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Christian Conference of Asia
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About CCA
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Decade to Overcome Violence - Asia Focus in 2005In 2005, the focus of the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV) will be on Asia. Recognizing that many churches in Asia have participated and continue to participate in the promotion of the Decade to Overcome Violence, CCA staff pointed out that the DOV focus on Asia will be a time to celebrate the various efforts to overcome violence, even as CCA shall seek to widen its network on peace to include civil society and other religious groups. This was shared at the April 22nd meeting in Hong Kong between CCA staff and a team on DOV from the WCC. The 12th CCA General Assembly theme, "Building Communities of Peace for All" will also be the theme for the DOV Focus on Asia in 2005. The theme reflects Asia's particular reality of diversity, i.e. the reality of many communities rather than one, yet bound by a common vision of peace for all. CCA staff presented a list of causes of violence in the region, the forms and gravity of which vary widely and yet are so interrelated. These are: geopolitics, economic globalization and cultural domination; religious fundamentalism; ethnic conflicts; poverty and unemployment or underemployment; structural violence and culture of violence; discrimination, racism, inequality; gender injustice; colonial/cold-war legacy; ecological violence; and subtle forms of violence like mental and psychological violence and violence through education and textbooks. Part of the plan is for CCA to explore the possibility of engaging in advocacy that will bring issues of violence to the attention of perpetrators themselves and to encourage churches and NCCs in Asia to share strategies in peacemaking, conflict transformation, and healing. CCA staff and consultants were joined by CCA president Wong Wai Ching at the meeting while the DOV team was composed of Hansurlich Gerber (WCC DOV coordinator), Mathews George (WCC Asia Secretary) Kang Moon Kyu (WCC president), and Judo Poerwowidagdo and Augusto Kelly Lawig, WCC DOV Reference Group members. posted by hope on Monday, May 03, 2004 Prayer Breakfast to Celebrate Asia SundayThe Christian Conference of Asia and the Hong Kong Christian Council co-organized a breakfast prayer meeting on April 21 in order to bring to the attention of churches and ecumenical bodies the purpose of Asia Sunday celebration. In his reflection titled "Serving Together",the Rev. Ralph Lee, president of the Methodist Church in Hong Kong and minister of Ward Methodist Church in Kowloon, called on the Hong Kong churches to work for unity among themselves even as they tried to serve together the wider society. Also taking parts in the service were Archbishop Peter Kwong of the Anglican Church, Bishop Joseph Zen of the Catholic Church and Lt. Col. Tan Than Seng of the Salvation Army Hong Kong and Macau Command. Around 65 people, including leaders and representatives of churches, ecumenical organizations and NGOs attended the breakfast prayer meeting. With the theme, "Serving Together Beyond Boundaries, Asia Sunday falls on 23 May 2004. However, Asian churches may opt to have Asia Prayer Day on other days of worship (e.g. Friday in Bangladesh or Saturday in Nepal). This year, special offerings are encouraged to be made as a gesture of solidarity with the Lao Evangelical Church, a young church member of CCA. posted by hope on Monday, May 03, 2004 Younger Theologians Claim their Ecumenical SpaceIn a consultation on interrogating and redefining power, younger theologians from the South claimed their ecumenical space, which they named AAPACALA, for Afro-Asia-Pacific-Caribbean-Latin America, where the 29 younger theologians came from. Locating themselves as younger theologians from the South, they defined their ecumenical space as more than the geographical connotations of South and North but more as being aligned with the Empire (North) or with the voices of resistance (South). Making critiques of the Bible and Christianity as having been made ideological tools of dominance, they called for relocating sites of power by making the central peripheral and putting the margin at the centre. They also portrayed Jesus as a Southerner, a symbol of resistance to oppressive power, subverter of situations and ways of seeing and living, and a symbol against misuse of the prosperity gospel. For more, see CCA News [March 2004] and the Faith, Mission and Unity section of the CCA website. posted by hope on Monday, May 03, 2004 |
