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The opening worship was led by the Rev. Dr. Enos Das Prahdan, Deputy Moderator, CWM and the General Secretary, CNI. Members of the various representing churches from South Asia participated in the worship by leading in prayers of thanksgiving, confession, intersession and commitment. The Rev. Dr. Enos Das Pradhan reflected on the Scripture read from Psalm 113. He reminded of the ACCRA Confession and specially the call of the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Council of World Mission and the worldwide movement launched by them known as the OIKOTREE which was a hope to call individuals, local congregations and other groups to live faithfully, in the midst of economic and ecological injustice. “In the life of the church and its institutions maintaining good relations is important and that all are to be treated fairly and with respect,” he said. Every single piece of the work the Christian produces must be good enough to show God. The lesson that we learn from the Cross for our daily life is about relationships. Reconciliation needs to be at the top of the Christian agenda because it lies at the heart of the Gospel. Sin disrupts relationships, salvation rebuilds them. Thus, a relationship is that which is based on commitment, not just on closeness and intimacy. Speaking about leadership he said that a real leader should have a servant’s heart. He concluded by wishing the delegates all success as they endeavored to seek a new understanding of their faith with justice for all. The Rev. Dr. Daniel Premkumar addressed the delegates on the theme of the conference “Justice at the Heart of Faith”. He drew the participants’ attention to the fact that faith is at the heart of the Bible. That Paul calls us to walk by faith and not by sight. But when we are called to faith our Biblical faith expects a response that is to include love for our neighbours. What is also equally important is that faith can never be truly practiced without justice for all. Dr. Premkumar challenged the Pastors not to just know their congregation but to own them also which means a Pastor is to be fully devoted to his/her congregation. A pastor needs to respond to the cries of those who are moaning, be it among the members of the church or among those in the wider society, who are most victimized and utterly helpless. Dr. Premkumar drew from his rich experiences of working among the HIV/AIDS patients to show how compassion and love towards those in needs makes a difference in their lives. He challenged the Asian Church pastors present to stand up for the rights of the minorities, dalits, women, children at risk, tribal’s in their context and thereby realizing a holistic faith understanding in Jesus Christ. Thus Dr. Premkumar set the agenda for the conference as the theme suggested “Justice at the Heart of Faith”. Mr. Philip Peacock, lecturer at Bishops College, Kolkata and a young theologian involved the participants in an interesting exercise whereby the goal being that one try and understand who they are as a person and also as a pastor. The exercise was called “Tree of Life” and the participants were broken into seven groups to undertake this exercise. It gave the delegates an opportunity to go back to their roots as to who they are, recollect their earliest life experiences, their influences whether they be positive or negative. Also Mr. Peacock led the participants to analyze who they are in their own personal lives. That is who they are at home, what makes up their personality and character. Who are the sources of strength and motivation in life? Just as a tree has various parts, the leaves, thorns, fruits and buds, the speaker led the pastors to compare it to their own life situation of positive influences, problems and obstacles we face and how we are react to them. What are our areas of growth, our aspirations and hopes for life? The participants later expressed that the exercise was truly beneficial and that it had given them an opportunity to think about themselves. Later on Mr. Philip Peacock facilitated yet another session encouraging the participants to move beyond themselves and to identify the context that they lived in. The attempt was the construction of the self in relation to the society. The delegates continued to remain in groups whereby the speaker highlighted some of the contextual issues challenging the church in South Asia. Mr. Peacock spoke about the problems imposed due to the impact of globalization. By enacting a small skit with the help of delegates the speaker spoke on how despite the toil and efforts of the majority it is the minority that makes profit from it. Mr. Peacock also highlighted the problems that churches in India face due to caste. Gender bias in community as also the church was another issue raised by the resource person. The pastors were challenged that as they go back to their respective congregations they identify these problems within their communities and make an effort to deal with them in a way to bring about a change. In another Bible Study titled “From God’s Forsaken Wreck to God’s Front Runner” Rev. Dr. Daniel Premkumar stressed that when Jesus is around, the alienated and the sick take central stage. He raised the question on whether we have churches or gated communities amongst us. He stressed that what matters for the church today is its accessibility. God and demon cannot be partners for demons thwart the purpose of God. Jesus offers fullness of life and total transformation. He called upon the church to reposition the way it does theology. Also it was stressed that the church structures and church governance needs repositioning too. The church today is called to heal fractured communities. Dr. Premkumar shared his experiences amongst the HIV AIDS patience especially the case of one Ronnie in which just as Jesus performed a miracle in the life of the demon possessed man and his life was transformed so also in action can the church bring about a transformation in a persons life. Facilitating his session Dr. David Selvaraj, Director of VISTHAR, divided the participants into groups and assigned each group with a task whereby they had to list out at least three major things that are going out of the world and three major things coming into the world and what impact that has had on the world and the communities we live in. The delegates enthusiastically interacted amongst themselves. Some of the major highlights that one received as a feedback from the groups was, firstly the ecological degradation taking place. With the losing of natural resources peoples lives and livelihood are being affected. Many also felt that their own culture and traditional practices has taken a deep plunge with the adaptation of other alien cultures. Dr. Selvaraj then got together the views of the different groups by stating that we are all aware of the positive and negative influences and issues in our communities. We also are aware of its impact for the future generations. It is now time to start addressing these issues rather than just professing our faiths in a ritualistic manner. Later on Dr. David Selvaraj compiled the various inputs given by the groups and attempted to single out three major areas of concern. He coined the term “Threat to life” whereby the following issues were agreed upon to be the most important areas of concern, i.e. children, women and youth at risk, ecological rights and concerns and conflict transformation. There was an enactment of the theatre of the oppressed by a few members of the gathering. After their presentation Dr. Selvaraj made an attempt to involve others participants. Various comments and observances were made by individual. While the issue of deforestation was enacted by the group, Dr. Selvaraj motivated and challenged the remaining participants to get involved in the skit by showing what and how would they go about solving this problem. He challenged the group that instead of just being spectators when we are faced with and issue it would be so much better to be actors within that given situation. The Rev. Dr. Daniel Premkumar made a presentation on the topic “Stigmatized: Becoming agents of change” based on the Bible text found in John 4:1ff. He stated here that Jesus the Jew encounters the stigmatized women at Jacob’s well. With this encounter a new spiritual significance is added to the place which the Jews have forgotten. The encounter also adds a new significance in the life of the women. The stigmatized woman becomes an agent of transformation, a change in the individual as well as the community. Bringing the text into context Dr. Premkumar pointed out that connecting with the different is not easy at all. The woman at the well was discriminated because she was a woman, because of her race and because of her controversial past. He compared it today to the situation of the women affected by HIV/AIDS. He challenged the group that the goal for the millennium as a church should be that women’s specific strength’s are identified and utilized in the church. Also the church should encourage gender sensitive liturgy, lyrics and messages. Drawing again from his rich experience of working with HIV/AIDS patients he added that the Lord is a risen Lord and can turn community shame into community asset. That God has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant. He challenged the pastors present that they need to make use of the competence God has provided them and to become agents of change in individual lives that these individuals would go on to transform communities. Our faith in Christ is only realized when we are able to create a just and equitable community. The Rev. Dr. Roger Gaikwad, Principal of Aizawl Theological College, Aizawl led in the Bible study on the final day of the conference. He began by asking the delegates to stand and recite the Lord’s Prayer. Having done that he raised a few queries to the audience such as what does the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer mean to us in our faith affirmation. How meaningfully do we make use of the prayer? Then he raised another question of where do we find justice in our expression of faith. Does the Lords Prayer include elements of justice? He then led the pastors to look at the Lords prayer afresh, that the Lords prayer indeed constitutes the concern for justice. He showed that when we pray that the Lords Kingdom come we actually proclaim the jubilee year of the Lord. (Leviticus 25). He explained that if the kingdom needs to come then humans need to change. Kingdom is not above but in the midst of the people. We have the freedom of choice but also that we are made in the image of God. God’s grace is important but human responsibility is more important. Dr. Gaikwad explained that when there is a call to repentance it is not just an individual repentance but rather community repentance. After repentance there should be reformation. Quoting Lev 25:11 he said that in today’s globalized world there is no time for rest and recreation hence we find a geological imbalance. Secondly, economic reforms are also important as are ecological reforms. But he called the pastors to keep in mind that of the above two the third social reforms need to be prioritized. Thus he concluded that when we say Your Kingdom Come our commitment stands out as Justice at the heart of faith. He then asked all present to once again recite and express their faith through the Lords Prayer but this time remembering the call to justice that the Lord’s Prayer offers to us. Later on in yet another session Dr. Gaikwad formed seven groups of the delegates with an intention to motivate them to now look at faith within their own expressions and understandings and to look for justice within these expressions as was attempted by looking at the Lords Prayer in the Bible Study in the morning. The following issues were given to different groups to discuss and contemplate within their groups: • Convention on the rights of the child to be looked and to discern the gospel expression in the convention. The participants enthusiastically fulfilled their tasks in their groups and presented the findings before all. Dr. Gaikwad ended the session by warning that the churches need to be careful in not reducing the gospels into doctrines. During the conference the morning and evening devotions were conducted by the participants in which they reflected upon the learning and blessed each other with their traditional and cultural forms of worship. In this way they also shared the richness of spirituality embedded in their cultural and lingual lifestyle. We, the Pastors representing various Church traditions from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, gathered at Dr Graham’s Homes School, Kalimpong, India from the 10th – 12th June 2010 for a South Asian Pastors’ Conference to reflect on the theme Justice at the Heart of Faith. Initiated by CWM South Asia Regional Council and Communion of Churches in India, and facilitated by Pastors, Theological Educators and social activists the three day deliberations included worship using alternate liturgies, Bible Studies, social analysis, and social justice theater by external facilitators highlighting several important concerns of justice and the challenge to churches, particularly to pastors, in rendering meaningful Christian ministry. We came to affirm that South Asia as a region and countries within it reflect a bundle of contradictions. India for instance is fast emerging as a global economic power and yet has over 450 million persons who survive on 12 US Dollars per month. Inter religious, caste and ethnic conflicts mark the geopolitical and landscape of the region. Cross border conflict as in the case of Sri Lanka have resulted in both internally displaced persons, internal refugees many of whom are women and children. India has the dubious image of having created over 20 million displaced in the last 60 years most of whom fall under the category of Development Induced Displacement. Sri Lanka continues to harbor 250,000 Tamils in camps post the recent civil war. This situation has laid bare the violence of development, the horrors or war, lack of political will and space. The impact is not merely a lack of human rights but very ‘threat to life’ as a whole. It is in such a context that pastors explore Biblical Foundations for a faith response and practical strategies for common action. Biblical Foundations We acknowledge that Bible is a single rallying point for the entire congregations both to sensitize the people of God on burning issues as well as nurture the church towards ‘Justice at the heart of faith’ welcoming several Biblical metaphors and inputs responding to social identities, stigma, HIV. We realize that several traditional popular expressions of faith, such as the Lord’s Prayer, have embedded in them concerns of justice. These need to be rediscovered and highlighted afresh. Furthermore, we, as body of Christ, need to discern perspectives and commitments to justice in our articles of faith. So also we need to discern the gospel in statements for justice such as the UN Convention on Rights of Children and several civil society movements. Commitment We, the Pastors, from South Asian countries pledge: |
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South Asian Churches Reaffirm Justice at the Heart of Faith