Learning to live in oikoumene: doing ecumenical formation in Asia

Given Asia's vastness and plurality and the ongoing or resurgent ethnic and religious conflicts, what should be the direction and methodology of ecumenical formation in Asia? Asian Christian religious educators feel the need to go beyond the traditional ways of doing ecumenical formation, by retrieving the radical (i.e. root) meaning of the word ecumenism, and by being attentive to the pluralities and realities of Asia. Conscious that they do not have the monopoly on religious education, they are moving towards working with religious educators of other faiths in the region.

State of ecumenical formation in Asia

What is the state of ecumenical formation in Asia? What constitutes ecumenical formation in Asia? In order to describe the state of ecumenical formation in Asia, there is a need to look into how ecumenism is understood by Asian Christians. For just as there is a broadening understanding of ecumenism, there are also shifts in the way ecumenical formation has been conceived and carried out in Asia.

In the beginning, ecumenism was understood as the movement towards Christian unity by the mainstream Protestant denominations. Whether the unity came to be expressed in an organic union, which happened to a number of denominations, or in mutual cooperation expressed in a national council structure and later the regional ecumenical organization, the dream of unity was something shared mainly by Protestant denominations. The Orthodox Church in Asia has also come to share that dream, and so has the Catholic Church. In a few countries in Asia, the Catholic Church has become a member of national councils of churches. At the regional level, the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (a Catholic body in Asia) and the Christian Conference of Asia began in 1994 an ongoing collaboration through the Asian Movement for Christian Unity (AMCU). The two have also been in collaboration for a number of their programmes, if not inviting the other to their respective programmes.

Generally speaking, therefore, ecumenical formation refers to the efforts of ecumenical organizations to promote ecumenism or what has come to be known as the movement of churches towards unity. These efforts include, for example, such programmes as the Asian Ecumenical Course (AEC) of CCA. The AEC has, since 1976, been bringing each year a group of people from its member Protestant denominations for studies in three major components: (a) Asian contextual realities, (b) the situation of the ecumenical movement in Asia, and (c) the why and how of ecumenical education in Asia. It was hoped that graduates of AEC would return to their home countries and become active ecumenical leaders for their respective constituency. In 2003, the AEC was renamed as the Asia Ecumenical Academy (AEA), offering a more advanced programme.

CCA and FABC have co-organized a series of joint ecumenical formation programmes for various audiences or participants, including church leaders and theological students. The youth network involving CCA youth and other youth and student organizations in the region has also collaborated on the School for Ecumenical Leadership Formation (SELF). Thus, ecumenical formation is not only in the content, but also in the methodology, of studying and living together with people of other denominations and dealing with the issues related to people of other faiths.

Ecumenical formation can also be understood as the formation programme that formally and intentionally happens in theological institutions or seminaries in Asia. Generally speaking however, a course on ecumenism in an average Asian seminary is basically a study of the history, life and work of the ecumenical movement, highlighting ecumenical bodies at global, regional and national levels. Thus, it is a study of ecumenism as traditionally associated with the movement towards unity and begun by mainline Protestant mission bodies to overcome the tendency towards strong denominationalism, competition, or rivalry that characterized much of early mission work that was prevalent in Asia.

Unfortunately, after some 50 years or so of the ecumenical movement in Asia, there seems to be a resurgence of denominationalism among many churches--as shown in the proliferation of denominational seminaries or the strong emphases on denominational theologies or doctrines in most seminaries' curricula. In some places, there seems to be an allergy or aversion to ecumenism. While this can be traced to the legacy of rivalry between the so-called movement of liberal theology and the counter-movement of neo-orthodox theology, the lack of understanding of this unfortunate historical accident from the West continues to divide and haunt Asian Christians. Thus, the dream of unity is still seriously at risk today.

Challenges for ecumenical formation in Asia

One of the important challenges for ecumenical formation in Asia is the need for a broader understanding of ecumenism itself, which should be grounded in the radical (i.e. root) meaning of oikoumene. An understanding of the whole world as the "household of God" does not limit the all-embracing love of God to a selected or chosen few. Neither does it put any select group in opposition to all others outside the group.