The Church in Asia Gathers
Theme:
The Importance of Family in the Culture of Life
Coverage
of the 8th plenary assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences,
Aug. 17-22, 2004
About 250
Asian church leaders -- lay, clergy and religious -- met in South
Korea in August 2004 to discuss issues around the official theme: "The Family
Towards a Culture of Life," and NCRonline.org provided daily coverage.
The meeting was the 8th plenary assembly for the Federation of Asian Bishops'
Conferences. Read the bishops' message. Read the plenary's final statement
The Epilogue: Features and Interviews
#5 How the Asian churches work: from the bottom up
Reflecting on the assembly now, I have no hesitation in asserting that it happened "the Asian way." The fluidity and easy-going approach was very Asian. It was in keeping with the contextual, bottom-up method, an approach that places greater emphasis on listening and allowing the Sprit the freedom to dictate.
Read
the report.
#4 Technology joins East to West
Technology played a major role in bringing the FABC eighth plenary session to life worldwide on the Internet. This story, in microcosm, is the story of how technology can be used for the greater good of the human family.
Read
the report.
#3 Women confront patriarchy at bishops' meeting
About half way through the weeklong Asian bishops' meeting it became clear that the notion of patriarchy, bitter to some, sweet to others, was going to be a divisive issue. One bishop argued that patriarchy has been maligned in recent years.
Read
the report.
#2 Malone resigns FABC post
Maryknoll Fr. Edward F. Malone, whose tireless work over 30 years as assistant secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences helped bring vitality to the organization, has resigned from the post.
Read
the report.
#1 A lifelong missionary.
The year was 1959, and a young, adventurous and newly professed Ursuline sister, Mary Walter Santer, had her eyes set on Asia. One year after taking her final vows in the Ursulines of the Roman Union congregation, she left the United States and headed off to Thailand to become a missionary.
Read
the report.
Day Eight, Aug. 23
The Asian bishops aim to help families buffeted by rapidly changing value systems
by building pastoral programs for the churches in Asia that form and empower families. The outline of their plan is in the statement the bishops issued at the end of their weeklong plenary assembly.
Read
today's report.
Day
Seven, Aug. 22
Day seven was a
time of rest in preparation for concluding activities.
After six days of discussions,
participants took a day off by visiting Korean parishes, shopping
for some, and rest for others.
Read
today's report. View
more photos. The FABC prayer
Day
Six, Aug. 21
Bishop John S. Cummins has attended the past six FABC plenary gatherings. As this assembly was coming to a close, he was thinking out loud about how this meeting had been different from others. Read
today's report. View
more photos. The FABC prayer
Day
Five, Aug. 20
Day five was
structured to allow participants to continue reflections at their own paces. The conference is about sharing experiences and gaining insights from each other while developing bonds of friendship along the way. Read
today's report. View
more photos. The FABC prayer
Day
Four, Aug. 19
An interesting
thing happened on the way to Day 4 of the Asian bishops' gathering here.
Much of the day's schedule got scrapped in a move intended
to open the meeting to the Holy Spirit. Read
today's report View
more photos. The FABC prayer
Day
Three, Aug. 18
A day of discussion; Asian Catholics are
optimistic people, despite trials and setbacks. Consider the words of Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos,
Bishop of Butuan in the Philippines. He says without hesitation, “the level
of globalization that exists as an empire is passing.” Taking its
place is a new kind of globalization, “globalization as humanity and collegiality
and a sense of one world.” Read today's report View
more photos. The FABC prayer
Day
Two, Aug. 17
The FABC's
8th plenary assembly got down to work today. In his opening address
Archbishop Oswald Gomis of Colombo, Sri Lanka, secretary general of the conference,
reminded delegates of FABC's rich, 34-year history built on the "triple dialogue"
with the poor and the religions and cultures of Asia. Read
today's report The FABC prayer
Day
One, Aug. 16
Economic and
cultural globalization weaken family bonds say the Asian bishops, religious
and laity who are meeting in Daejeon, South Korea. With the focus on family
life, organizers have taken extra steps to assure that lay voices are heard.
Read
today's report The FABC prayer
Background
Information
Past NCR
Coverage of the Asian Church
The
Synod of Asian Bishops
When
Asia's bishops meet in Rome for a synod in April and May 1998, NCR provide
extensive coverage. Read the on the spot reports from NCR publisher Thomas
Fox.
Pentecost
in Asia: A New Way of Being Church
"Thomas
C. Fox's Pentecost in Asia is an excellent introduction to the emerging
Asian Church. American Christians are more familiar with Latin American than
Asia. So I would consider this book essential reading. Fox introduces them
to the vision of dialogue which helps Asia to experiment with 'a new way
of being Church.' I highly recommend this book to everyone, but especially
to students and pastors." -- Michael Amaladoss, S.J., Director of Institute
for Dialogue with Cultures and Religions, Chennai, India
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What is
the FABC?
The
Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) is a voluntary association
of episcopal conferences in South, Southeast, East and Central Asia, established
with the approval of the Holy See. Its purpose is to foster among its members
solidarity and co-responsibility for the welfare of Church and society in
Asia, and to promote and defend whatever is for the greater good.
The
FABC has met in plenary session only seven times. When it meets in eight
weeks, bringing together some two hundred bishops, clergy religious and laity,
it will take up the subject of the family.
The
Asian bishops have long prized the idea of inculturating their churches,
working to build authentic local churches with local theologies. They surprised
many when, in the spring of 1998, at a synod on evangelization at the Vatican
they unveiled their vision of church to the wider world. They called it,
“a new way of being church.”
Essentially,
the Asian bishops said to Rome that the only way to spread the faith in Asia
is to decentralize Catholicism and build models that fit into Asian culture
and are compatible with Asian histories.
Meanwhile,
the Asian bishops said that their churches must live in solidarity with the
Asian poor because Asia is overwhelmingly poor. The means, they explained,
to fighting poverty and other forms of oppression is to work with the other
religions of Asia, which face the same plights.
Visit
the FABC
Web site.
The Past
Assemblies
Read
final statements and reports from Plenary
Assemblies of the FABC.
The FABC
Papers
FABC
Papers is a project of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC),
designed to bring the thinking of Asian experts to a wider audience and to
develop critical analysis of the problems facing the Church in Asia from
people on the scene.
The
opinions expressed are those of the author(s) alone and do not necessarily
represent the official policies of the FABC or its member Episcopal Conferences.
Visit
the FABC
Papers index.
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