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FABC
Special Report Since its beginnings at the 1970 Asian Bishops’ Meeting in Manila with Pope Paul VI, the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) has promoted a "culture of cooperation" among the local Churches of Asia. Churches have shared their experiences of pain and joy, their plans and their programs. In this life-enriching exchange, the Churches of Asia are growing into a "communion of communities". The true catholicity of the Church is emerging. Local Churches, as diverse as the myriad cultures of the continent and its peoples, are sharing in the hopes and despair of the victims of society. With all people of good will, Churches are taking up the struggle for a more humane, non-violent, just, compassionate, free, and loving society. For, "in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…and has entrusted the message of reconciliation to us" (2 Cor 5:19). The Churches of Asia are going out into the world announcing with joy the Good News to the whole creation (cf. Mk 16:15). This cross-cultural mission of witness and action can be most effectively lived out by the laity, for they have continuing, daily contact with people of other living religious traditions or value systems. Vision The FABC vision above has been encouraging and facilitating cross-cultural mission and cooperation among Asia’s local Churches. This vision specifically entails the sending of missioners ad gentes and ad exteros: a missionary exchange among local Churches. Interventions and proposals (cf. No. 28) during the Special Assembly for Asia of the Synod of Bishops (1998) underlined this collaboration. The post-synodal exhortation Ecclesia in Asia urged, "the Church in Asia to send forth missionaries", and to foster "the establishment within each local Church of Asia, where such do not exist, of missionary societies of apostolic life, characterized by their special commitment to the mission ad gentes, ad exteros, and ad vitam" (No. 44). This vision of cross-cultural missionary collaboration among FABC’s member Conferences needs strategic implementation. The ideal must generate appropriate programs of action and support. We need to work out ways in which missionary exchange can come to life throughout the continent. We need to establish practical mechanisms whereby the local Churches of Asia can assist each other in ad gentes and ad exteros mission. Over the years we have learned to value the contribution of each local Church. We have discovered that there is no local Church that is so poor that it has nothing to share, and none so rich as not to need the gifts of the others. Each local Asian Church is called to be engaged in the missionary apostolate among those who have not yet heard the liberating and salvific Good News of Jesus Christ (ad gentes), outside their own homeland, cultural milieu and language group (ad exteros). Such mutual cross-cultural missionary cooperation transforms each partner. For each local Church, as both sender and receiver, expresses its evangelical identity and maturity as witness, sign and sacrament of the presence of the mission Dei for the whole world. Gifts are given and received. Genuinely apostolic and evangelizing individuals and communities emerge. Fully incarnated into their own cultures and societies, local Churches become open to other cultures and peoples, and are thus able to resist the temptation of cultural, tribal, religious or political fanaticism. In nurturing a Church truly missionary by its very nature (cf. Ad Gentes, 2), the FABC is making its own the dream of Pope John XXIII’s Council (1962-65). As small communities widely scattered across the continent, the local Churches of Asia face the stark choice of either becoming closed enclaves servicing their own internal needs, or of bravely opening up to the real needs and deepest aspirations of the wider society (cf. Gaudium et Spes, 1). We are being challenged to grow into vibrant diasporas of hope, to mature into an unceasing movement in mission. To do this in the Asian context, Asia’s local Churches need to face the rapidly changing situation in a globalizing world and to respond accordingly (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 37). We shall have to move beyond our ghettos and become leaven, salt and light in the world. Such cross-cultural mission will not be primarily institutional, for the countries and territories of independent Asia have built up their own system of schools, hospitals and social services. We are learning from Churches such as those in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to witness without power, to witness fully and authentically in solidarity with the most fragile members of society. In such ways we can be reborn as pilgrims of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Over the past 30 years, the FABC has vigorously challenged its constituents to ask hard, searching, even disturbing questions about the practice of our ad gentes mission. Rooted in Asian cultures, in dialogue with the great Asian religious traditions, and in solidarity with the victims and survivors of oppression, we must flesh out Gospel values in lives of transparent witness to the incarnate, crucified and risen Word of God. Challenges Personnel: In generating strategic programs from the above vision of "a new way of being Church-in-mission in Asia", we have to face up to a number of challenging questions. The most fundamental challenge is that of personnel: Who are those women and men whose missionary zeal urges them to undertake this task with radical dedication? Are our Churches producing apostles who are willing to leave their own culture, adopt a new, self-sacrificing lifestyle and work in the midst of another language or ethnic group and with people of another faith tradition? Are our Churches birthing modern-day Pauls? Do the present-day descendants of the founding generation of Asian martyrs have the same urge to seek out life’s meaning, and, on finding it, to witness to its truth until death? What in our Churches impedes ad gentes mission? What are our realistic options? In a word: are we listening to what the Spirit is saying to the Churches of Asia? (cf. Rev 2:7). Fields of Mission: The continent of Asia is vast. Over two billion people live in China and India alone. The archipelagos of Southeast Asia have dense populations and unique challenges for evangelization. The reality of the newly independent republics of Central Asia presents the Church with an immediate, urgent and unique mission challenge and opportunity. These Churches are literally calling out for missionary assistance and personnel. We wish to focus our attention on the Spirit-given opportunities, not allowing problems or difficulties to overwhelm us. Mission-in-the-City: Traditionally, Asian Christians have thrived as village communities among tribals and as ethnic minorities in the cities. This is rapidly changing; it demands new mission models appropriate to contemporary urban life. Enormous internal and external migrations throughout Asia have caused an unprecedented intermingling of peoples of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds. Cyber communications have blown open cultural and ideological boundaries. Half of Asia now lives in the city where people have been uprooted from their traditional values. Negative values of the market place, such as greed and acquisition, characterize the globalizing economy. In the face of the ensuing communal violence and brutality, as small minorities, we need to recapture our vision and discover newly appropriate strategies in the city. "Whom shall I send?": We acknowledge the enormous pastoral needs of our scattered Christian communities. We realize that the pastoral care of Christians in a time of rapid social change demands creativity and imagination. However, no pastoral ministry should cater to internal needs alone. The Church is for mission, not mission for the Church. It is not true that almost all Church personnel and resources are given over to the pastoral care of those already baptized, while ad gentes mission across boundaries of culture and faith-adherence receives only a few crumbs from the table? Would not a vigorous movement for cross-cultural mission give new life, hope and a missionary vitality to the enclosed Christian pockets in our megacities? A Transformed Heart and a Converted Church: Any cross-cultural missionary effort depends upon people on fire with God’s burning love, people with a transformed and transforming heart, people with the evangelical spirit of willing sacrifice and joyful asceticism. Thus, a vigorous cross-cultural mission movement among the Asian Churches calls for conversion of the Churches themselves. We cannot remain satisfied with remaining in "maintenance mode". Mission ad gentes and ad exteros questions the established lifestyle of clergy, bishops, religious and laity. We shall have to rekindle our ideals, and rediscover vocation as service. The case cannot be stated too forcefully: we must rediscover the radicality of the Gospel. Networks and Formation for Cross-Cultural Mission: To facilitate an awakening to cross-cultural mission we need to renew the Church: with verve and imagination we need to replace structures of mission established for Western missionaries with mission networks more in tune with personnel from Asian countries. We need opportunities to listen to, and glean from, the experience of individuals and groups with long mission practice. We need to appreciate and learn from the contribution of Asian-born ad gentes missionary societies. We should allow dioceses to experiment with trying to refashion themselves as "missionary dioceses". Even dioceses that are "closed" due to governmental restrictions can engage in mission in other places within their own country. Above all, we need to provide appropriate formation and training in spirituality and skills for the specific vocation of cross-cultural mission. This formation and training needs to be in line with the vision of "a new way of being Church", and conversant with dialogical models of mission. This vision of cross-cultural formation is very different from many of the formation communities and centers for pastoral ministry existent in Asia today. A New Pentecost: In a word, we must pray and work for nothing less than the new Pentecost envisioned by Pope John XXIII. In this challenging task, and open to the Spirit, the FABC stands ready to help spell out the vision, to network among the Conferences, and to encourage and facilitate the formation, training and exchange of cross-cultural missioners, so that Asia may have life, life to the full (cf. Jn 10:10). Recommendations As a practical expression of the missionary dimension of every local Church and in order to implement Ecclesia in Asia No. 44 strategically, the FABC offers to assist the bishops in their primary duty in the sending and receiving of mission personnel between the local Churches in Asia. An Immediate Priority - The Republics of Central Asia 1] Aware of the stated need and the newly-opened possibility of mission among those who have not yet heard the liberating and salvific Good News of Jesus Christ in the Central Asian Republics, the FABC through its Office of Evangelization has offered to support the following pilot project. The FABC-OE will inform interested Conferences of requests for Church personnel from bishops in Central Asia. As necessary, the FABC-OE will facilitate contact between the Central Asian Churches and local Churches in the rest of Asia willing to send qualified volunteers who have already completed their basic formation (Sisters, Brothers, Priests, Catechists, Laypersons). The FABC-OE is willing to put both the sending and receiving Churches into contact with existing training centers for outgoing cross-cultural missioners. In this way all personnel would be sent with adequate preparation (language courses, bicultural skills, mission spirituality, etc.). The FABC-OE will assist both sending and receiving Churches in understanding the ongoing support necessary for cross-cultural mission personnel in the field. 2] It is recommended that this pilot project be discussed by the Conferences. The project could be profitably discussed in more detail at the FABC Regional Assemblies. 3] The FABC-OE will contact and develop cooperation with existing ad gentes Mission Societies, Conferences of Major Superiors and regional networks, such as the Southeast Asian Major Superiors (SEAMS) and the Asian Meeting of Religious (AMOR). Long Term Priorities There are many parts of Asia where people have not seen Christian witness or heard the announcement of the Gospel. Accompanying the above pilot project, an expanding program should gradually be implemented over the coming years. 1] Mission Animation: In order to foster mission awareness, it is proposed that each Bishops’ Conference actively be engaged in continual mission animation and catechesis within its local Church. A comprehensive program might include catechetical modules, publications, pastoral letters and mission congresses. 2] Mission Training Centers: The FABC will encourage the establishment of new training centers, at Conference or Regional level where suitable centers do not yet exist, or the establishment of special missionary facilities at existing centers. Here Asian ad gentes missioners could participate in preparatory courses, and be debriefed on returning to their homeland. 3] Missionary Societies of Apostolic Life: Conferences should take active steps to implement the recommendations of the Special Assembly for Asia of the Synod of Bishops regarding the establishment of local missionary societies of apostolic life in those countries where such do not yet exist (cf. EA 44). 4] Vocations: The FABC-OE will assist the Conferences in promoting ad gentes mission vocations. These personnel, who will not yet have undertaken basic formation, could receive their formation at the newly-established mission centers. 5] Mission Dimension in Formation Programs: The above recommendations need to be accompanied by a full implementation of already existing guidelines for a clear mission dimension in all basic formation for ministry programs at both academic and spiritual levels for every diocese, religious congregation and institute.
Ref.: Text from the Author. Hong Kong, 17 September 2000. Consultation on Asian Churches and Mission Ad Gentes. FABC Office of Evangelization.
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