Letter from CCA

(“A Letter from CCA” is a sharing message of the CCA General Secretary to update member churches and ecumenical friends about the life and works of CCA. It is electronically published every Wednesday.)

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ!

The CCA team is still visiting its ecumenical partners in Europe.

GENEVA: In Geneva Anthony Row and I had a lunch meeting with general secretary Dr Sam Kobia on 15 October in World Council of Churches. In this meeting Dr. Mathews George, Dr. Ioan Sauca director of Ecumenical Institute Bossey and Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer of WCC/ETE Program accompanied us. We had discussions on several issues of concern including the mission conference to celebrate the centennial anniversary of Edinburgh Mission Conference in 2010.

We also had meetings with different program secretaries of WCC. It was agreed by all our partners that closer cooperation is significantly needed for our ecumenical journey.

In November, prior to the CCA Executive Committee meeting (27-30 November), WCC and CCA will jointly organise a ‘Church Leadership Development Training’ from 22-26 November in Bangkok. It will be followed by Asia Regional Group Meeting on 26-27 November.

I would like to thank all the friends and colleagues in WCC for their warm hospitality and support.

BERNE: From Geneva we left to Berne on 16 October where Rev. Christoph Waldmiere met us at train station and took us to meet with leaders from Federation of Swiss Protestant Church (FSPC). We shared information about our program structures, church mission and Asian situation. FSPC showed special interest to be updated on the peace issue in Korean peninsula, China-Taiwan strait and the situation in Myanmar. The issues related to global ethics on bio-technology, migrant churches and gender were also discussed. FSPC shared updates with CCA team about the preparation of the 500th death anniversary of John Calvin in 2009 and the Edinburgh Mission Conference in 2010.In a short period of time spent in Berne we were able to share and learn a lot with our ecumenical partners and friends.

THE NETHERLANDS: From Berne we left to Amsterdam, the Netherlands on 17 October. At Amsterdam International Airport, the two CCA team members, Mrs. Manju Baroi and Dr. Hope Antone joined us. After this we left for Utrecht, a home to Interchurch Organization for Development Cooperation (ICCO) and Kerkinactie.

There we had a meeting with leaders of the Protestant Church in Netherlands (PCN) and Synod officers, led by Rev. Dr. Bas Plaisier, general secretary PCN. It was a short introductory meeting to acquaint each other as church organizations on our programs. The conversation continued during and after the dinner. The subjects of discussions included Christian ethics, gender, interfaith cooperation and migrant church issues.

On 18 October, we attended morning worship with the staff. The discussions were arranged with different units of Kerkinactie. The ‘agenda for innovation and change- decentralization and programmatic approach’ was introduced. The regional council and coordinator’s location in the regions and future directions of Kerkinactie were shared with the CCA team.

The information about the life and work of CCA was shared with hosts during lunch meeting. More in-depth sharing on relationship and cooperation between CCA and Kerkinactie continued with the colleagues from Mission Department. Mrs. Romie Nauta, head of Mission Department and Rev. Dick Kleinhesselink participated in the discussions. It was shared that Kerkinactie is still in process of internal restructuring, however it continues to support participation from regional partners.

SWEDEN: CCA team reached to Stockholm in Sweden on 18 October, where Mr. Johan Hesselgren led us directly to Utrecht, a home to Church of Sweden.

The series of meetings were arranged with staff from Church of Sweden at the Ecumenical Centre in Uppsala on 19 October. The purpose of the meeting was to exchange ideas and experiences on ecumenism and church’s ministry in changing socio-economic and political contexts of Asia. Interfaith and interreligious cooperation was the focus of discussion while thinking new approaches for doing mission in the future.

Afterwards in Stockholm, meetings were arranged with Christian Council of Sweden, Swedish Mission Council, Diakonia, and Life and Peace Institute (LPI). We are pleased to share that in cooperation with LPI, CCA will organise a consultation on peace in Chiang Mai early next year. More information about the Sweden visit will be shared in our next weekly letter.

Asian Women Leaders Meeting in Bangkok

CCA–EGY and the women’s department of Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT) jointly organised the strategic meeting of the NCC-women secretaries from 9-13 October at the Student Christian Centre in Bangkok. Thirty participants from Asian countries took part to strengthen networking, exchange experience and strategise the action plan for women leadership development in Asia.

The workshop came up with the following recommendations.

	To formulate a ‘working committee’.
	To produce ‘Asian training manual and curriculum for the School for Ecumenical Formation and Gender Justice.
	CCA- women’s magazine Women Link (which has not been published since 1991) to be republished.
	Representatives of Australian National Council of Churches to help CCA- EGY in producing E New Letter.
	WEAVE Project in East Timor to be strengthened as this meeting created a forum and opportunity for networking, partnership and solidarity.
	To encourage new councils like National Council of Nepal to look for scope to form women and gender justice desk and commissions.
	To strengthen networking among coordinators and secretaries of women and gender justice desks of Asian national councils to develop women leadership for peace building.
	To strategize together on how to overcome violence against women in context of economic globalization.

Prawate Khid-arn
General Secretary

No. 42/24 October 2007