CCA joins the international community in observing Human Rights Day

Programme Review and Programme Direction

Two key deliberative sessions during the 15th CCA General Assembly are the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions.

The Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions will both be conducted in three groups relating to the CCA’s programme areas, namely, (i) General Secretariat (GS), (ii) Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF); and (iii) Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia (PD).

Assembly participants will have the option to join one of three groups for both the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions. For the sake of coherence, the assigned group will remain the same for both sessions.

General Secretariat

The General Secretariat oversees the coordination of programmatic, administrative, and financial activities of the organization. The GS comprises various departments such as church and ecumenical relations, relations with ecumenical partners, finance, administration, and communications, which provide crucial support and services for the implementation of programs and contribute to the overall functioning of the CCA.

Programmes: Relations with member churches and councils, ecumenical partners; advocacy at the United Nations; ecumenical responses to emerging issues in solidarity; income development and finance; and communications.

Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF)

Under the MU programme area, the CCA accompanies Asian churches to strengthen their mission and witness in multi-religious contexts, revitalise and nurture church unity and the Asian ecumenical movement, and develop contextual theological foundations.

Programmes: Asian Movement for Christian Unity (AMCU); Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS); Asian women doing theology in the context of wider ecumenism; contextualisation of theology in Asia and ecumenical theological education.

The EF programme area focuses on nurturing and developing ecumenical leaders in Asia. The programme aims to enhance spiritual formation and theological understanding, enabling people to actively engage in ecumenical dialogue and collaboration.

Programmes: Ecumenical Enablers’ Training in Asia (EETA); Asian Ecumenical Institute (AEI); Youth and Women Leadership Development; Ecumenical Spirituality and Nurturing of Contextual Liturgical Traditions; Asia Sunday

Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia and Advocacy (PD)

The BP programme area is dedicated to promoting peace, justice, and reconciliation in Asia’s diverse contexts. Through training, advocacy, and dialogue, the programme addresses the root causes of conflicts, empowers communities, and fosters sustainable peacebuilding initiatives.

Programmes: Pastoral Solidarity Visits; Churches in Action for Moving Beyond Conflict and Resolution; Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA); Ecumenical Women’s Action Against Violence (EWAAV); Eco-Justice for Sustainable Peace in the Oikos.

The PD programme area focuses on promoting justice, human rights, and social transformation in Asia. Through advocacy, capacity-building, and raising awareness, the programme addresses systemic injustice, empowers marginalised communities, and advocates for prophetic actions and meaningful change.

Programmes: Human Rights advocacy; Migration, Statelessness, and Trafficking in Persons; Asian Ecumenical Disability Advocacy Network; Asian Advocacy Network on the Dignity and Rights of Children (AANDRoC); Ecumenical Solidarity Accompaniment and Diakonia in Asia (ESADA); Health and Healing; Good Governance; Action Together to Combat HIV and AIDS in Asia (ATCHAA).

No preference updated.

13 December 2010
christian conference of Asia, Asia christianity

Dear Member Churches and Councils, Friends and Partners:

December 10 every year is set aside to mark Human Rights Day the world over.

2010 Human Rights day is dedicated to human rights defenders who act to end all forms of discrimination and violation of human rights. Human rights defenders are those who speak out against violations and abuse, including discrimination, exclusion, oppression and violence. They advocate justice and the protection of victims of human rights violations on the one hand, and demand accountability for the perpetrators and transparency in government action on the other.

The Philippines recently hosted a delegation of church leaders under the Living Letters Program of the World Council of Churches, an ecumenical gesture to accompany churches in situations of conflict and to extend pastoral support.

In many places in Asia, people live in dire and insecure conditions. Many poor, marginalized and disempowered communities suffer from landlessness, lack of access to water, trafficking, and HIV and AIDS. On the Korean peninsula, the threat of war stalks the region while North and South Korean Christians are striving to ensure that peace and reunification will triumph in the end. In many cases, the rights of the civilian populations are violated and compromised by illegal arrests and detention, extrajudicial killings, torture and enforced disappearances. People are displaced and forced to move across international borders due to climate change and environmental degradation in low-lying areas prone to floods and cyclones. Churches, Christians and people of other faiths have a moral responsibility to stand by the victims of economic, social and political turmoil in every society and when human rights are denied and violated.

Today, 10 December 2010, the world marks Human Rights Day with peace marches, prayer vigils, and other forms of affirming the rights of people to live in peace and dignity. Human Rights Day is a day to celebrate the inviolability of human rights and of people’s aspirations to be free from fear and persecution.

Let us take heart in Jesus’ own announcement of his ministry in a synagogue in Nazareth:

“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, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
(Luke 4:18-19, NRSV)

Henriette Hutabarat Lebang
General Secretary