|
Christian Conference of Asia
|
About CCA
Program Clusters: Special Programs:
|
Greetings to CCM AssemblyGreetings shared by Rev. Dr. Rienzie Perera the Associate General Secretary of CCA at the 13th Triennial General Assembly of the Council of Churches of Malaysia held in Sibu from June 21-24, 2010. On behalf of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), and in my capacity as the Associate General Secretary, I bring greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. It is important that I say a special word of thank you to the leadership of the Council of Churches of Malaysia and the member churches of the CCA for playing a major role in the local preparations to hold the 13th General Assembly of the CCA in April 2010. We know that it was not an easy task to work out the local planning and preparations but you did a great job and may God’s name be praised for it and may God bless you. Please convey our thanks to each one of those who helped in the preparatory work. If we on our part had done something to hurt or offend you please accept our apologies in the name of Jesus Christ who thought us to forgive and reconcile. We are glad that you have chosen “Upholding the Truth in Love” as the theme for the 13th Triennial General Assembly. It was Vincent Churchill who said in times war the truth becomes the first casualty. Today we can say that under dictatorships/national security states truth has become the causality and those of us who try to defend the truth have also become casualties or forced to leave ones country. Churches in many Asian countries live under these adverse circumstances and suffer a great deal. We are aware that you face many issues of this nature and have faced negative consequences for speaking for the truth and trying to defend the truth. Therefore, you know how difficult it is to live the truth, to witness to the truth and to take a stand for the truth. I believe to live/witness and die for the truth is the central message of the Gospel of Jesus the Christ and the entire life and ministry of Jesus the Christ was a demonstration to that message. In other words Jesus lived what he preached and that is the meaning of the incarnation. Hence, the Church is called by God to re-enact the story of the Gospel and that is the Mission of the Church. The task of evangelism is to re-enact the story of Jesus the Christ by living for the truth, witnessing for the truth and even dying for the truth. Jesus the Christ was the greatest evangelist and spelt out his evangelistic mission when he said “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind and to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19) I am aware that this message of Jesus has been spiritualized by some of us and we who teach theology are partly responsible for softening the earth shaking message of Jesus the Christ. Today we live in a divided world, divided Asia, and divided nations. Our divisions are mostly based on religion, ethnicity, gender, ideology, caste, class, rich and poor etc. God has placed us as God’s people or called us to be and become God’s people in order to be a witnessing and a healing community in this broken world. But, it is with sadness I say that all divisions which I mentioned above are in the Church and therefore The Church is also divided as the world! Therefore, we are called to repent and seek the guidance of the Trinitarian God for healing, renewal and to walk the path of unity. May God bless this Assembly and may the mind of Christ enlighten you and the Spirit lead you to discern the truth from falsehood. Thank you. posted by cbs on Friday, July 02, 2010 |
