Minutes of the Working Committee [virtual] Meeting of Asian Forum of Theological Movements (AFTM)
Minutes of the Working Committee [virtual] Meeting of Asian Forum of Theological Movements (AFTM) held on Saturday 25th July 2020.
Members Present: Po Ho Huang, Wati Longchar, Patro Satanus, Jin Kwan Kwon, Hsiu Yin CHAN, MP.
Meeting Started with a prayer offered by Wati Longchar.
The Chair of the meeting, Po Ho Huang welcomed all members and especially Rev. Hsiu Yin Chan, who is the coordinator of The Asian Women's Resource Center for Culture and Theology (AWRC). Committee expressed its profound gratitude to Hsiu Yin for her willingness to journey with AFTM. Po Ho also expressed the deep appreciation of AFTM to Dr. Limala Longkumer for providing the virtual platform for conducting the working committee meeting.
Meeting started with a brief sharing of the challenges generated by the threat of Covid-19 to communities and individuals in Asia. Unlike the situation in Taiwan, majority of the Asian nations are facing a number of social restrictions, leading to social isolation. A proper faith response towards the emerging social and economic environment under the pandemic regime is yet to be articulated. The committee noted with appreciation the efforts made by Wati Longchar and others to initiate informed discussion on a Christian response to the new situation through books in local language. Committee also expressed it appreciation to Senate of Serampore and the Academy of Minjung Theology for the innovative models of pedagogy developed in the context of the pandemic.
Minutes of the working committee met on January 15 was adopted unanimously.
Issues arising from the previous minutes:
Working committee meeting schedule for April was cancelled due to travel restrictions. It was our expectation that the proposed two-day consultation will draw programs of AFTM for the next two years. As soon as the travel restrictions are lifted, we shall plan to organize the meeting and ACTT has graciously offered to host the meeting in Taiwan.
A consultation on Tribal and Indigenous theologies, jointly sponsored by Jorhat Tribal Study Centre, Academy for Contextual Theologies in Taiwan, and Asian Theological Academy was planned to be held in January 2021 at Jorhat. The committee asked MP to correspond with Jorhat Tribal Study Centre to facilitate this meeting.
Shirley Lal Wijesinghe was making plans to organize a consultation on "Religion and Politics in Asia: The Impact on the Social Movements and Inter-Religious Relations" to be held in November 2020 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Misereor and United Board have shown interest in supporting the said consultation. However, with the restrictions imposed by the local government on travel and meetings, this meeting will be postponed. MP was asked to negotiate with Shirley.
Because of the limitations imposed by the pandemic, the committee decided to use virtual platforms for the next few months to organize news programs. The following initiatives were discussed and received a formal approval from the committee.
Course on Contextual Theology.
Proposal to initiate a course on contextual theology was made during the first meeting working committee meeting in January. The present committee made a formal approval to initiate it. Since AFTM has no formal space to offer the course it was decided to invite concerned theological schools and consortiums to encourage students to enroll in this course. However, it was suggested that we should aim at students from theological schools and at the same time also the lay community who are not theologically trained. Committee therefore decided to draft two different syllabi:
The first target group is theology students enrolled in various theological schools. This syllabus consists of two modules. First module will be an introduction to contextual theologies as articulated by different communities in Asia. Methodology for doing contextual theologies; analytical tools to understand the social/political/economic/cultural contexts from the perspectives of the margins, and tools for contextual reading of the Bible will also be part of this first module.
The second module will deal with specific context such as Dalit, Minjung, Adivasi, Indigenous, Wo/man and others. This module will be designed with the participation of the respective theological institutions.
The second target group is the communities without formal theological training. The focus of this course perhaps should be on introducing the various contextual articulations along with the tools for reading Bible in the context.
Committee recommended two things: i. To write a syllabus for discussion. MP may take initiative. ii. Identify possible lecturers to deal with the various topics and record (video) their lectures. These lectures shall be made available to the respective institutions.
Webinar on Reevaluating the economic, Race and Religious relations under Covid-19.
The bizarre killing of George Floyd has reminded that race prejudice is institutional and not just an individual moral issue. Asian communities are not free from practicing "institutional discriminations' and appallingly churches are rather silent on this issue. Communities that are victims of such discriminations include the Dalits, Minjungs, Adivasis, Wo/men and others. It is an urgent need to initiate committed conversation and action to combat such practices.
It was also noted that, though the nations around the world are experiencing economic hardship, with the possibility of hunger death increasing almost every day, share prices of certain companies are skyrocketing. Daily life is now controlled by a few internet and pharmaceutical corporations. Pandemic has become a blessing for this tiny rich to amass hefty sums at the expense of a vast majority of the poor.
A third impact is on religion. Social distancing taught people to lead their faith life without the mediation of any religious instruments. Rituals are no more vital for faith communities. Not only churches, but temples and mosques are also empty. It may be too premature to call it as a sign of the birth of a "religion-less faith", yet it invites serious interrogation.
Considering the importance of the above issues the Working Committee decided to organize three lectures, possibly in early September [one lecture per week] on three topics, - Economics, Race, and Religion. MP was asked to take initiative to organize these lectures.
3. One day Webinar on Rethinking Christianity in the context of covid -19.
It was noted that two responses towards the pandemic situation is emerging among the Christian communities. One response is an informed appreciation of a secular spirituality. But a second response, perhaps more resounding, is by invoking the erroneous millennial theology. They depict an angry, revengeful god. The proposed webinar is to delve on the meaning of the compassionate, suffering God in the context of covid 19. Wati Longchar was requested to take leadership of this proposed webinar.
4. Publication
Po Ho and MP informed the committee of the present state on Theologies and Cultures, formerly published by Formosa Christianity and Culture Research Centre of CJCU and TTCS, Taiwan. Theologies and Cultures, an academic fortnightly starting from 2004, is digitized by ATLA. Unfortunately, FCCRC ceases to exist and that brings the suspension of the publication of the journal. Po Ho was wondering whether AFTM could take up the initiative to resume the journal, if necessary, with a new title. However, after due consideration the committee requested ACTT to take responsibility for the journal and in due course could be transferred to the domain of AFTM.
5. Home page
It was unanimously agreed to open a web page for AFTM and Po Ho was requested to take the initiative. Mr. Min perhaps could help, and the committee requested Hsiu Yin to facilitate a meeting between Po Ho and Min.
6. Next working committee meeting {virtual} is scheduled to be held on 24th August, 1.00 pm (India), 3.30 pm Taiwan, 4.30 pm Korea.