected as general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia has vowed to help heal wounds "not only in our societies, but also within our churches" in the world's most populous continent.

"As brothers and sisters in such a time as this, we are 'called to prophesy, reconcile and heal'," said the Rev. Henriette Tabita Hutabarat-Lebang, referring to the theme of the church grouping's 13th general assembly, meeting from 14 to 21 April in Kuala Lumpur.
She was addressing the gathering after being presented on 15 April to the applause of more than 300 delegates and guests at the meeting.

A pastor's daughter, Hutabarat-Lebang hails from Sulawesi, one of the four larger islands of Indonesia. She was ordained to the Christian ministry in 1992 and has served in senior positions in Asia and internationally.

"A lot of wounds hound not only our societies but also our churches so let us walk hand in hand as we journey together for the next five years and with God's grace and with your support, I'll try to walk with you, and God will open the way for us if we trust in him," Hutabarat-Lebang said.

The CCA consists of almost 100 member churches and 16 national church councils in Asia.

In a greeting to the meeting, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, had said that the CCA's assemblies have been "milestones in the common life of Asian churches".

He described Hutabarat-Lebang's election as "another important milestone in the ecumenical movement. I look forward to cooperation and collegiality with you and all your colleagues, exploring ways to mutually support and empower one another in our different tasks and roles."

Hutabarat-Lebang takes up office in November at the Chiang Mai offices of the CCA after the term of outgoing general secretary Prawate Khid-arn ends in October.

She is a vice-president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and is a member of the Joint Working Group between the WCC and the Roman Catholic Church.

WARC general secretary the Rev. Setri Nyomi said, "We in WARC have benefited from Dr. Hutabarat-Lebang's leadership skills and deep commitment to global ecumenism. We extend our congratulations and best wishes to her in her new appointment."
At an earlier press conference, Hutabarat-Lebang said poverty, migration, the build up of armaments, violence, human rights violations and the impact of globalisation persist as the challenges to which her leadership, along with the churches in Asia, seeks to address.

She noted that poverty in south and southeast Asia continues to force people to migrate to more developed countries in the region such as Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and South Korea. Migrants, many of them women in search of work, end up abused and alienated in receiving countries, she said.

"So as we advocate for the rights of these migrant workers, we have to engage with both sending and receiving countries to ensure that migrant workers' rights and welfare are respected and promoted," said Hutabarat-Lebang.

ENI featured articles are taken from the full ENI Daily News Service. Subscribe online to the Daily News Service and receive around 1000 full-text articles a year. Unless otherwise stated, ENI featured articles may be re-printed, re-posted, re-produced or placed on Web sites if ENI is noted as the source and there is a link to the ENI Web site www.eni.ch

Insights: Ecumenical body seeks to heal and reconcile in troubled Asia

2010-04-17T07:54:00.001+08:00

Ecumenical body seeks to heal and reconcile in troubled Asia

Despite persistent religious and political conflicts in Asia, a regional grouping of churches and Christian organisations is upbeat about the fate of the world's most populous continent, whose peoples it is seeking to help heal and reconcile.

More than 380 church leaders and ecumenical guests from Asia and other parts of the world are gathering in the Malaysian capital from 14 to 21 April for the Christian Conference of Asia's 13th general assembly. In Kuala Lumpur, they are seeking to plan their strategies around the theme, "Called to Prophecy, Reconcile and Heal".

The church grouping chose the theme because "deep-seated differences over political and economic systems, ethnicity, gender, religion, beliefs and cultural traditions have prevented [Asian] countries from seeking and working towards a shared destiny," CCA general secretary Dr Prawate Khid-arn said.

The CCA consists of almost 100 member churches and 16 national church councils in Asia.

Dr Prawate said he hopes and prays that the gathering's theme will help delegates and guests to address the issues of Asian people "crying out for justice, peace and a sustainable society".

The delegates and guests will also participate in Bible study, worship, public testimonies and lectures during the six-day meeting.

The Malaysian national capital was chosen as the assembly's venue because, " Malaysia is a microcosm of Asia," the Rev. Thomas Philips and the Rev. Hermen Shastri of the Council of Churches in Malaysia said in a joint statement.

The clerics said Malaysia's national history reflects the influence of the great civilisations and cultures of Asia. They also cited how Malaysia served as "a meeting point between West and East Asia", and that around the country are rich cultural and religious legacies, which make Malaysia "truly Asia".

Maurice Malanes, ENI

Konstantin: Kabar dari Sidang Raya Dewan Gereja-gereja di Asia

2010-04-17T07:52:00.001+08:00

16.4.10

Kabar dari Sidang Raya Dewan Gereja-gereja di Asia

Dari Pahang Malaysia diberitakan, bahwa sejak tanggal 14 april 2010, sedang dilangsungkan Sidang Raya Dewan Gereja-gereja di Asia atau Churches Council in Asia di Grand Seasons, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Acara persidangan ini rencananya akan berlangsung sampai tanggal 21 April 2010. Dan pada kesempatan itu, General Secretary CCA terpilih : Pdt. Dr. Henriette H. Lebang yang berasal dari Indonesia, diperkenalkan. Ibu Pdt Erry Lebang ini adalah juga salah satu Ketua di PGI yang berasal dari Gereja Toraja.

Ia menggantikan Rev. Dr. Prawte Khidarn dari Thailand. Sebagai General Secretary CCA Ibu Pdt Erry Lebang akan menjalankan tugasnya dari tahun 2010 ini hingga 2015 nanti. Dalam menjalankan tugasnya tersebut, ia akan penuh waktu di Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Dan Pada acara itu juga, akan dilangsungkan acara pemilihan Presiden CCA dan Anggota General Committee. Untuk persidangan kali ini juga dilaksanakan penerimaan beberapa gereja sebagai anggota baru CCA, yaitu : GKO dari Indonesia, Gereja Coptic Orthodox Australia, National Council of Churches in Bhutan, Gereja Armenian Orthodox Iran, dan Gereja Lutheran Philipina. Dengan demikian Anggota CCA, berjumlah 36. Persidangan CCA kali ini, menggumuli panggilan gereja untuk memperbaharui dan memulihkan dunia akibat perbedaan dan keragaman yang semakin sering menjadi masalah gereja-gereja di Asia. Baik itu perbedaan dan keragaman karena permasalahan politik, ekonomi, etnis, jender, dan agama-agama serta kebudayaan.

Kegiatan yang dihadiri sekitar 300 orang ini berasal dari Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Hongkong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Srilangka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor Leste dan juga perwakilan dari World Churches Council atau WCC, denagan tuan rumah CCA sejenis PGI-nya Malaysia. mer/konstantin

WCC NEWS: Asian Christian assembly: prophetic witness and reconciliation

2010-04-17T07:49:00.001+08:00

Asian Christian assembly heads for prophetic witness and reconciliation

15.04.10

The Rev. Dr Henriette Hutabarat Lebang was elected to be the next general secretary of the Christian Conference of Asia. Photo: NCC India

In a keynote speech on the theme of the 13^th General Assembly of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) "Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal", the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) said: "There is no true prophecy that does not speak both the critical truth and contribute to the building up of a vision, a dream of the new life in common."

The CCA assembly, which is taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 15- 20 April, also reached "an important milestone in the ecumenical movement," Tveit said referring to the election of its first woman general secretary.

The Rev. Dr Henriette Hutabarat Lebang was elected as the next general secretary of the CCA, a regional body of over 150 member churches from different denominations.

In his 15 April speech, Tveit said that the "combination of callings" expressed in the theme points to the "significant contribution" of Asian churches to the "global reflection of what it means to be one".

"From your Asian tradition I believe you are enabled, maybe more than many others, to see different perspectives together as a whole, in a wider harmony," Tveit said. As the WCC is going to hold its own assembly in Busan, Korea, in 2013, it will provide an opportunity to learn from the experiences of Asian Christians.

Prophetic witness and reconciliation for the Middle East

"The reconciliation of God through Christ is not ignorance of what is wrong, a minimizing of the problems of evil, sin and death," Tveit said in his speech on the assembly theme. "The forgiveness of sin is a proactive act of God to stop sin, to break the evil circle, so that we shall not sin. Thus, the proclamation of the gospel of reconciliation will always also be a word of truth, a prophetic witness, a critical approach."

Illustrating the "bold accompaniment and costly solidarity" which the ecumenical movement owes its members "in their engagement for peace with justice and in their response to the call to prophetic witness and mission of reconciliation and healing", Tveit invited the Asian churches to respond to a December 2009 call by Palestinian Christians to stand against injustice, violence and occupation.

The call, entitled "Moment of truth: a word of faith, hope, and love from the heart of Palestinian suffering" has become known as the "Kairos Palestine" document.

"Here our prophetic witness needs to be expressed through our love for the Palestinians as well as for the Israelis, as all parties need healing and reconciliation," Tveit said in Kuala Lumpur.

While Tveit said there were complicated issues at stake in the discussion surrounding the appropriate means of non-violent resistance. However, he pointed out that "from the World Council of Churches the call to not buy products illegally produced in occupied territories and the call to member churches for proper stewardship of investments so as not to benefit from occupation remain both well known and unchanged."

Full text of the WCC general secretary's speech

More information on the CCA assembly

"Kairos Palestine" document

The Malaysian Insider: Asian church leaders meet in KL

2010-04-17T07:44:00.001+08:00

Asian church leaders meet in KL

By Debra Chong

KUALA LUMPUR, April 15 — Malaysia’s religious “conflict” has garnered much interest among church leaders attending the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) launched here today.

Two regional church leaders expressed their concern over the attacks on more than 10 places of worship across the country early this year after a High Court ruled that a Catholic newspaper could use the word “Allah”.

But they diplomatically refrained from commenting on the federal government’s response in dealing with the problem as a pilot interfaith panel meeting among religious leaders under the watchful eye of a Cabinet-appointed chairman scheduled on Tuesday was suddenly called off.

Reverend Dr Henriette T. Hutabarat Lebang, director of the Institut Teologi Gereja Toraja in Indonesia, said the situation in Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation with multi-religious minorities, mirrors that of her own country.

“I come from Indonesia. We’re facing similar situations: how to live together in a pluralistic community,” she told reporters after being elected the next CCA general secretary.

“We all want to see a good society in Asia, in our countries, but how do we build that?” she asked, noting it was a challenge faced by many church leaders and the subject underscores much of the discussion for the next five days of their meet at the Grand Seasons Hotel here.

The Archbishop of Perth, Roger Herft, said no country today can think it is isolated from the rest of the world.

“Australia knows that. Whatever happens in Malaysia impacts the rest of us,” said the Anglican archbishop, who was born and grew up in Sri Lanka.

Heft had earlier in the press conference stressed the importance for people to be able to practise their religions.

“If we don’t take people’s faiths seriously, the whole society is going to suffer.

Reverend Dr Hermen Shastri, the general secretary of the Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM), pointed out that issues to injustice are central to faith, a view Hutarabat Lebang seconded, noting that churches across Asia often advocate the rights of minority groups.

The 13th CCA is held in Malaysia for the third time since its inception in 1959. This year, the theme is “Called to Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal”.

The CCA is a regional body of over 150 member churches from different denominations.

Over 380 church leaders and ecumenical speakers from across Asia are here for the meet, which ends on April 20.

LIVE Blogging at CCA 13th General Assembly 2010: Day 3

2010-04-16T20:25:00.001+08:00

Day 3

LIVE Blogging at CCA 13th General Assembly 2010: Day 2

2010-04-15T08:36:00.001+08:00

Day 2

Arrival and Registration

2010-04-14T10:57:00.001+08:00

CCA 13th General Assembly 2010 Kuala Lumpur - Arrival & Registration

Who and What is CCA?

2010-04-14T10:00:00.000+08:00

The Christian Conference of Asia is a member driven organisation, working to 'build communities of peace for all' for more than half a century. Born in Parapat, Indonesia in 1957 as part of the vibrant ecumenical movement in Asia, CCA formerly was known as East Asia Christian Conference. On the occasion of CCA's 50th Anniversary in 2007, its founding parents and constituency share about its vision, history and programs in this video. They give an overview of what CCA stands for, how it accompanies its member churches in their struggles, and how it works to accomplish God's mission in Asia. While CCA holds its 13th General Assembly in 2010 in Malaysia, in this video resource, its leaders join hands to strengthen a sense of ownership, derived from a continuing ecumenical journey.

CCA Assembly 2010 Pre-Assembly Updates

2010-04-13T14:23:00.000+08:00

CCA Assembly 2010 Pre-Assembly Updates

Christian Conference of Asia 13th General Assembly 2010 Kuala Lumpur

The Asia Ecumenical Course: What an experience!

The Organisational Structure, Committees and Office Bearers of the CCA (Updated since the 13th General Assembly 2010)

The Organisational Structure, Committees and Office Bearers of the CCA

Member Churches and Councils

General Assembly

Officers

General Committee

Executive Committee

Program Area Committees

Executive Staff

Consultants

The Malaysia Insider: Local church leaders dubious even as PM reaches out

UCANEWS: CCA calls for peace in conflict zones

New leadership for 2010 to 2015

No easy answer: reconciliation requires justice

New leaders to chart ecumenism’s future in Asia

It all adds up

Movements and institution must prophesy together

CCA’s hands full in next 5 years

Young prophets, healers and reconcilers

Good stewardship: more than figures

Worship with meaning and creativity in an Asian Way

“Mutual fertilisation”

Moderator seeks consensus

Malaysian official hails CCA’s mission

Confronting violence, impunity in Asia

Conflicts and Culture of Impunity in Asia

Women prophets, healers and reconcilers

UCANEWS: Church ministry aimed at healing, pastor says

‘We must learn to grieve before we can heal’

Recipe for a vibrant Youth Pre-Assembly

On the Pre-Assembly HIV Forum: “I have lost only my immunity, not my humanity”

Leaving a legacy

CCA at a Glance: A Short Introduction to the Christian Conference of Asia

Sermon: “CALLED TO PROPHESY, RECONCILE AND HEAL”

Assembly begins CCA called to prophesy, reconcile and heal

Berita Terkini CCA 2010

LIVE Blogging at CCA 13th General Assembly 2010: Day 4

Called to prophesy, reconcile and heal: an ecumenical perspective

Christian Conference of Asia 13th General Assembly 15 – 20 April 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

1. Introduction

2. An Asian Ecumenical Theme

3. Some ecumenical theological perspectives on the theme

4. Some Ecumenical Perspectives of Today

4.1 Mission

4.2 Towards 2013

4.3 Kairos

4.4 Those among us living with HIV

5. The Ecumenical Dream

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LIVE Blogging at CCA 13th General Assembly 2010: Day 3

LIVE Blogging at CCA 13th General Assembly 2010: Day 2

Arrival and Registration

Who and What is CCA?

CCA Assembly 2010 Pre-Assembly Updates

The Organisational Structure,
Committees and Office Bearers of the CCA

Christian Conference of Asia
13th General Assembly
15 – 20 April 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia