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“Called to
Prophesy, Reconcile, and Heal:
Creating
Sanctuaries of Life for All”
Statement of the
Asian Church Leaders Theological Consultation
Hsinchu, Taiwan, 22 – 26 August, 2012
Christian Conference of Asia
Preamble
We, a group of 60 Asian Church
leaders, representing member churches and councils of the Christian Conference of Asia and
other ecumenical and fraternal organizations from 20 countries in Asia,
gathered together at Presbyterian Bible College in Hsinchu, Taiwan from August
22-26, 2012, for an Asian Church Leaders Theological Consultation on ‘Called to
Prophesy, Reconcile and Heal’ the theme of the 13th General Assembly of the
Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) in 2010. This theological consultation was
held in conjunction with the 55th anniversary and the General Committee meeting
of the CCA, to explore the emerging trends in Asia today and the consequent
challenges for the Mission of the Churches in the region. It was also an
opportunity to reflect on the theme of the 10th Assembly of the World Council
of Churches (WCC), at Busan, Korea in 2013, ‘God of Life: Lead us to Justice
and Peace,’ and to identify the distinct contributions of the churches in Asia.
The Asian context of religious pluralism helped the ecumenical movement to
re-imagine the mission and witness of the Church at the first assembly of the
WCC held in Asia (New Delhi, 1961). The Canberra Assembly (1991) further
facilitated the ecumenical movement to widen its understanding of mission in
the context of indigenous traditions, and public witness in the face of war and
imperial aggression. As we welcome the global ecumenical movement once again to
our continent after two decades, we urge the Church to listen to the groaning
of creation reverberating from our continent to discern the God of life and our
ministries of justice and peace.
Prophecy
Call to prophesy is a faith journey
embodying righteous indignation in the face of structural sin and injustice
which invites us to analyze and evaluate our social structures in the light of
God’s justice, and to proclaim God’s judgment on unjust practices and systems
discerning God’s will. Our prophetic critique of the prevailing order stems
from our faith in the possibility of a beyond of the present promised by God
and inaugurated in the life and praxis of Jesus, the Christ. Call to prophesy
in Asia today is an invitation to critique the dominant consciousness, and to
build alternative communities of resistance envisioned by the vision of the
Reign of God. In a continent of hunger, exclusion, and destruction, prophetic
vocation begins with a deeper engagement with the groaning of the victims.
The
continent of Asia is the land of more than 60% of the world’s hungry people,
and climate injustice further worsens the situation through growing food
insecurity and water shortage. Asia is in the process of becoming the world’s
largest refugee camp as a consequence of climate injustice, war and violence,
and neo-liberal development projects. Indigenous communities—the original
inhabitants of the land have become landless people on their land. Migrant
workers, internally displaced people, and stateless people expose the futility
of the dominant rhetoric of human rights. Violence has become a perennial
reality in the lives of ethnic and religious minorities including Christians.
In the name of national interest, progress, integration, and growth, voices of
dissent are suppressed, and illegal arrest, detention, and torture have become legitimate
practices of law and order. Ideologies and practices of social exclusion such
as casteism, and patriarchy, with religious legitimization, unleash a regime of
hegemony and violence in the lives of women and children, Dalits, indigenous
communities, and LGBT friends. The tragic experience of Fukushima has not
deterred our nations from their obsession with nuclear weapons and reactors.
Occupation of communities and war on them, continue unchecked with the blessing
of religions and super powers, resulting in genocide and ecocide. Colonization of
our commons such as water, forest, and land and the subsistence communities is
justified in the
name of Gross Development Project and shared good.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation, informed by the
prophetic critique of the victims, is the resilience not to reconcile with the
prevailing order. Any attempt to coerce or persuade the victims to accept
unjust conciliatory proposals in the name of religious, ethnic, and national
interests, is not Christian reconciliation, it is SIN. Guilt, repentance,
remembrance, apology, forgiveness, restitution, and reparation are central to
Christian reconciliation. Call to reconciliation is hence a call to be eternally
vigilant about unjust reconciliations. In Asia today, we witness partial
blossoming of reconciliation when communities at the margins and their social
movements, supported by civil society organizations and churches and other
faith based groups, engage in historic struggles to bring about reconciliation
between communities and the wider community of creation. Manifestations of
reconciliation that we witness hopefully in Asia today are:
We recognize the partial yet
committed attempts of the Asian Christian communities to become the Gospel of
reconciliation in our context through their public witness and presence in the public
sphere.
Healing
Healing, embedded in God’s love for
the fullness of creation, is the journey toward the restoration of the entire
creation as a manifestation of God’s love for life in its abundance. The realities
of Asia today unveil the ongoing death-oriented practices that deny God’s
promise for life. The sanctions imposed on countries such as Iran, as political
weapons, often deny the rights of people to their basic needs of food, medical
care and shelter. The ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor
challenges our faith claim of God’s generosity amidst scarcity in world resources.
Religious plurality presents new challenges to our construction of Christian
identity in the context of the rising of religious fanaticism and the denial of
religious freedom. The aftermath of violence that overlaps with the endless
groaning of creation, mirror the paradoxical challenge to our missional
vocation to be a community of wounded healers. Witnessing to the wounds within
us summons us to engage prophetically with other healing practices in the journey
of healing the wounds of others. The continuing ecological and human destructions,
unhealed memories of survivors of violence, and the composition of lyrics,
rhythm, voices of lamentation, and our celebration of sacraments, intertwined
with authentic efforts for healing across boundaries of differences, reflect
the life-long journey of embodying shalom in our broken humanity and broken
world of today. We affirm that our ministry of prophesying, reconciling, and
healing is imperative in creating sanctuaries of life for all as manifestation
of God’s hospitality which is God’s heart that is open for all to reside in the
promise of life.
Hsinchu, Taiwan
25 August 2012
posted by communications on Saturday, September 01, 2012 |
