CWM Regional Assemblies Review 2015

CWM Regional Assemblies Review 2015

General Secretary’s Message for the CWM Regional Assembly Review

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is with great pleasure that I write to introduce the CWM Regional Assembly Review which represents the work and reflection of six CWM Regional Assemblies which took place throughout 2014. Each of the six CWM Regions held an Assembly which reflected the theme of the CWM Assembly “Hope: the Language of Life.”

CWM continues to seek a language that empowers us to speak with hope, and to seek justice and peace for the people and places of our creation where hope and peace are in short supply. “Hope: the Language of Life” as a theme surpasses mere speech, as it calls us to move beyond words to embodying and living hope as people of faith and goodwill. As followers of Jesus Christ, our hope, anchored in the Good News of the reign of God, compels us to bring the message of abundance of life for all against the prevailing forces of death and destruction. The theme deliberately focuses on challenging us to imagine a better and fairer world for children who live in the snare poverty; to work for the healing of creation in the face of rising sea levels and environmental devastation; to fight for justice and freedom for those who are trafficked

and enslaved. In short “Hope: the Language of Life” is more than optimism. It is a living expression of our faith; a vision for a reconciled creation where the whole world shares the experience of security on the essentials, relationships of integrity and goodwill, and confidence regarding the future.

Each Regional Assembly interpreted “Hope: the Language of Life” in their contexts and created a series of challenging and inspiring gatherings for member churches, ecumenical partners and friends. In speaking of hope, the Assemblies explored a range pertinent contextual and global issues among which were the threats presented by the effects of climate change; human trafficking and child labour; exploration of new ways of doing and being Church; and a unified Church response to some geo-political issues shaping our history.

The CWM Regional Assembly Review includes presentations, talks, and worship resources giving a flavor of the different Regional Assemblies. It is my hope and prayer that you will find the Regional Assembly Review a helpful and stimulating resource for discussion and reflection for yourself, your church and community.

Shalom!

Rev. Dr. Collin Cowan General Secretary

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CWM Africa Region Assembly South Africa; 16th -21st August 2014

The Africa Region Assembly was opened by the CWM Africa Deputy Moderator, Rev. Jennifer Shamu on Saturday, 16th August 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa. It carried the theme ‘Dare to hope when everything says No!’.

Dare to hope is an audacious statement.

It defies fatalism, rejects all evil forces, including the force of Empire and defiantly looks for a better way. To dare to hope is to stand on the side of Jesus who declares unapologetically: “the purpose of the thief is to kill, steal and destroy: my purpose is to give life in all its fullness: (Jn 10:10, RSV). To speak hope is to live by our words and die for it, herein lies the “audacity of hope”.

The theme invites us to interrogate and challenge this fatalistic culture which paints everything as negative and point to the positive experiences and energy around us as an alternative reading. It calls us to proclaim a theology of hope in God alone, positing that even if everything really said ‘No’ there would be a basis for hope.

The assembly reignited a fire in the heart of the region and was a resounding time of witness, worship, celebration and fellowship. It was ‘inspirational’ and ‘challenging’ as described by delegates and members of the local congregation alike.

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Dare to Hope When Everything Says No The church reclaiming its role as hope for the voiceless

Rev Dr Collin I Cowan; General Secretary, Council for World Mission; Keynote address “It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement and remembering” (Psychologist Judith Herman, quoted by Cooper-White in The Cry of Tamar, p IX) I believe that voiceless-ness is a social construct, a condition imposed on people because of their silence; because of their refusal or resistance or hindrances to using the conventional approaches of communication; or because of society’s unwillingness or inability to listen with the heart. I often wonder about those persons who were brought to Jesus claimed to be unable to speak (Mk 7:3137, NIV). Is it really true that they could not speak or was it more an issue that those around could not hear? Although the healing ministry of Jesus in those situations opens the door for a different conversation, I believe that we are sometimes too quick to pass the problems of our own incapacity to others.

Today we go even further; we claim that they are voiceless in the same way that we claim people are disabled when, in fact, it is the environment of hostility that has actually disabled us. What leads us to conclude that those who are silent are also voiceless and that those who are physically challenged cannot walk? The question for us is this: are they silent or silenced? Are they unable to walk or denied access? Not everyone will be like Blind

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Bartimaeus (Mk 10: 46-52), who resisted the instructions for him to be quiet. The more they rebuked and tried to silence him the more he shouted (:48); because he was among the few who would not settle for silence. Under immense pressure or the burden of a heavy load many women and men surrender to silence and then are to learn that they are voiceless.

When Jesus, moved with compassion, agonised over the condition of a people, I believe he observed that there were not enough people in the community who allowed their hearts to be used as an instrument of sight and sound for those too bruised, battered and broken to communicate. And when he declared to his disciples that they were “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” (Mt 5:13-16), I believe that he was inviting them to consider an approach to engaging with community that was life-affirming and liberating, an approach that caused them to see and hear and respond differently to the cries of the people they encountered and engaged with.

For the church to “Dare to hope when everything says no” it must be prepared to look at the world through unconventional social lenses so that we are not trapped by social conditioning; to activate the eyes of our hearts and to take sides with the oppressed and downtrodden so that their stories may be heard and heeded. If it is true that “the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell”, then we must conclude that every movement and expression is an act of communication. Hope is a language, available to the people of God, by which we are able to walk alongside those who struggle to make sense of the conditions in which

It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing.

they find themselves, encouraging them and enabling them to claim their place as worthy beneficiaries of God’s grace.

In her book, “The Cry of Tamar: Violence Against Women and the Church’s Response”, Pamela Cooper-White calls us to take another look at the story of Tamar, recorded in holy Scripture, deceived into believing that she had value to her brother, trampled upon for his sexual lust and gratification and then discarded as a slut, prostitute and a nobody.

Cooper-White calls attention to the many male characters in the story, who gained limelight for their craftiness, cruelty, callousness and complacency, participating in the silencing of Tamar: Jonabad, Amnon, Absalom and David.

Cooper-White noted that even those who “mourn and weep bitterly”, in the unfolding despicable drama, weep “not for the victimbut for the perpetrator and the victim’s brother” (p.1). Tamar is treated as though she does not exist. Her voice was silenced.

house” (vs.20c, RSV). This, came after her brother Absalom told her: “Hold your peace my sister; he is your brother; do not take this to heart” (vs.20b RSV). Who will tell the many Amnons of our time that the innocent, trusting, caregiving Tamars of our time are indeed our sisters? That we don’t trample upon our sisters. The Tamars of yesterday and of today are always asking the question: “As for me, where could I carry my shame? And as for you, you would be as one of the wanton fools of Israel” (vs. 13 RSV).

For the theme of this assembly to make sense, the church is being called to reclaim its role as hope for the voiceless; hope for those made desolate by the system of silence that serves to protect

the perpetrator; and hope for the bruised and battered who remain comfortless by our silence and inaction. Maybe the greatest sin of the church is our complicity with evil, using language, like hope, to appease the broken-hearted and to offer palliatives to the downtrodden. Confronting evil, challenging injustice, calling for just punishment seem far too political for the church. To make “Hope: the language of life” (theme of CWM’s 2012 Assembly) we must be prepared to push the social boundaries; and disturb the peace of those protected by the system of silence; so that the story of the victim may be told and the voice of the survivor find expression.

Hope lives in the belly of discontent for the trauma experienced by the oppressed and for the resultant culture of violence and

The story of Tamar, recorded in 2 Samuel 13, is an ugly and disturbing one. CooperWhite rightly observes that it is seldom used in the Christian Church. Maybe it is too brutally close to home for comfort; maybe it is too candid to be part of Holy Scripture; maybe we just do not know what to do with it. If we are interested in exploring the theme “Dare to hope when everything says no”, we must be prepared to dig deep into the trenches to find those things that are buried, those things that have left people desolate, and those things that make mockery of hope for millions of people. Tamar is one of those left desolate.

The text simply states “so Tamar dwelt, a desolate woman, in her brother Absalom’s

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Dare to Hope When Everything Says No continued

disconnectedness among God’s people. If hope is the language of life then the church is required to speak that language as we participate with Jesus in the quest for life in fullness for all creation. This language is about words of encouragement, of affirmation and of support. However, this language is not just words. This language is about defiance and determination; it is a language that troubles the waters of life and refuses to be quiet when millions of our children are unprotected from the ravages of a hostile environment; it is a language that refuses to be quiet when our mothers and sisters and daughters are made the object of our power-hungry and lust-infested personalities; it is a language that refuses to let the powerful get away with murder and those made voiceless wallow in

There must be another way for the Tamars of our time, who are being trampled and left desolate. the mire of rejection and pain. In this respect, hope is a verb, an action-oriented disposition in the face of evil. Hope is about standing on the side of the oppressed, fighting her battles; it is about confronting the perpetrator; and it is about participating in actions of solidarity towards just laws to protect the vulnerable, punish the villain and provide space for the healing and hope of both.

I was moved when I read of Pope Francis’ apology for the sexual abuse of children by Catholic clerics. In a private morning mass, some weeks ago, with six adult Catholics who were sexually abused by clergy, the Pope delivered a speech in what has been called “the strongest words ever”.

“I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and make reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused innocent persons…

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it is something more than despicable action.

It is like a sacrilegious cult, because these boys and girls had been entrusted to [priests] in order to be brought to God. The sins of clerical sexual abuse against minors have a toxic effect on faith and hope in God”.

The pontiff apologised not only for the crime of abuse, but also for the past attitude towards victims’ reports of it, saying the church’s leaders “camouflaged [it] with a complicity that cannot be explained.”

I was moved when I read this article because it takes courage and boldness on the part of the Pope to confront this issue with such uncompromising clarity. However, my Assistant agonised over the sin of silence for all these years and questioned whether these words had any value beyond speech. She argued that these words constituted far too little too late. My Assistant was sharing the words of

Judith Herman quoted earlier: “the victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement and remembering.”

I call the church to reclaim its role as hope for the voiceless. When everything says no, the church is called to declare, in word and deed, that there is another way. There must be another way for the Tamars of our time, who are being trampled upon and left desolate.

There must be another way for the thousands of boys and girls who are trafficked daily to satisfy the economic and sexual crave of the greedy of our time. There must be another way for the countless numbers of malnourished children and those who die of starvation daily, while others build barricades to secure their wealth. There must be another way for the one out of four persons among us who is of homosexual tendency, closeted, categorised and stigmatised simply because of his/her sexual orientation. There must be another way to political tribalism, a condition of life that robs people of their basic humanity in a bid for scarce spoils. There must be another way to the wanton killing across our lands, where innocent lives are being taken while those who occupy the podiums of power trivialise the issues with their many words of blame games.

There must be another way to entrenched division between and among peoples, in which we are each relegated to tribes or clans or skin colour, or economic wherewithal or educational capacity or social standing or geographical location. There must be another way to the environmental degradation, largely caused by irresponsible lifestyle and insensitivity to the needs of the under-privileged, where we are now only years away from seeing whole countries, like Tuvalu and Kiribati, overtaken by

world where so many have lost confidence in our integrity and credibility. It is for these that I invite us, as followers of Jesus, to reclaim our role as hope for the voiceless, hope for the downtrodden, hope for the excluded, hope for the marginalised, hope for the desolate, hope for the fearful and hope also for the oppressor and perpetrator of violence, whose humanity is tarnished by this weakness of spirit and lack of capacity for compassion.

the sea; and where people are threatened to be dislocated, displaced and drained of their sense of identity. There must be another way!

“Dare to hope when everything says no” is an articulation of God’s promise that “I will make all things new” (Rev. 21:5), that every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill made low (Is. 40:4) – that the playing field shall be levelled, thereby creating equal opportunity and access to the world’s resources and giving voice to every person irrespective of her/his social location. “Dare to hope when everything says no” is God’s invitation for the church to take a stand, to say yes to God, thereby saying no to the empires of our time, the systems and structures that are designed to trample upon the weak. “Dare to hope when everything says no” must be the church’s watchword for such a time as this; because the world in which we live is burning in the fires of sin and shame; young people are becoming disillusioned by the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the church; the church is losing its witness as agents of healing and hope in a

The church is not perfect but imperfection is not an excuse, and not a hindrance, to participating in God’s mission to bring hope to the weary. I know that everything is not well with the church but in my night of weeping I wait for the dawning day when I shall be greeted with the golden sunshine because it is

by God’s grace and God’s grace alone that we are saved. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, ‘says the Lord’ (Zech 4:6).

Throughout this week we are being called to reflect on the theme “Dare to hope when everything says no”. I dare to suggest the church is called to be the voice and the presence of hope in a context where the word hope is understood as no more than delayed agony and where doubt and fear have robbed people of the spirit of adventure and exploration of life’s possibilities. I urge us to claim the power and fortitude of our faith so that the world may know that our hope is built on “nothing less than…Christ, the solid rock”.

I urge us to testify to the world that it is in “Christ alone (that) our hope is found”. I urge us to reject the view that everything says no by pointing to the myriads of things that say yes.

Most importantly, I urge us to point others to the God of hope, whose faithfulness and love knows no condition or barrier.

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Dare to hope When Relationships Have Gone Sterile Genesis 45: 1-15; Matthew 15: 21-28

Rev Dr Collin I Cowan; General Secretary, Council for World Mission; Opening worship sermon I would like to make the case that that which is most meaningful to our existence as God’s creation is harmonious and congenial relationships in which we recognise and affirm our interdependence. We depend on each other as human beings for the validation of our sense of self; and we depend on the environment for the very breath we breathe.

Not withstanding this, however, relationships remain one of the most difficult affairs to maintain. The entrenched division between the so-called global North and South is appalling.

We continue to regard each other by the colour of our skin, the quality of our education or the economic circumstances that define our social location. Statistics on the rate of divorce is alarming. In the United States of America, where the rate of divorce is the highest in the world, there is one divorce in every six minutes.

In 2014, South Africa ranked #4 on the list of the top ten countries with the highest divorce rate. The current rate of divorce in SA is 61.2%, almost double what it was a few years ago – 34.5%. It is against this background that I want to talk about hope.

We all have experience of relationships that have been damaged and failed, or we may be aware of those who have given up on relationships because they have been far too battered and bruised in them to desire them anymore. We watch our relationships move from delight and satisfaction to drudgery and sadness, to boredom and sourness and ultimately, to disdain and sterility. How is it possible for families and friendships and fellowships to become so stagnant?

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Whatever our answer to these questions, the unfortunate fact remains that we live with the reality of relationships gone sterile, where hope is buried and life becomes empty.

Joseph and his brothers reached that place in their relationship. From a place of rich fellowship, to sibling rivalry, to annoying reactions towards each other, Joseph and his brothers saw their relationship deteriorated to unimaginable proportions. Such a relationship led to the deliberate and calculated decision to place Joseph in a pit; and finally, to sell him into slavery, leaving a father totally broken and a family dysfunctional.

Through the long journey of hardship, embarrassment, imprisonment, isolation and loneliness, Joseph paid for the irresponsible and inconsiderate actions of his brothers.

Should he have developed resentment and hatred for his brothers it would have been quite understandable. You will recall that it is only by the grace of God that he did not face the death penalty for an act he did not commit; and all this because of his ‘blood brothers’ who became envious of him and his dreams. Admittedly, the brothers had their fair share of abuse from Joseph, which influenced their decision. Joseph was a cocky, obnoxious and insensitive boy, who cared not how he hurt his brothers. Jacob, the father of the boys, did not help as he constantly made Joseph out to be a favourite and gave him preferential treatment. It was a relationship destined for destruction.

This deterioration in relationship intensified with years of separation between Joseph and his family. The separation was both physical and emotional; and indeed, the emotional separation was more painful that the physical.

We all have experience of relationships that have been damaged and failed.

Such hostility made reconciliation a major challenge, if not an inconceivable thought.

When Joseph saw and recognised his brothers, his first inclination was revenge and he made a valiant attempt to humiliate, he kept back his youngest brother, Benjamin, and forced his other brothers to return home to their father; and he made mockery of them as he watched them pay homage to him, thereby fulfilling his dreams, a major display of poetic justice.

Well, do we not find ourselves at the same place over and over again? Do we not sometimes relish the thought of wanting our enemy to pay for their wrong, to suffer some degree of shame and scandal Do we not wish to be vindicated and just watch our enemy burry in the world’s disgust and disdain?

Joseph was there, in the miry pit of hatred and desire for revenge; but more importantly,

we are there when our relationships have lost expressions of goodwill and positive regard for those who once shared cherished spaces with us. I call it the sterile lowlands of relationship, desert places in our journey as family or friends or colleagues.

How dare we talk about hope in the context of such sterility? In such a context relationship is marked by deception, betrayal, sell-out, dislocation, distrust, callousness, division and brokenness. In this story we encounter a family most dysfunctional. There is nothing going on to point to harmony or even the desire for such. It is a quagmire, where hearts gone bitter and the capacity for goodwill paralysed, reflect the nature and condition of relationship at its worst.

Dare to hope when everything says “no”; when relationship is gone sterile. Analysing the story of Joseph and his brothers takes us to another place, beyond the impulses and desires of Joseph, beyond the struggles and tensions of his brothers; beyond the pain of a broken father and his long lost dream of seeing his son, Joseph ever again. And therein is a basis

for our hope. Hope is not based on the best of human intentions, however noble, because when the pressure sets in, our best resolve disappears in preference for self-preservation.

Hope springs from the bowel of such discontent and dislocation; and it is founded in God’s intention and commitment to deliver us from the pits and to give us a future (Jeremiah 29:11). In the midst of his lamentation, beset by deprivation of peace, a down-trodden spirit, severe affliction and a heart consumed with bitterness, Jeremiah declares: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lam 3:21-23) God always comes through in the night-season of our lives, when our capacity to cope fails and we are sapped of energy and inspiration.

The story of Joseph and his brothers is one of tremendous inspiration for me, a lesson of hope coming to life in the midst of the most unlikely circumstance. I like this story because it is so real; and in that sense it could be the story of any of us.

In the story of Joseph and his brothers is an example of the “all-surpassing power of God” at work. God intervened when the resolve of Joseph to treat his brothers with respect and kindness and his resistance to the temptation for revenge, failed. God intervened when the pressure to make worse a bad situation was irresistible and a family, hitherto beautiful, was about to be placed on public display for shame and scandal. God intervened when human capacity to right the wrong of history proved inadequate. The all-surpassing power of God took over “when we, the fight were losing”.

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Dare to hope When Relationships Have Gone Sterile continued

In this story, I would like to call your attention to three movements that can only be regarded as God at work; but it is with these three movements that the way was cleared for Joseph and his brothers to talk with each other after a very long and hostile past.

1. In the first movement we encounter Joseph and his brother, confronting self: offering space for healing – “I am Joseph; I am Joseph your brother; his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence”. Both Joseph and his brothers are vulnerable. They are hurting from a past that has never been confronted and that past is terrorising them, making the present reality a place of pain and fear.

However, this decision to confront one’s self is the first step towards our healing and freedom. Acknowledging that something is wrong is a starting point towards a new experience. In this act of confronting ourselves we offer space for healing, a sign of hope.

2. In the second movement we encounter Joseph in his struggle to conquer the spirit of revenge: opening the door to forgiveness – “Come close to me; I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into slavery”. Note the movement from I am Joseph…I am Joseph, your brother to “I am your brother”. Everything else pails into insignificance when they on either side of the fence would acknowledge that they are brothers. You may have sold me into slavery but we are brothers. You may have meant this for evil but God had a bigger plan for us; we are brothers. God is calling us to recognise that we are inextricably intertwined and that we cannot afford to

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South Africa is as good a place as any for us to consider this subject of hope when relationships have gone sterile. allow our base instincts to get in the way.

Conquer the spirit of revenge and open the door to forgiveness.

3. Finally, I call your attention to the third movement in which these brothers, children of one father, are considering the alternative to brokenness: opening their hearts to each other – “Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.” Joseph took the first step in this dramatic display of forgiveness and restoration. Here we must note that the only person capable of initiating forgiveness and restoration is the survivor of abuse.

The abuser has given up his/her power to call for forgiveness and restoration. They stand at the mercy of the oppressed and must await that hand stretched across the divide. Benjamin was the next to follow.

He was the first to feel the sting of Joseph’s revenge and the first person to respond to his outstretched hand. They embraced

and wept in each other’s arms. Their tears expressed a language understood by them and by heaven itself. Then came the life-transforming expression – “he (Joseph) kissed all his brothers and wept over them”. Here no word was needed; tears spoke to the hearts of each other, evoking emotions too strong for words. In that emotional outburst healing was taking place and a new day was about to be born.

The outcome of this emotional connection is the miracle of conversation: “Afterward his brothers talked with him”. Conversation is the result of heart to heart connection, in which hurts and hope meet each other and healing takes place. This is an alternative worth considering.

South Africa is as good a place as any for us to consider this subject of hope when relationships have gone sterile. The many years of apartheid, in which the cruelty of humanity towards each other was at its worst, continues to haunt us. However much we try to divest ourselves of this memory it continues to stare us in the face and trouble us in our hearts,

leaving us restless in spirit, overcome with anger, agitation, anxiety or even aloofness.

This is our story and it does not leave us comfortable.

However, today’s story of Joseph’s encounter with his brothers; and the miracle of healing and restoration that has begun; may offer us some sign of hope as to what is possible in the situation of our own brokenness. Perhaps, our conclusion that there is no possibility of restoration and therefore, no future (Desmond Tutu), can be revisited, with revived hope of a new day. I invite us on a journey where together we may dare to hope, dare to believe, dare to dream and dare to act in concert with God for a better world – better family life; better relationships at the workplace, better fellowship in community, greater congeniality in the church and an ever renewed commitment to make the world in which we live a better place.

In the gospel reading, Jesus, his disciples and a Canaanite woman are in an encounter, where they must decide whether they will allow traditions and old prejudices, even pride, to stand in the way of offering healing, hope and a future to a child, sick and in need of attention. A suffering child, stubborn disciples and a searching woman must hear from Jesus a word that could turn the tide and bring about an experience of healing. But it was the words of the searching woman that made all the difference and informed Jesus’ response – “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table”. Her words came from the deep places of her struggle and search for a better life for her daughter. She wanted freedom for her daughter more than anything in the world. In these words much was said –

let’s do away with history, traditions, prejudice and pride and let us focus on the one who most desperately needs our help at this time.

At which point Jesus responded: “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And here comes the result – “her daughter was healed at that (very) moment”.

Dare to hope when relationships have gone sterile; when everything says no. I am a great believer that the wrongs of history can be made right; that perpetrators and survivors of violence can meet each other; that healing is possible where entrenched pain defines our experiences; that you and I occupy the podiums from which a new world can be made

possible; where the hostility of history can be addressed and a future, marked by positive regard for each other, envisioned and enabled.

I believe in the God, who is committed to making all things new; who calls us to imagine the day when the lion and the lamb will eat straw together; and who points to the day when the ferocity of the sea would lose its threat and the sea itself becomes as glasscalm, serene and secure. I believe that sterile and estranged relationships can be resurrected; that heartaches and broken pieces can be restored; and that life itself can be renewed.

I believe that it is not true that everything says ‘no’; because I believe in a God who says yes. Yes to the positive, yes to healing, yes to freedom, yes to renewal, yes to resurrection, yes to hope…yes to life.

And so I invite you to join me on a journey with the God who will settle for nothing short of yes.

“I’ll say yes Lord, yes, to your will and to your way I’ll say yes Lord, yes; I will trust you and obey When your spirit speaks to me, with my whole life I’ll agree And my answer will be yes lord, yes.”

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CWM Caribbean Region Assembly Jamaica, 12th-16th March 2014

“Human Trafficking: Facing the reality, embracing the challenges” The Caribbean faces a challenge which is also being experienced in many places of the world – human trafficking. We are thankful that through a process of mutual accountability we agreed together to learn more about this modern slavery and to provide a space for our member church delegates to pray, learn and commit together to take action. The location was Kingston, Jamaica. The dates were March 13-16 and the theme – “Human Trafficking: Facing the Realities…

Embracing the Challenges”.

At the Assembly, we charged the newlycommissioned ‘agitants’ to go back to their congregations, workplaces, communities – wherever constituted their sphere of influence – to disrupt complacency and agitate action. We have received reports of presentations and discussions in schools, with youth fellowship groups, community groups and the Regional office has provided support of resources including flyers, posters, banners and speakers. It is also our intention to broaden the scope of our interaction through the mass media.

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Their Brother’s trader!

Human Trafficking in the Old Testament

A sad fact is that many traffickers are “decent up-standing” citizens in our communities. They include pastors, teachers and politicians and comprise both men and women.

decide to reduce the demand? Are we willing to unmask the traffickers when we know who they are? One may even wonder what causes someone to enter this reprehensible trade…

Let’s think about the following scenarios/ contexts – who is responsible for sourcing these workers and disadvantaged people?

Journey with me therefore to Canaan, where we meet a group of ‘one-time’ traffickers (or so we are told), otherwise called Their Brother’s Trader first met in Gen. 29-30; born to Leah the spurned wife of Jacob.

• Men, women and children arrested and charged regularly with drug trafficking and deported to Jamaica and other Caribbean countries • Women who leave home and travel miles across the Essequibo River to the hinterland for “work” on Guyana gold mines • Filipino and other servants/domestic workers who provide source, transit and final point for trafficked humans within the Caribbean • Prostitutes (male and female) in El Campo, who arrive (il)legally to service the needy in Curacao • Person arrested for child trafficking in Jamaica last week • “Missing Children” • Children found in shipping container in a Trinidad port • Street children who become partners of the rich who are on the down low • “Gifting” of children to mafia dons Even when we “see” middle men, the fact is that it requires lots of finances to equip and outfit the larger-scale operations of sourcing and placing victims. What causes them to flourish? Demand and supply. What if we

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Our primary focus is on Leah’s first four sons, as there is not much information readily available about the others. Their lineage is very important – they are great-grandchildren of Abram (who was willing to gift kings with his wife for safe passage through their territory Gen. 12:12-18; 20:1-6, 11-13 and to whom the first cases of human trafficking is accorded – also Gen. 16:1-16 and in v.18, we see the Sodomites carry greater value that Hagar or Sarah); grandchildren of Isaac (fulfilment of God’s promise to Abram) and Laban a very astute business-man (Gen. 31:14-16).

Their father Jacob, had his name changed to Israel by God after he fought the angel while preparing to face his brother whose birth-right he had stolen. Their grandmother Rebekah is not above trickery herself as she assisted Jacob in supplanting Esau’s inheritance based on her understanding of a prophetic word over his life (Gen. 25:19ff and 27:1-13). These boys would have been familiar with the many stories of their colourful heritage since their formative years were spent in Laban’s household (while their father remained in servitude to him Gen. 29ff).

However, this does not really tell us much about their character, for they did not have to inherit the gene, for are all traffickers well connected within the church or the wider

society? In Gen. 34, we meet them again as older men, when they discover that Dinah was raped. Their sense of honour is unquestionable – they maintain absolute respect for ‘their’ women, in particular Leah and Dinah, their direct relations. Under the leadership of Simeon and Levi, they waged a strategic campaign against the males of Shechem, which results in their return to Bethel (Gen. 34:25-31). After the birth of the 12th son, Jacob is dishonoured by his firstborn Rueben, who slept with Bilhah his father’s concubine (through Rachel Gen. 35:22). Judah, one of the chief decision-makers, is also known for his unwillingness to marry within his kin and his honour is questionable in the matter of Tamar.

Yet, when he discovers her pregnancy, his

actions indicate that he still regards himself as part of the priesthood (Gen. 36).

As the children of Leah, their task was not primarily relegated to shepherding, which was reserved for Joseph and the children of Bilhah and Zilpah. This takes us to the first ‘inconsistency’ in the text. Why would Rueben be in Dothan shepherding alongside the secondary brothers? It may not be critical to answer that question, but it is worth noting that in the larger scheme of the brother’s ruthlessness; trafficking is a less heinous act than murder! In preparing to help Joseph meet his fate, it seems that trafficking is not the first thing on their minds, but what is clear, is that they strip Joseph of his identity (v 23). We also note that Midianites or Ishmaelites purchase Joseph from his brothers.

The Midianites are also involved in the trafficking process as they are retailers/ suppliers of humans. In providing the service for the Egyptians and others for whom owning other humans was acceptable, the Midianites further perpetuate the law of demand and supply – had there been no need for under/ unpaid workforce, then traffickers would have not marker for abuse of the vulnerable.

Ironically, we also note the covenantal impact of the sale, as Joseph’s coat is dipped in blood – the brothers tacitly agree to maintain the secret of Joseph’s disappearance and also go to great lengths to establish a cover for his disappearance.

The extent of the subterfuge may be different, the family ties may not be as strong, but the links between the brother’s traders then and human traffickers now is uncanny. Several persons go missing in Jamaica on a regular basis – several are undocumented. Persons

involved in the trade today, are unfortunately, far often known (and perhaps even trusted) by the victim, who unwittingly walks into their own peril. Not every trafficker needs money, the reasoning behind their actions are not always decipherable to the rest of the world… what they do need are persons willing to join them in the trading of lives.

Traffickers exist at all levels of society – Joseph’s brothers could be understood as members of the Royal Family of the Bible – they are those after whom the twelve tribes of Israel are named. The Ishmaelites/Midianites are nomads, the foot soldiers, not necessarily among the elites, but very necessary to the actual movement of bodies. And in the Egyptian landscape, there were probably ordinary men and women involved in the purchasing of slaves; several of whom were bought by the aristocracy.

Slavery was a reality in Joseph’s time – so much so that he was traded by his very own kin!

Finally, we note the absence of closure for the family (father) of the missing person in juxtaposition with the silence of Reuben and the other brothers. Slavery was a reality in Joseph’s time – so much so that he was traded by his very own kin! It is a painful reality in our context today, and though we may not be actual partakers in the trade, our lack of response to the drug problem testifies to our own complicity. Our inaction allows another to be bought and sold at random, realising economic and socio-political issues which go way beyond our own borders? Could Reuben represent the silence of the church, especially the Caribbean church in responding to the reality of trafficking? Trafficking may indeed be a fate worse than death – is this the issue on which we wish to remain silent? Shall we condemn the innocent to loss of life and the guilty to be free?

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Mission in the Context of Empire Response to Human Trafficking

Introduction Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery.

The widespread buying and selling of human beings constitutes one of the most alarming issues facing contemporary humanity. Human trafficking exists because of the demand to exploit human persons.

The global and social context which allows demand to thrive and drive human trafficking is complex. Demand as a social context tolerates traffickers, pimps and johns (primarily men) to use, abuse, buy and sell women and children. This demand for the illegal labour in prostitution, sexual exploitation, and pornographic use of human beings is big business with enormous profits for traffickers.

Traffickers exploit cultural traditions, pray on the most vulnerable in society, and take advantage of those living in poverty. For human trafficking to be a lucrative business there must be a demand for the use of women and children. Human trafficking cannot exist or thrive unless people demand the services or provide “the market� for them.

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The concept that a human person (predominantly women and children) may be considered or treated as an object or commodity is at the heart of the demand side of human trafficking. This shocking reality of the debasement of human persons frames the key theological question: what resources does the Christian/Church tradition provide us in order to join the STOP THE DEMAND Campaign, and eliminate the exploitation of human beings?

Methodology There are many methodological approaches in an analysis of an ethical issue. For some their moral position is based on philosophical or legal theory. For others sole reliance on sacred Scriptures (Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible and Koran) guide them. Unknown to many, the Christian moral tradition has a rich multiresource approach in the analysis of ethical issues. These sources are human experience, social analysis, the Christian Scriptures, the social justice teaching of the church, and human rights theory.

Traffickers exploit cultural traditions, pray on the most vulnerable in society, and take advantage of those living in poverty.

Defining Human Trafficking and the Demand Human trafficking and the demand which drives it, is an extremely complex issue.

Current literature on human trafficking offers four related definitions of the terms. First, The United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime emphasises the use of force, fraud, abuse of power and deception in its definition. This highlights the illegal aspects of trafficking and the demand for human persons.

“Trafficking in persons shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery…”

In this definition the eradication of human trafficking and demand relies on the legal system to curb and stop the criminal activity.

Another definition of trafficking and demand is proposed by Donna Hughes. A professor in the Women’s Studies Programme at the University of Rhode Island, she accents sexual exploitation in her definition of demand.

Hughes has divided the demand side of sex trafficking into three components: the person

who purchases sex acts from women; the pimps, traffickers, brothel owners and corrupt officials who profit from prostitution and trafficking; and the culture which encourages demand by normalising prostitution, lap dancing, or other commercial sexual activities.

Each of these must be addressed to eliminate the demand for sex trafficking.

profit. However, a larger social context must exist that allows for such exploitation.

To halt trafficking and demand using this definition would centre on a three-fold strategy of a) care of women and children trafficked, b) prosecution of the “johns” and pimps and c) changing cultural norms and attitudes towards commercial sexual activities.

As the modern form of slavery, trafficking and demand is an economic and social relationship between two people involving very unequal power, exploitation and violence. Such a moral economy can only exist in a subculture which defines some people in a way that makes exploitation possible. A public re-definition must precede changes in behaviour. The application of basic human rights takes place in a cultural context, and extending basic rights to all members of the population has only taken place gradually as understandings change.

The third definition of trafficking and demand looks at basic marketing principles to understand the phenomenon. Kevin Bales, a consultant to the United Nations Global Program on Trafficking in Persons, defines trafficking and demand as an economic exchange in which trafficked people are the “products” that produce a profit. He notes that trafficking is only possible in an economic context in which workers can be enslaved for

Bales proposes two steps to eradicate human traffickers and demand. First, he relies on the implementation of human rights on behalf of the victims of trafficking. Secondly, he calls for a public redefinition of the activity.

The demand side of trafficking is not, therefore, properly understood as the demand for a trafficking victim’s prostitution, labour or services. Rather, demand must be understood expansively, as any act that fosters any form of exploitation that, in turn, leads to trafficking.

To foster is to “support … encourage or help to grow (or) to promote the growth of…”

For example, the use of digitally created pornography, in which no actual person is used to make the images, may none-the-less be exploitation.

The Christian church has a rich tradition of social justice teaching. The central elements of the Church’s teaching are: the world is God’s creation; women and men are made in God’s image (imago dei); human beings are called to be in right relationship with all people and

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Mission in the Context of Empire continued

the environment; the life of each individual has inherent dignity and sacredness. Human dignity is not an earned privileged but rather the basic right from which all other human rights flow.

Solidarity is a primary social principle.

Human beings are born social, through the co-operation of their parents with God’s plan. Each person’s growth in strength and knowledge comes through relations with others. No one is or can be “self-made.”

Inter-relationships and inter-dependences are societal requirements, not individual options.

Jesus showed special love for the people who are most dependent and in need of others – the sick, the poor, children, prisoners.

Reflection on the Parable of the Persistent Widow – Luke 18:1-8 Then he told them a parable about the necessity to pray always without becoming weary. Jesus said, “Will not God then secure the rights of God’s chosen ones who call out to God day and night? Will God be slow to answer them? I tell you, God will see to it that justice is done for them speedily.”

What insights and motivations does this scripture passage provide for those working to eradicate the demand for human trafficking?

A woman in the time of Jesus held no status except through a relationship with her father, husband or male relative. Men held prestige through rank, lineage or wealth.

This scriptural passage pits a widow against a judge. Inequality defines this relationship.

Yet a tension exists between the widow and the judge. The woman continually persisted in asking for a judgement in her favour. She has three powerful assets on her side; the

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truth, her moral belief that she is correct, and the tenacity to claim her right to justice. The judge also admits a truth; he does not fear God nor does he respect any human being.

This is an astonishing admission. Jesus, in the introduction to this parable, also defines the judge as an immoral person. Jesus makes no attempt to redeem the judge or save him from his unprincipled identity. There is no ambiguity of the judge’s lack of integrity or moral character.

Luke describes the woman by her one line of speech and her behaviour. On the one hand, her one statement is a cry for justice. On the other hand, she is characterised by the immoral judge as a bothersome woman who might harm him physically!

In the last paragraph of the passage we read Jesus’ final comment about the story. God will not abandon those insistently seeking justice and righteousness. In fact, God will answer the plea with haste. Luke’s parable has much to offer those struggling to eradicate the demand of human trafficking.

Reflections and questions for personal prayer or group discussion The woman was determined to gain justice in spite of being initially ignored by the judge.

Her incessant pleading with the judge is virtuous in the sense that her truth requires the judge to render a just verdict. What other virtues does the woman in this passage demonstrate in order to gain justice? She knowingly admits having adversaries yet unafraid she holds steadfast in the knowledge of her own righteousness. The adversaries of

History has shown that long-range efforts to work at systematic change can be effective.

STOP THE DEMAND or any other against Human Trafficking Campaign are many. The traffickers, the pimps, and “johns” are easily identified as immoral perpetrators of women and children. But those who participate in pornography (and prostitution) under the guise of entertainment are also enemies of STOP THE DEMAND Campaign. What virtues are needed to broach the topic of pornography and prostitution with family members, friends and church members?

The immoral judge is an amazing figure in this parable. Little is known about him except that he has authority over the life of this woman (or over the lives of the others he represents).

We also know he is very corrupt. He almost relishes this unprincipled identity. The character of the judge in this parable gives insight to people who create and participate in the demand of human trafficking. Like the judge there are many contemporary people who lack a conscience and moral sensitivity to their actions. This lack of an ethical perspective on demand and human trafficking may account for the continuous increase in the demand for trafficked persons. Yet it does not absolve those who participate from being challenged.

The unnamed Gospel woman never gives up confronting the immoral judge. What insight do supporters of STOP THE DEMAND Campaign gain from her behaviour with the judge?

Surprisingly, the woman in the parable understood this lack of moral perspective. She did not try to “convert him to goodness” nor did Jesus’ narrative suggest any transformation of the judge as a person. Both the woman and Jesus accepted the reality that the judge did not fear God nor respect human beings. The

woman used the only power she possessed – courage and tenacity – to claim and get the justice she needed.

Three elements on the part of the woman made the judge change his stance of ignoring the woman. First, she was claiming a right (not a preference) for herself (or perhaps others). Second, she continually urged (nagged or threatened) the judge. Third, she did not request that he change his character, rather that he render a just judgement. The religious conversion of those who create and participate in the demand for human trafficking is not the aim of STOP THE DEMAND Campaign. Rather the public exposure of those who create and participate in the demand in human trafficking is one goal of the campaign.

History has shown that long-range efforts to work at systematic change can be effective.

Some examples of successful social change include: the elimination of apartheid in South Africa, the decrease in the social acceptance of smoking, the public condemnation of domestic violence and child abuse. In each of these cases, the behaviour mentioned was treated with either silence or social acceptance for decades. Strong and courageous advocates over the long-term did force changes, Like the widow who seeks justice, we can stop the demand for trafficking in women and children.

How can we stop the demand? Like the widow who continues to make her case with the judge, the campaign also proposes actions that can work to stop the demand. These include prayer, self-education, coalition work with other organisations, postcard campaigns to promote legislation aimed to push those who form part of the chain of human trafficking by buying sex, giving public testimony about the link between the demand and human trafficking.

Conclusion Ending trafficking in human persons, particularly for sexual exploitation, is a longterm effort. To be successful, like the widow of Luke’s gospel, we will need the tenacity, perseverance and courage to challenge the socio-cultural, political, economic and religious structures that underlie the acts of human trafficking. God’s justice can be done through our efforts.

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CWM East Asia Region Assembly Hong Kong, 16th-20th July 2014

“Hope in Action�

The East Asia Region met in Hong Kong and engaged in a programme considering what Hope in Action means in that context.

Participants were encouraged to understand the role of the church as walking alongside the downtrodden and marginalised in society, speaking out for the hope not just for humanity but for creation as well. The challenge to this in the East Asia context is great, but each member church was urged to imagine how they can be actors of change in their society all the while recognising that God is faithful and will lead and journey with them.

Hope directs, motivates, stimulates and gives dynamism to the pilgrimage of justice and peace. Our hope in action is the power and energy of a pilgrimage of justice and peace.

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Bible Study: Hope in Action To root out and to Plant, Jeremiah 1:4-10

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Jeremiah was prepared for prophetic mission before he was born. We may assume that we, the servants of the Lord might also be sanctified before we were born or before we became Christians. To some extent we may say that the current context for ministry is but a plan designed long before. If God could prepare and control the ministry and the minister in the past, He can assure the outcome of what we are doing in the future.

This is the basis of our hope in action.

God knew and knows Jeremiah. That is to say, God is interested in Jeremiah and He is also a good friend to him. As a friend who loves Jeremiah, God must have always kept an eye on him and knew what he did, what he needs, and what he can do.

Before you were born I sanctified you; Now God needs Jeremiah to work for Him. The text shows that for this God sanctified Jeremiah “before he was born.” Why is to have been sanctified so important? It seems

being holy is a requirement for the people to get close to God and to receive the divine charge of mission. But being holy is not what we human beings can achieve by our own work. Doing good things cannot earn holiness, for human’s moral goodness cannot be equal to the divine nature of holiness. Making one’s own heart pure does not mean one is divine.

Human purity to some extent has nothing to do with divine holiness. Holiness is a nature of God and only God can confer it to human being. Only with divine sanctification, therefore, can a human being approach God and serve Him. I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

Serving the Lord is a holy vocation and it is given by God only. In this case, it is God who conferred to Jeremiah the title and the mission of Prophet. But why is Jeremiah charged to be a prophet? Why not a king, a pastor, a priest, a scribe or a doctor? To ordain a person to be a prophet God must have a special expectation.

A simple definition of ‘prophet’ is that he or she is the speaker of God. The reason that God needs a speaker might be that He cannot speak directly to the people. There seems

a clear cut between the field of the divine and the field of the secular. Thus it needs a messenger to send messages from the divine to the secular. Then, what shall a prophet say to the secular? He must speak what God showed him. In the case of Jeremiah, God said, “7 You shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak…. 9 Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.”

Now, Jeremiah is charged to work out his prophetic mission to the nations. That means Jeremiah shall speak to the nations the requirement of justice and the warning of judgement as well as the promise of messianic salvation and the hope of restoration. This is to say, his mission is not just to do pastoral care to some persons or to pursue church growth.

For Jeremiah, his mission is to speak for God, not for the church or his country only. He must preach what God wants him to say and not what benefit to his congregation or to the governing class of his nation. Thus, we may read a lot of chapters in the book of Jeremiah in which Jeremiah judged the kingdom of Judah (ch. 1-29) and the nations (ch. 42-51) and some chapters in which he proclaimed the messianic salvation and the hope of Judah’s restoration (ch. 29-31).

Today, we are charged by God too. But what shall we say? What will be our mission? Shall we do personal pastoral care, church growth… only? Our mission and action must include something on a national or international level.

To a greater society we have to speak the divine requirement of justice and the messianic hope to the world. The mission seems too big for us or for Jeremiah to carry ourselves.

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However, in the case of Jeremiah we learn that God elects him and He prepares him to be a prophet for the mission to nations. The mission is not set by humans but it is the missio dei, the mission of God. God has planned His mission and He must have known and provided anything necessary to deal with the mission. Thus He said to Jeremiah, “8 Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you.” For Jeremiah and all the charged, therefore, is nothing left to worry about.

Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms.

This passage shows us that God set Jeremiah, the religious prophet, over the nations; the divine speaker over the states. The status of Jeremiah as the divine servant is set not for taking over the political power or to withdraw himself from all the political issues, rather he is ordained to speak what God has told him to say to the nations and the kingdoms. So shall we do the same today.

To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down.

The text tells us what our mission to the nations shall be: “To root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” As we read this passage, we can immediately learn that the prophetic mission to the nations and the kingdoms include both negative and positive ministries, but identifies nothing of particular benefit to the charged one himself. For the present church, the mission to be set must be for the sake of God only and it should not aim for the benefit of the church.

The negative ministry to the nations goes first, “To root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down.” Then, following are the positive actions “To build and to plant.”

To build and to plant Having moved out the unwanted plant and its sustainer, “To build and to plant” are the positive agricultural actions. The farmer must rebuild the wall to keep the new dirt and to make the new terraced field. Then, he could plant the wanted plant such as the vine or the fig. With the new field and the new plant the hope for the wanted produce becomes possible.

Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you.

The passage also reflects the living context of Jeremiah. He and most of his listeners were living in the high land country geographically where farmers produced with terraced fields.

Symbolically, the passage tells Jeremiah to use the high land country agricultural ways to deal with the nations and the kingdoms. When the nations and the kingdoms cannot have good produce, Jeremiah has “To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”

The message for the present will be that the churches shall launch similar actions to root out and pull down injustice. As we read in 1:9, God said, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.” The prophetic mission to root out and to destroy means speaking the divine words to deconstruct the ideas, policies and sustainers of injustice and then to build and plant, reconstructing with the divine ideas of justice, love, holiness, faithfulness and messianic hope. This is hope in action.

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Opening Worship Sermon Called To One Hope, Ephesians 4:4

“You were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.”

Rev Bettsy Ng (HKCCCC) As we begin this Assembly, reaffirming the fullness of life through Christ for all creation, we are reminded in the Book of Ephesians 4:4 says, “You were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.”

As the People of God, we dare to hope. Even in a time when millions of people all over the world are in despair under pressure from the global economic crisis, disasters, political instability and many are overwhelmed by uncertainty and hopelessness… even when a variety of fears, old and new, grip our minds and hearts… We Christians dare to hope!

This “hope of our calling” is not a wish or a chance or a luck. NO, it is confidence that God will do what He said. This “hope of our calling” is not based on some vague optimism but on a living person Jesus Christ. Our hope is as alive as our Living Saviour!

People today are generally indifferent to spiritual promises. What attracts them is wealth and power in their various physical and tangible forms. But “the hope of our calling” is also linked to ‘wealth & power’ though of another quality, and is unseen!

In his prayer, Paul wonders at “the riches of God’s glorious inheritance” (v.18). And not only riches, but also power, God’s inconceivable power, with unique energy. The fact that you and I are here today is an evidence of God’s power. It is itself a sign of hope!

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Verse 19 says, “And what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might”.

this power, the Church, will express the fullness of Christ who fills all in all. v.23 Application:

This is an energy which is actively working in global history! Because our Living Saviour Jesus Christ is now “above all rule and authority and power and dominion, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

• In situations of spiritual death, the Church must be strengthened with the power that raised Christ from the dead.

The God of the Book of Ephesians is not a physical object of worship like the bronze serpent of the Old Testament. Rather, He is actively working in all things according to His Sovereign Will. More than anything, He is available to us for our experience, both individually and corporately. The Book of Ephesians is not a book of doctrine; it is a book which describes our experience of the Triune God in His dispensing of His riches and power.

This dispensing gives energy to the hope of our calling. God desires to dispense Himself into His people. And this is the core of “the hope of our calling”.

• In situations involving our need to exercise God’s authority binding and loosing on earth that which is bound and loosed in the heavens, the Church must be strengthened with the power that subjected all things under the feet of Christ.

“The Hope of Our Calling” is not based on ordinary power, but on the power which operated in Christ in raising Him from the dead, it is the power of resurrection.

• This is the power which seated Christ in the heavens, it is the power of ascension.

• This is the power which put all things under Christ’s feet, it is the subjecting power.

This power is toward us who believe, it is to the church. But how much of this power is accessed in our daily living?

The surpassing greatness of his power is the energy behind the hope of our calling. With

• In situations involving subtle entanglement with the things of the world that lies in the hand of the evil one, the Church must be strengthened with the power that raised Christ to the heavens.

Sisters & brothers, “the hope of our call in Christ” does not make us romantic visionaries of an ill-defined future. This hope, accompanied by unshakable faith & love, activates all the gifts our God has given us to be a hopeful sign in the midst of struggles and challenges. We need to be a hopeful sign that speaks to a particular situation!

In the context of globalisation, we Christians are called to personally live the “hope within us” and, at the same time, to offer this hope with courage wherever we are. James Fowler (1998) says, “Christianity does not exist to solve all the world’s problems, but to manifest the character of Christ in the midst of whatever problems may exist.”

“Our Calling” is to manifest the character of Christ in any life situation. Our Calling is to believe in Christ, our Hope, and to live it out, to be the People of Hope; dare to be a sign of hope!

Our message is clear: There is hope!—in our struggle for truth and justice…

There is hope!—when we resist all forms of violence and racism…

There is hope!—when we defend the dignity of every human person…

There is hope!—when we insist for unselfish solidarity between people and peoples…

There is hope!—when we fight for uncompromised respect for creation…

In the end, with the power of the crucified, risen, ascended Christ, to whom has been given “All authority in heaven and on earth”, truth, justice and love will prevail! And life will triumph over death! As the people of God, we do not fight for victory, but we fight from victory because of what Christ has accomplished on the Cross!

However, we Christians cannot make this announcement of hope persuasive if we maintain relations that are formal, conventional and distant. We have all been called to a common hope. We do not have different hopes. It is by this common hope that we defined our identity. The concept of Ubuntu says, “I am because we are.”

Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 4:1-3, “1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient,

bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

One Body, One Spirit, One Hope, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God…We are called to be united. An African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, you go alone; if you want to go far, we go together.”

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Opening Worship Sermon continued

One hope in Christ speaks of “Unity in Diversity”. We share different cultures, languages, ways of doing things; we have different perceptions, expressions… but we are called to manifest the one hope in Christ.

Illustration 1: Jesus is the tuning fork, we are the pianos. Each of us must fine-tune ourselves to Jesus the tuning fork to reach the perfect key.

Secondly, unity is not conformity where everybody sings the same tone. Illustration 2: We will have a harmonised singing when everybody sings in different tone and harmonise with one another.

Conclusion The hope in Christ, to which we have been called, provides inexhaustible energy, stamina and creativity for our everyday effort, to which each and every one of us has been called.

Furthermore, it opens our hearts and minds to the end of time, so that we can face up to our obligations with courage and hope. So that we live the local, gazing at the global.

It is time for the eyes of the Church to focus on that which is not seen, but which is the source of our real hope—the ever-increasing work of Christ through the dispensing of the life of the Triune God. It is impossible to see the inward activity of Christ, but it is possible to see the result of this divine dispensing—the oneness (unity) of the believers.

“The hope of our calling” is a corporate hope.

This calling is rooted and grounded in the church’s corporate experience of the dispensing of God’s riches and power. This is a hope that liberates us from all forms of cowardice and fear. We have been called to this one hope in

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Christ crucified and risen. In Him all peoples hope! Every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ is Lord. We have a specific responsibility that is to bear witness to the reality of Jesus’ victory. This must be the centre of our mission.

May the Lord grant us to become more fully aware of the dynamic of this one hope in Christ during the course of the work of this Assembly as we celebrate this gift of ‘fullness of life through Christ for all creation’. And thereafter, we carry it back to our church communities and more widely, to East Asia and the whole world with determination and a humble trust. Hope in action must be continually resourced by our experience of God’s dispensing of His power and riches and strength!

Our message is clear: even in the most difficult situations, we Christians not only dare to hope, but to seize the hope before us! To manifest the character of Christ in the midst of present problems, evidencing His sufficiency in all situations!

We share different cultures, languages, ways of doing things; we have different perceptions, expressions‌

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CWM European Region Assembly United Kingdom, 8th-12th October 2014

“Living in Hope” The CWM Europe Regional Assembly met in October 2014 in Sheffield and took the theme of “Living in Hope.” The theme raises important questions about how member churches can be people of hope especially when the world around feels the opposite. What is it like to be hopeful in hard times, to be God’s hopeful people despite all the odds, and how can we as God’s hopeful people make a difference to people, communities and the world around us?

The CWM Regional Assembly brought together representatives from the European member churches to worship, learn and deepen our sense of partnership together in God’s mission. We shared presentations, keynote speeches, heard local and international stories of how God’s hopeful people are making a difference and living hope-filled lives.

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CWM Presentation Collin Cowan

The Council for World Mission General Secretary, Rev Dr Collin Cowan, joined the European Regional Assembly for the duration and led the Assembly in a presentation of CWM’s global programme and mutual accompaniment strategy.

Setting the Context: A Groaning Creation

CWM is a worldwide partnership of 31 churches in mission whose objective is: “to spread the knowledge of Christ throughout the world, that is to say, to further the work of Christian mission throughout the world”.

• The church’s relevance is at stake

• Facilitate mutual hospitality and a welcoming spirit

CWM’s Strategic Opportunity

• Creatively use available resources for God’s mission

• Social and economic unrest, disillusionment and hopelessness • Environmental degradation

CWM is well placed to live out hope and develop life affirming communities throughout its global membership:

• Relentlessly pursue justice • Listen with respect

• Speak truth in love

• 21.5 million Christians in forty countries

• Live in community with all God’s creation

• Over fifty thousand local congregations

• Ensure relationships of integrity

• 31 partner churches

• Mutual accountability

• Partners committed to the same mission of discernment and engagement.

• Affirm each person’s humanity

CWM’s strategy can be understood with the diagram opposite.

CWM’s Vision “Fullness of life through Christ for all creation”

CWM’s Mission “Called to partnership in Christ to mutually challenge, encourage and equip churches to share in God’s mission” This means: interpreting God’s mission within the context of a groaning creation where people hurt and hope; engaging God’s mission in partnership with others; building capacity for God’s mission.

Programme areas This mission and strategy is lived out through programmes delivered both globally and regionally.

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CWM’s Principles

In the European Region, this is realised through programmes addressing the development of: • Missional congregations, through member church accompaniment and the ongoing relationship with Fresh Expressions, opportunities for mission education • Missional leaders, including an active youth programme, theological roundtables and training workshops and resources.

Globally within CWM there are four programme areas: Mission Enabling supports member churches through their Mission Support Programme, coordinates team visits and has developed the language behind life-affirming communities.

The programme area lives out the agenda of mutual accompaniment and accountability.

Empowerment and Training offers member churches support and resources in a capacity development programme. Particularly addressing education, women’s representation and youth participation.

Justice and Witness stands with member churches in their struggles against unjust systems or circumstances. Its particular focus has been on environmental justice in the pacific, inclusive communities for people with disabilities and to developing resources on human trafficking advocacy work across the regions. This programme area drives the agenda of solidarity and prophetic witness.

Research and Reflect has been working with regions and member churches to deliver theological consultations, aimed at enhancing the theological formation of future church leaders. It is also concerned in capturing and sharing the stories of mission partners and the publication of CWM prayer handbook.

Solidarity & Prophetic Witness

Reflect & Research Enable member bodies to develop missional congregations

Deepen Partnership

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What are we hoping for?

Stuart Murray-Williams

Introduction I am convinced that the ongoing transition from Christendom to post-Christendom is one of the major cultural shifts impacting the church in Europe, albeit in quite different ways in different nations. This transition has huge consequences for how the church understands and practises mission and for its own internal structures, priorities and practices. Church planting is one of the ways in which the church can adapt and adjust to this new environment as long as this is contextual and creative.

The theme of hope is a potent and timely one in a global context that seems rather devoid of hope and in a church context filled with anxiety about the future, at least in Europe.

Missio Dei I regard the emphasis on missio Dei during the second half of the 20th century as a sign of hope and an indication that the church in Europe was just starting to grapple with the realities of post-Christendom.

For many centuries the Christian community in Europe operated with a defective and highly distorted understanding of mission.

Minority Christian communities, such as the Anabaptists, questioned or rejected this approach.

These historic minority perspectives, which once provoked persecution, are now widely accepted, even if the implications are still being worked through. The recovery of missio Dei, initially in academic circles but increasingly at a more popular level, and the ubiquity of the term ‘missional’, have underscored this.

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These are hopeful signs. They amount to a reorientation and recalibration of the Christian community and an understanding of mission that precludes narrow, individualised, disembodied or institutional strategies and hopes.

Participating in God’s mission can lead us to become involved in a wide range of activities: evangelism, working for justice, care for creation, political activism, education, church planting, reconciling enemies, cultural renewal, healing minds and bodies, offering hope and imagination.

But we need more than a checklist of activities.

We need what Walter Brueggemann calls ‘prophetic imagination’ if we are to sustain hope and have a compelling vision to commend to a jaded culture.

Brueggemann suggests that to sustain such ‘prophetic imagination’ we need to value the ministry of poets, who can offer fresh perspectives and counter the dulling influence of what he calls a ‘prose-flattened world.’

The Kingdom of God If missio Dei provides a theological basis for our hope, so too does the New Testament theme of the kingdom of God, so central to the ministry of Jesus. Each time we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are praying for the coming of this kingdom, the fulfilment of missio Dei. This is a prayer of unrelenting hope.

However, the term ‘kingdom’ is problematic in contemporary culture, redolent of hierarchy, domination, institution and demarcated territory.

The term ‘kingdom’ is problematic in contemporary culture, redolent of hierarchy.

How is our understanding of missio Dei enriched by the concept of the kingdom of God, and how does this sustain hope?

• We can be unhealthily fixated on our own organisation, resources and congregations – on their survival or capacity to influence society.

• But the kingdom of God is not to be equated with the church. The church is a sign of the kingdom – a foretaste, a sacrament, a provisional representation, a pale foreshadowing of the eschatological reality to which it witnesses.

• The church is an agent of the kingdom – an instrument of the kingdom, in possession of the ‘keys’ of the kingdom, as it imperfectly but persistently proclaims and demonstrates the coming of the kingdom.

• But missio Dei is not limited to the vision, resources and activities of the church.

This has several practical implications: • It alerts us to the humbling reality that the church is not always at the forefront of the mission of God, but may be well off the pace. God’s kingdom advances sometimes in spite of the church, beyond the church and towards the church.

• It delivers pioneers from the ridiculous assumption that they bring God with them into communities, neighbourhoods or networks and frees them to discover what God has been doing there before they arrived and get involved in this.

• It warns us to expect the unexpected, especially if we read the Bible with eyes open to the many occasions when God’s

purposes advanced through outsiders, those on the margins and other unlikely people, such as Jethro, Rahab, Cyrus, Mary, Cornelius and others.

• It invites us to explore fruitful partnerships with agencies, communities, organisations and individuals who may not acknowledge Jesus as Lord but exhibit ‘kingdom values’ in their relationships, activities and concern for social transformation.

• If we embrace the idea of an upside-down kingdom, this encourages us to forsake the perspective that we need large churches to exercise public influence, well-connected church leaders to gain the attention of policy-makers, or glossy advertising campaigns to attract people to church programmes and events. We might instead prioritise grass-roots initiatives and ministry on the margins of society.

dismantled the certainties of modernity and inculcated a mood of increasing pessimism.

• But neither optimism nor pessimism should be equated with hope.

A community that takes its bearings from missio Dei and anticipates ‘the restoration of all things’ and the earth filled with the knowledge of God need not swing wildly between optimism and pessimism. Hope is related to God’s ultimate purposes for humanity and the cosmos (eschatology in theological terms) rather than short-term expectations.

Our hope is rooted in the resurrection. Lesslie Newbigin responded to questions asking if he was optimistic or pessimistic about the future

Hope So, ‘what are we hoping for?’ Contemporary western societies are not awash with hope.

• The culture of modernity that was shaped by the Enlightenment was very optimistic about future prospects in ways that we now find naïve and difficult to imagine.

Expectations were high that rationalism, scientific discoveries, technological advances and political initiatives would make the twentieth century a golden age of peace and prosperity.

• In stark contrast, the years leading up to the dawn of the twenty-first century were marked by distrust of technology, disengagement from politics, scepticism and deep anxiety as post-modernity

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What are we hoping for? continued

• Trust God for a future that you can no longer pretend to control.

• There is a hope-filled future for you if you are patient and faithful.

of the church in India by saying, ‘I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and therefore the question does not arise.’

This has implications for the Christian community and its witness in Europe – a declining minority community that used to be a majority. Neither pessimism nor optimism are helpful responses.

which requires us to think, act and hope in new ways? Are we asking, like the exiles in Psalm 137, ‘how can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ Are we in danger of swinging, like the exiles, between despair and unrealistic expectations?

Jeremiah 29 contains the prophet’s counsel to them:

• Pessimism and discouragement are powerful temptations for an ex-majority community facing uncertainty in the face of declining numbers and influence.

• Don’t believe the false prophets who promise things will soon return to normal or that your circumstances will quickly change for the better.

• Optimistic predictions of revival and seizing on any indications of renewed growth are understandable but unhelpful reactions.

• Don’t give up, become passive, or succumb to resentment and bitterness (like the exiles in Psalm 137).

Many commentators today, including Walter Brueggemann, have suggested that there is an analogy between our context and that of the Jewish exiles in Babylon in the 6th century BCE, to whom Jeremiah wrote a remarkable letter. Are we experiencing a period of exile,

• Learn to live in Babylon, put down roots, and settle down for the long haul, forming and sustaining resilient communities.

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• Have realistic expectations – sowing and planting rather than an immediate harvest, some growth is feasible.

But the most challenging aspect of Jeremiah’s letter was his insistence that the welfare of the exiles was inextricably linked with the welfare of the city in which they now lived: ‘seek the welfare of the city...in its welfare you will find your welfare.’ A minority community can become fixated on its own prospects and fail to empathise or engage with the loss of hope in the wider society. A kingdom perspective, a missio Dei perspective, challenges this. A vision like that of the new Glasgow stretches our imagination and enlarges our hearts (see “A New Glasgow” in “Alternative Worship” ed Jonny Baker and Doug Gay SPCK, 2003).

Actually, the word is ‘shalom’ – seek ‘shalom’ for the city of Babylon, your enemies. This is an almost untranslatable word. It means peace, prosperity, justice, wholeness, integration, community, joy, liberation, well-being, salvation, etc.

We have the benefit of hindsight as we look back at the exile in Babylon. We know that it was a time of great theological creativity for the Jewish exiles. We cannot yet look back on this period of the western church’s exile, but our hope is in the God whom Jeremiah served and in his good purposes for us, all humanity and the entire cosmos.

In light of this, we are invited to move beyond optimism and pessimism to faith and hope, to recommit ourselves to missio Dei, and to continue to pray for God’s kingdom to come.

How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?

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CWM Pacific Region Assembly New Zealand, 25th-30th April 2014

“Turning the Tides of Tradition “ The theme of our Pacific Assembly was born out of a desire to look at our traditions and contexts in the light of CWM’s mandate to build Life Affirming Communities. Our organising committee believed that we needed to begin to look at ourselves closely and honestly to see where our traditions and value systems can be both life affirming as well as oppressive and unjust.

Dr. Jenny Te Paa Daniel challenged us by suggesting that “it is my contention that so often it is the unexamined or the unduly protected ties to tradition that are either at the root cause or are indeed significant contributors to many of the ongoing injustices in today’s world.”

The Pre-Assembly women and youth gatherings were held simultaneously in the same venue and we enjoyed fellowship together during meal and break times. Both groups presented statements to Assembly that mutually challenged and affirmed us to listen and take seriously the voice of women and youth in both church and society.

The 9 Pacific member churches came together and Maohi Nui Protestant Church were our invited guests. It was a momentous occasion, celebratory, stimulating, thought provoking and exciting.

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Bible Study: At the Well with Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, John 4:1-42

Rev Dr Afereti Uili Jacob’s well, is not just a well but an underground spring. Apparently this spring still exists today. But the fact that Jacob’s well is a spring is something we don’t always know about, because it’s lost in translation as sometimes happens. The people for whom John was writing his gospel, the original audience if you like, would have immediately associated this story with other stories from their past history. They would have known, that the scene at the well is a common scene of romance in the stories of their ancestors. For example, it was at a well, where Rebecca first met Abraham’s servant who was sent to find a wife for Isaac. Also at a well, Jacob first met his wife Rachael. Moses also first met his wife Zipporah at a well.

So when Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well, echoes of romance could be heard in the distant past and we could well ask if our present story was also leading up to some kind of romance. This romantic aspect of the scene at the well would not be lost on either Jesus or the woman. But a very different kind of relationship was being portrayed in John’s story.

In fact the well in the story, is a site of conflict and tension. We can tell this from the opening dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman and because John has deliberately introduced the woman as a Samaritan rather than give the woman’s name.

A Jewish man talking with a Samaritan woman was highly unlikely under the circumstances of the time. Even if we didn’t know the history of conflict between the Jews and Samaritans, we can tell from the story that there were huge

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... she understood that her need for Jesus was asking far greater than his need of her. barriers and taboos that separated Jesus from his Samaritan companion. Social boundaries of a cultural and ethnic nature, boundaries based on religious traditions, and boundaries that are based on gender values etc. Crossing boundaries can be a very sensitive issue. Many people get very upset when boundaries and barriers which they think should firmly be in place, are being crossed unnecessarily or without proper permission; and this is what is happening at the scene by the well.

It would seem that either Jesus was oblivious to the existence of any barriers between Samaritans and Jews, or he was deliberately trying to provoke a response from the woman.

Given that he was very tired and obviously thirsty, we would think that he might at least ask the woman nicely, if he could please have a drink. But no, all he said was, “give me a drink...” very blunt considering the circumstances. But I think Jesus was

deliberately being blunt because he had an agenda in mind. Obviously he was not going to replay the romantic stories of the ancestors and he wasn’t going to exchange the usual niceties required at these kinds of awkward situations.

He was, however, going to address the issue of the social barriers between Jews and Samaritans, taboos that controlled interactions between alien men and local women. Barriers that were preventing him from establishing links with the woman. Judging from the reaction of the woman, the boundaries that defined the way Jews and Samaritans behaved towards each other, as well as how a man like Jesus ought to relate to women, was deeply entrenched in her mind.

What the woman brought to her meeting with Jesus was the normal way people of the region behaved towards each other. So it’s not surprising that she yelled at him in the way she did. It’s as if she was saying to Jesus

“how dare you ask me that? Why don’t you observe the rules of the game? You’re a Jew and I’m a Samaritan. And what’s more, I’m a woman.”

woman. The woman realised that this Jew was offering something valuable that she needed, without her even asking. And all she had to was ask.

The conflict between Jews and Samaritans went back hundreds of years, there were some very deep wounds that would not heal and the only way for these two groups to deal with it, was to put up barriers and to keep out of each other’s way. So when someone like Jesus comes along and attempts to do something out of the ordinary, people would start thinking that he must be out of his mind. Even his own disciples when they returned, were quite surprised to see Jesus speaking with a woman.

But where the disciples were too scared to say what was on their mind, the woman was outspoken and bold.

There, she understood that her need for Jesus was asking far greater than his need of her.

When this happened, the social boundaries that defined her attitude towards Jesus were starting to crumble at her feet. For her, Jesus was no longer just a Jew to be despised, she now recognised that here was someone she could trust and depend on, despite their cultural, ethnic, religious, gender and class differences. Even if she didn’t fully understood the nature of the living water that was being offered to her, it was clear that this fountain of water was beginning to cross over boundaries of discrimination, making connections between Jesus and the woman possible.

These were qualities that Jesus was looking for in the woman. She could have easily cut off all lines of communication by refusing to respond to Jesus’ request, or she could have just walked away from him. But she didn’t, she found the courage to take up dialogue with the Jewish stranger and it’s amazing what a dialogue can do. It’s not as if Jesus was performing a sign with a great show of power, and that all was accomplished in a flash. No, Jesus simply dialogued with a woman.

Even if it appears that Jesus and the woman were neither communicating on the same wave-length nor on equal terms, a level of understanding was developing between them. When people fully realise that they have a need for others just as others have a need for them, barriers that prevent them from coming together begin to weaken and eventually disappear. This is the chemistry that was working between Jesus and the Samaritan

Such is the power of the living water that Jesus gives. Where the scene of Jacob’s well had all the potential to fire up a romantic flame between the Samaritan woman and Jesus, the life-giving spring from Jesus was reaching out in a more positive and powerful way to draw them together in a lasting relationship of trust. The life-giving spring of Jesus empowers people to navigate themselves across borders of discrimination and rejection. It allows men and women the freedom to come together to engage issues that normally would be left unaddressed. Even as the woman became more aware that she was in the presence of a great man, she was never made to feel inferior as a woman.

held any significance for her. When she left the scene at the well, she left her bucket behind as a sign that she didn’t need it anymore.

She took it upon herself to extend to her own people what Jesus had just done for her. And Jesus ended up staying with the Samaritan community for two days. Something that would have been unthinkable only a few days before.

When boundaries that divide, categorise and marginalise people are finally crossed over and washed away by the living and healing waters Jesus offers, the people will be free to live together in unity and harmony.

Where do we see ourselves in this event?

Are we respecting the boundaries that protect the integrity and freedom of people we come into contact with? Are we the healing agents of Jesus’ love for those who are marginalised by social and religious boundaries? Are we crossing boundaries to unite God’s people or are we putting up barriers that turn them away?

Jesus had crossed the gender based border without violating her integrity as a human being. In fact, she was so empowered by Jesus that social and religious boundaries no longer

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Keynote address Dr. Jenny Te Paa Daniel

E toku whanau ki roto i a Te Karaiti tena koutou katoa...

This assembly is being boldly and determinedly aspirational in its focus. You quite unapologetically ask the very Lenten question of yourselves about whether or not you are building life affirming communities and whether or not you are open to seeing what ‘new things’ God may be presenting to you beyond 2014.

Before we can turn “the tides of tradition” we must first consider what requires prior attention. That is the radical transformation of the deleterious ties to tradition. So often it is the unexamined or the unduly protected ties to tradition that are either at the root cause or are indeed significant contributors to many of the ongoing injustices in today’s world.

Let us take a Bible text well known for its idealistic promise of a world where all are equally precious, irrespective of any humanly constructed differences, Galatians 3:28: ‘There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus’. If this is so, how then do we explain the extent to which gender, race and class discrimination, in their various tradition bound manifestations continue to be the greatest stain upon God’s mission fields across the world including throughout our beloved Pacific Islands?

All three of these issues are still deeply embedded within virtually all our social, political, ecclesial and cultural contexts and the injustices that inevitably arise are held in place and protected by the sheer force of uncontested claims about the traditions at stake within each sphere of human interaction.

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It is these claims to do with tradition which then serve to create and sustain divisions.

Dare to notice the extent to which all three of these issues and their associated traditional claims are also deeply embedded within our ecclesial contexts – call to mind the patriarchal ‘tradition’ that only men are called to be ordained as Priests and the racist theological educational traditions which always held that natives were too uncivilised for the exacting demands of professional ministry beyond their own local context. Our unexamined ties to so many of the assumptions and practices of racism, sexism and classism, (all of which masquerade so convincingly in eloquent and often deceptive tradition bound clothing) must first end before we can even imagine ourselves

turning the tides of our beloved oceanic region toward strengthening and celebrating truly life giving and life sustaining traditions.

Let us then return to the word ‘tradition’.

It is as I think you can now gather a heavily politicised word. ‘Tradition’ has become laden with particular meanings and controversies in more recent times as race, culture or identity politics (often presumed to be interchangeable spheres of intellectual enquiry) have come into their own as distinctive fields of academic study which continue to produce controversial politicised discourse.

Jack Balkin (“Tradition, Betrayal, and the Politics of Deconstruction-- Part I”, 1998) asserts that to uncritically respect tradition is also to betray it in at least three senses: First, it is to forsake other alternatives for the future, in the name of social solidarity, or other politicised goals. There is often very little willingness to entertain alternatives to what I have long suggested are traditions particularly unjust for Maori women. On balance I consider my suggestions are instinctively rejected for fear of a loss of solidarity and possibly good order but actually I can see that what is really being feared is a loss of power. This in turn is usually the very limited power held by Maori men. Contemporary demands by indigenous peoples for cultural recognition, sovereignty, cultural rights and so on which refuses to take account of the traditional oppressed status of indigenous women, therefore fails to meet the intrinsic mission or Gospel based test of fairness and flourishing for all.

Second, Balkin asserts that to uncritically respect tradition is also to betray other existing and competing traditions, to submerge and

extinguish them. It is to establish through this suppression the hegemony of a particular way of thinking. Denominationalism springs to mind and so too does cultural imperialism.

are also then used to express the historically grounded longevity of social structures and principles, which organise relationships, modes of production, political authority as examples.

Third, for Balkin, tradition is often a betrayal of itself. To establish and enshrine a tradition is thus at the same time to establish a countertradition. The overt, respectable tradition depends upon the forgetting of its submerged, less respectable opposite, even as it thrives and depends on its existence in unexpected ways. For example, the tradition of the ideal women as virtuous, virginal and then dutifully monogamous to her male only husband implicitly and powerfully endorses traditional and therefore normalised heterosexual lifestyle.

Unquestioning obedience to the teachings of the ancestors infuses this vision of the past with a profound and essential moral obligation. The longevity and immutability attributed to culture/traditions arising lends to both the certainty of functionality, of proven truthfulness and thus of authority. Invoked also in times of crisis, or brought about by social demise or rapid change, the appeal of culture/ tradition is expressed as moral longing and a faith in its promise of moral resolution. But the politics of cultural tradition are usually framed as longing for a particular kind of morality or moral rightness and usually that is the moral rightness of patriarchy.

A case study of this example in recent years would be how the current President of South Africa Jacob Zuma used his own spurious and deeply flawed claims to his cultural tradition by way of deflecting a serious rape charge brought against him by an HIV positive woman.

His was to many South African women and men the ultimate betrayal of the Zulu tradition of truly honouring multiple wives.

It is worth keeping Balkin’s analysis in mind – certainly he is not alone in his assertions.

Many of the contemporary critics of uncritical understandings and claims to ‘tradition’ share similarly incisive views - Zygmunt Baumann, Ernst Gellner, Will Kymlicka, Cornel West and Amy Gutmann come to mind.

The challenge we have before us as agents of the Gospel traditions of mercy, goodness, love, neighbourliness, charity, self-sacrifice, friendship, kindness, compassion, hospitality, generosity, justice is to insist that all of those subtle and often completely unnoticed tradition based practices, understandings, and beliefs which pervade the mission fields into which we presume to enter and which in any way detrimentally affect the lives and life chances of any in our communities, are from now on opened to critical scrutiny with a view to either their abandonment or radical transformation.

In our more common contemporary usage the words ‘tradition’ and ‘culture’ are used interchangeably to refer to intergenerational practices and beliefs, which children learn as normative from their elders in the processes of their socialisation. Tradition and culture

Theoretically then what is untouched is all that is honourable in tradition because it is truly a blessing from God for the well being, for the fullness of life for all and there is so much in our Pacific traditions which is deserving of the utmost protection. We have some of the most

It is worth keeping Balkin’s analysis in mind – certainly he is not alone in his assertions.

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Keynote address continued

prised ‘cultural’ traditions still within our grasp; these are beautiful lived traditions steeped in the most loving, most inclusive, most generous spirited, and most hospitable of practices imaginable. I am thinking here about our faith based healing traditions, similarly our traditions of hospitality, our traditional approaches to environmental protection and of sustainability, our practices of priority communal care for our elders and of our very young, our tribal traditions, our languages, our artistry, music, carving, dance.

These then are the Gospel tides of tradition we must protect but we can only do so with unquestioned integrity if we simultaneously and intentionally commit to radically transforming or radically severing the ties we have either inadvertently or self-interestedly established to those so called traditions which are ultimately self-serving and are therefore neither life-giving nor life sustaining.

Notice those irrefutably harmful tradition based practices, which cry out for human intervention. For example, as long as we are afflicted by the levels of domestic violence among ourselves that we currently do, we will continue to suffer a very serious problem. It is to our collective shame that we are rapidly and sadly, with every justification, becoming globally and regionally characterised as peoples with an unconstrained propensity for violence, whether militarised, culturally sanctioned, institutionally embedded or domestically tolerated. Our homes, our places of work and our churches are too often dangerously unsafe for women and children and all of this is so utterly contradictory for peoples who share similar proverbial sayings based on Scripture, all which are antithetical to violence.

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Beyond the local examples there is the global arena where tragically it is becoming increasingly commonplace to witness the deliberate harming of children. This is occurring through female genital mutilation, female foeticide, child marriage, the forced recruitment and active deployment of boy soldiers, the denial of access to education of poor children, child labour under horrific conditions, the known trafficking of children for body parts and for the sex industry, children living daily in impoverished circumstances, poor housing, poor health, poor prospects and so on and on goes the litany of evil against those who are our most vulnerable, those whom Jesus implored us to care so tenderly for.

The International NGO Council on Violence Against Children has produced a comprehensive global report outlining ways in which all of these harmful practices so often based on tradition, culture, superstition, religion continues to give rise to these horrifying violations of children’s human rights.

Released in late 2012 this document provides us with ample material upon which to base any effective mission strategy.

Similarly in 2013 an independent globally based organisation known as Human Rights Watch published a deeply disturbing report entitled, The Trouble With Tradition, When ‘Values’ Trample over Rights. In this report the authors take serious issue with a resolution passed the previous year by the United Nations Human Rights Council – an agency one would hope has the highest global moral suasion and thus credibility. It warned that traditions cannot be invoked to contravene rights, and even mentions such fundamental human rights instruments as the Universal Declaration

Our homes, our places of work and our churches are too often dangerously unsafe for women and children.

of Human Rights and the 1993 Vienna Declaration, while calling for a survey of “best [traditional] practices” – all in the name of “promoting and protecting human rights and upholding human dignity.”

The report describes in very helpful detail how International Human Rights Law – including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, together with United Nations treaty monitoring committees, such as the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Committee Against Torture (CAT), all insist that customs and traditions cannot be put forward as a justification for violating rights.

‘Human Rights Watch as part of the global human rights movement is not opposed to the existence of customary law, religious law, and tradition; it is opposed to those aspects of either one which violates the human rights of any person including children’.

The task at hand is one of transformation, not rejection. As the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women stipulates, states should “modify” the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women to eliminate “prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.”

What we need to do is join the chorus of voices and join hands with all of the many good and decent and caring people who are working in myriad different ways to ensure God’s justice might someday soon roll down not like a river but as a tidal wave as finally we succeed in identifying and implementing best ways of confronting and eradicating the evil of tradition based racism, sexism and classism in the 21st century.

Now is the time for us all to commit anew to creating and sustaining safe and loving tradition based cultural pathways within our

villages or towns, within our places of work and within our places of worshipping and of community work. These must be pathways which enable women to take their rightful places at every table of decision making and of political influence; pathways which enable us to double our incalculably valuable contributions to the greater good of our fabulously envied South Pacific societies; pathways which celebrate the fullness of the glory of God’s infinitely perfect human creation, pathways along which we can stroll as men and women together in all things, pathways where every tradition is one which enables us all to – act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with God in all we say and do.

Amen.

Questions For Group Discussion.

1. What are the ways in which ‘tradition’ in your cultural context is still used to oppress, dominate or exclude certain people based on their gender, their colour or their sexuality?

2. What are the ways in which your Church as a mission partner works against such injustice?

All worthwhile and enduring cultural traditions have changed or have allowed themselves to be transformed with time and new knowledge and that is precisely the point at issue for us all. Insisting upon immutable concepts of “traditions” which do actual harm merely fossilises society and embeds injustice.

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CWM South Asia Region Assembly India, 21st-25th August 2014

“Church on the Move: Prospects and Challenges in the context of South Asia today” The South Asia Regional Assembly met in New Delhi to consider the place of the church in an ever changing and complex South Asia context.

Participants were led in thoughtful Bible study considering church as an embodiment of Christ, human responsibility toward creation and the church’s role as a witness to justice in response to the increasing consumerism in society.

As well as learning greatly from each other in roundtable discussions and worship, the South Asia Regional Assembly took in a number of cultural activities including a public reception which included performances from a children’s dance group and visits to church projects, such as a Brotherhood centre and women’s project in a slum dwelling.

The time spent together increased mutual accountability and deepened relationships across the Region and was a greatly blessed experience.

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Bible Study: Church The Embodiment of The Liberating Christ, Colossians 1:15-23

By Rev. Dr. James Massey In his letter to the Colossians St Paul makes clear that the members of the Church in Colossae were Gentiles (Col. 2:13). Under the influence of Moses the Israelites started considering themselves ‘unique’ or ‘different’ from other peoples/nations by virtue of their being chosen by God(Ex. 14:16; 24:10;Lev.28:24-28; Deut. 15:16, 26:5).

The ‘other people’, whom they believed to be outside the purview of God’s special relationship, were ‘Gentiles’ for them. This was a crucial point for Israelites because it segregates a large section of human beings outside the ambit of their league; almost everyone who was not a Jew, was ‘the other’ or ‘the outcast’. In his Letters Paul takes note of the serious divisions created as a consequence of this attitude between Gentile Christian Church and the Jew Christian Church. Paul rejects this mindset. According to him Christ has liberated the believers, both Gentiles and Jews, from the powers of the universe and given them the access to God. In fact, the entire subject matter of St. Paul’s Letters is related to this issue. St. Paul in his different letters addressed contextual issues, but he always tried to put the gospel message in such a form, that it touched the contextual needs and helped in solving the local issues and problems.

The core message of the text Col. 1:15-23 is the good news of the Gospel. In the first part of the extract, Paul reveals the true nature of Christ as one in whom “all things in heaven and earth were created”. And in the second part (vv21-23), he assures the Colossians of a perfect ‘reconciliation’ with Christ ‘in his fleshy body through death…provided that you

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continue securely established and steadfast in the faith”.

Largely speaking, the five South Asian countries – Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India – were not politically and socially divided before the second half of the twentieth century, when Christianity was formally introduced to this part of the world.

As a result, the context of these countries carries a number of commonalities, which offer equal opportunities and throw similar challenges before the Church today.

With time, the caste system deepened its roots and became rigidly entrenched in all parts of the society; it also influenced the Christians gravely. One of the larger communities of untouchables in India has recently taken a common name ‘Dalit’ to come under one flag to fight age-old oppression and exploitation in the society. Besides caste, the Church in South Asian countries is also divided according to class and denominations. Together these divisions create a context that is very similar to the context of Gentiles of Colossae, which makes the Letters of St. Paul very relevant to the South Asian countries.

Reflections In the first part of the passage (vv 15-20) St. Paul affirms the supreme status of Christ who manifests God in and through his person. Not only “all things in heaven and on earth were created” in him by God (v 15), but he is also made the “head of the body, the church” (v18) and “through him God was pleased to reconcile to Himself all things” (v 20). It means that in order to seek reconciliation and peace with God, one has no other way but to go through the person and work of Jesus

Indian Christians are not bound together by what is consciousness of kind, which is the test of the existence of a community.

Christ. There is no need to give any importance to any other customs, rituals or practices, especially those that encouraged segregation, discrimination and subordination of one group by the other. A true Christian should never overlook the fact that Jesus Christ is the ‘head’ of the ‘body’ of Church and it is in him alone that salvation can be found.

While referring to the core mission task of Jesus, St Paul used the expression ‘reconcile’ in verse 20 by which God through Jesus reestablished the path to right relationship of the created world with Him. The meaning of ‘reconciliation’ is linked to the whole issue of ‘peace’ on the one hand, and to ‘justice’ on the other hand. The nature of reconciliation does not merely apply to good relations as is generally understood, but to doing away with enmity. Reconciliation can happen only between the parties that were formerly hostile to each other. The pre-requisite of their reconciliation is based on ‘repentance’ and ‘justice’, because without these, there can neither be genuine reconciliation nor peace. Genuine reconciliation actually means complete removal of the root cause of enmity.

In the context of our chaotic world (which includes our churches), this could happen only if the rights of those who are living a life of disadvantage will first be resolved and restored. Restoration of the rights and dignity of the oppressed and downtrodden can take place only when ‘renewal’ takes place in the life of both individuals and the communities.

The renewal of individuals always becomes the basis of the renewal of the community/nation.

It is about such peace and reconciliation, based on ‘repentance and justice’, which St. Paul focusses in his letters while talking about the ministry of Jesus in Christ.

In the second part of the extract (vv 21-23) St. Paul reminds the readers that the seat of hostility to God was both in the intellect and in the flesh of an individual (v21). If therefore, all are equally guilty in their hostility to God, then all stood equally forgiven also in Christ representing them as blameless and irreproachable to God. The role of Jesus Christ in bringing about reconciliation appeals to the sensibility of the oppressed communities of this world (Dalit) because of the encouragement it gives to them. They believe that the inclusion of diverse people would be the hallmark of such a culture of reconciliation. This would stand out as the counter culture over and against the caste-ist culture. Paul’s unbiased approach to preach the gospel to all the people of the world (v.23) indicates the spirit behind this counter-culture and also helps in defining the concept of the Liberating Christ.

This Christ, who made “peace through the blood of his cross” (v20), is the “head of the

body” that we know as “church” (v18) and it is in this light alone that a true Christian should always perceive Church – as the embodiment of Liberating Christ. This is reflected in two other passages in the New Testament: Colossians 3:7-11 and Galatians 3: 26-29.

In these passages St. Paul clearly says that at the time of baptism every Christian ‘clothe(s)’ himself/herself “with Crist”. It is in that spirit that we look at the Church as the embodiment of the ‘Liberating Christ’; there is no disagreement in the meaning of the two expressions. But unfortunately the Christians in South Asian countries neither “clothe” themselves with Christ, nor do they let the Church remain an ‘embodiment’ of the ‘Liberating Christ’. Division among them is rampant in every front; caste, class and denomination. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar could see through this sorrowful state of the Christians of pre-independence India and in an insightful analysis wrote:

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Bible Study: Church continued

The Indian Christian is disjointed – it is a better word than the word disunited-community. All that it has in common is a common source of inspiration. Barring this one thing which they have in common everything else tends to keep them apart. Indian Christians like all other Indians are divided by race, by language and by caste. Their religion has not been a sufficiently strong unifying force as to make difference of language, race and caste as though they were mere distinctions. On the contrary their religion which is their only cement is infected with denominational differences. The result is that the Indian Christians are too disjointed to have a common aim, to have common mind and to put a common endeavor. In short, the term Indian Christians are not bound together by what is consciousness of kind, which is the test of the existence of a community.

Today the situation of the Church in South Asian countries remains as lamentable as it was at that time. It is impossible to find any trace of the spirit of peace there, which Jesus – the “head” of that body – established” through the blood of his cross”. I hope that each participant in the Assembly will reflect in his/her own time on this pertinent issue, keeping in mind the big question: ‘Is there in South Asia, or in any other part of the world, a Church today that can claim to be the true embodiment of the Liberating Christ”?

I shall like to end this Bible study with two verses that were translated into English from the poetry of a Dalit Christian Telugu Poet, Padmabhushan Gurram Jashua (1895 – 1971).

The first verse refers to the caste issue which is a major reality in this part of the world. Very poignantly the post relates his woes:

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Falling short of the Priest’s favour Who survive by sowing seed of fear And say that by birth all are sinners I become an outcaste Christian.

Jashua is most disturbed when he saw the overall condition of the Church that had promised salvation to the downtrodden: Jesus shed his blood for the salvation of mankind But his disciples divided the Church in denominations What purpose did the Scriptures serve?

Which preach noble thoughts and promise heaven on earth.

Jesus shed his blood for the salvation of mankind.

Keynote address: “Church on the Move” Prospects and Challenges in the South Asian Context of Today

Rev Prof Valson Thampu 1. The hallmark of Spirituality is responding to the world in love (John 3:16).

Responsiveness inheres in the nature of God and is alien to idols. God continues to be responsive to a world in need. The needs of the world are situated in lostness. The issues and problems we see are the symptoms of lost-ness, which denote human nature and predicament.

2. Two Biblical Symbols of Lost-ness: The Tower of Babel (Gen 11: 1ff) and The Temple of Jerusalem (Mark 14:58).

Between the Tower of Babylon and the Temple of Jerusalem, which Jesus wanted taken down and rebuilt, what are we to choose? The profound paradox – The Temple reflects human degradation more acutely than the Tower. The shadow of the Temple falls on the Crucifixion of Christ.

The prime issue is that it had become the Temple of Lost-ness. Today doves, tomorrow God. Such a Temple creates the superstition that God lives only on one’s own mountain.

The problem with lost-ness is that there are no challenges or opportunities i.e. missionin lost-ness. Significantly, this crucial insight is placed right at the beginning of the Biblical narrative with Adam and Eve in hiding. Hiding is a metaphor of seeing without responding. The one luxury that the church on the move cannot afford is the luxury of staying in hiding!

3. Whatever God has created is in the paradigm of a movement: life, breath; relationship; family; church. Whatever is infected with lost-ness is stagnant and

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The proof that the church is on the move is that “it sees” what is around it. lifeless. Movement is the hallmark of the church. Responsiveness is the discipline of movement. The proof that the church is on the move is that “it sees” what is around it. The challenge is not out there, it is right here. What is out there are opportunities.

The tragedy is that we are blind, we cannot see them.

4. The Church on The Move: The defining aspect of the church is sent-ness. From a Biblical point of view, the challenge is to be the church on the move. The hallmark of the church on the move is that it is a “seeing church”. Jesus opens our eyes through sent-ness. “Go and wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (John 9:7). To see is to respond. Seeing and responding comprise the dynamism, or mission, of the church.

5. There are a myriad of issues facing the South Asia region such as: caste

problems; human trafficking; predatory development and the affected people; growing inequalities and mounting social tensions; the global spread of terrorism; the intensifying stench of corruption everywhere and many more. There is, however, one issue that I wish to flag tentatively for your consideration, that is the prospect of the rise of totalitarianism in India.

Consider the following:1. The dream run of the BJP (Bharathya Janatha Party). The mass appeal of Modi.

The emergence of the larger –than-life leader, the messiah of the mass. The escalation of existential tension, the cheapening of public life, the rise of restlessness.

2. The visible ascending of intolerance.

3. The carefully calibrated ideology.

Development…a culture of equality…

Equality as the womb of intolerance towards the different (minorities). BJP and the unreasonableness of minority rights.

Hindutva – One Culture, One Language, One Nation.

4. The sudden resurgence of ideology. Mohan Bhagavat – The goal of unifying the masses as the Hindu Nation. The question of our collective identity.

5. The stage is set for the rise of Totalitarianism Consider the witness of history: the violent hatred felt by the French masses for the

Aristocracy at the outbreak of the Revolution.

They hated the aristocrats about to lose their power more than they hated them before because the rapid loss of real power was not accompanied by a corresponding loss of affluence. Wealth without any visible function is a source of offence. We need to be mindful of our public image.

The Most Fundamental Challenge: Our public image is being seriously fouled and stigmatised by ourselves. The awareness of the corruption and decay in our midst. Especially our institutions.

The quintessential mission is what Jesus undertook 200 years ago: the quintessential discipline of outreach (John 15:4) ‘Abide in me and I in you’. To abide in him is to be sent out.

We can worship God in spirit and in truth only by being the church of outreach: church on the move.

The foremost challenge, at all times, is to ‘be’. Only one thing is needed: as Jesus told Martha and as the Spirit says to the Church at Ephesus, maintaining the ‘first love’ for the Lord (Rev.2.4).

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Collection of Prayers from Regional Assemblies

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Prayer “God of hopes and dreams” God of hopes and dreams we come into your divine presence, and though we cannot see you, may we always be aware, we are surrounded by you.

Prayer for the Marginalised Leader: O God, we pray for the people who are living in the margins of society who are oppressed day in and day out. We also pray for Your strength and healing touch for all those who are suffering from disabilities and diseases. We remember the elderly people, underprivileged children and sexual minorities – we pray that You empower them so that they may live in dignity. O God in Your Mercy.

Congregation: Hear us, Your children!

Leader: Our Gracious God, we pray for the victims of climate change who are forced to leave their homelands and seek shelter in other places as refugees. We also remember the victims of lopsided development especially the slum dwellers in the city, tribal communities in the area of rich mineral deposits and the Fisher Folk who are forced to leave their homes and their livelihood due to development projects. Like the birds that have a home in the trees that You have provided, grant them protection and shelter so that they may live in dignity. O God in Your Mercy.

Congregation: Hear us, Your children!

Leader: O God of Peace, we pray for the victims of communal disharmony emerging out of clashes between faiths and ideologies.

We pray for our fellow Christians who are persecuted due to their faith; Grant them Your protection and peace that passes all understanding. We pray for the women and children who are victims of rape, social hierarchy and domestic violence; Grant them protection, good health and justice so that they may live in dignity.

O God in Your Mercy.

All: Hear us, Your children! Amen.

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You invite us to be with you, May your presence be joy, and light, and comfort.

In the simple pleasures of life may we feel your wonder, in the sounds of music and laughter, in the company of friends old and new, in the taste of bread and wine, be known among us.

But also be with us in the testing times this week, in silence and solitude, in our fears and insecurities, in challenge and choice.

So, we gather together, Aware of our faults and limitations, acknowledging our fast failures, feeling remorse for all we allow to hold us back, from fulfilling our hopes.

We ask for your forgiving and renewing love, giving us new hope, new peace, new life.

So this week, may we always be aware we are in your presence, May we bless and thank you.

May we praise and adore you, May we enjoy being with you, and each other, in the name, the spirit and the presence of Jesus.

Amen.

Prayer “What is the colour of hope?”

You are invited to pray using your imagination.

Spirit enable us to see and to sense with our imagination…

Give us a picture of what creation looks like when creation is set free (pause).

Thank you. May we live as though this is so.

Give us a picture of freedom for your people around the world. (pause).

Thank you. May we live as though this is so.

Give us a picture of our own bodies as healed and free (pause).

Thank you. May we live as though this is so.

Give us a picture of the colour and shade of hope from your rainbow. (pause).

Thank you. May we weave this colour and shade and these pictures you have given to us into our lives from these prayers.

May we observe them around us.

May we actively see the colour of hope and paint it into our own lives today – in clothing, food, art, conversation and silence.

Creative Spirit thank you.

Amen.

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Prayer of Commitment Our gracious and loving God, with you holding our hands...

We commit our lives and works to become more responsible to do justice for people whom you love so dear.

We commit our lives and works to have more courage and willingness to serve you in truth amidst difficulties, contradictions and confusions.

We commit our lives and works to become the light of the world to dispel darkness of atrocities in our church and society.

We commit our lives and works to become a channel of blessing for those who do not know how to defend themselves from the perpetrators of their rights.

We commit our knowledge, wisdom and strength for the service of Your people, especially the poor who are robbed of their share and for the oppressed and less-privileged ones who are trampled due to various forms of injustice in the society.

We commit ourselves to be bold like Mary, Mother of Jesus with a vision to transform and challenge ourselves, our church and society from wrong to right. In Jesus’s name we pray.

Amen.

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Benediction May the God of Justice be the lamp unto your hearts and the light unto your paths as you commit to do justice for those who are hungry for food, for those who are wronged and for those who are denied the right to dignity of life.

Prayer for creation Our pacific islands are yours O Lord, And all the seas that surround them.

You made the palm trees grow And the birds that fly in the air.

When we see your beautiful rising sun And hear the waves splash on our shores, When we see the new moon rise We know O Lord how wonderful you are.

May you stand for a reason and may you be prepared to stand like an oak tree; and even if you fall on the ground, may you fall as a seed that grows back to fight again for the cause you are called to fight.

May you go in peace. Amen.

Watch over our people with justice Teach us with righteousness; speak to us daily.

Strengthen us to serve you Amen.

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