Report on SELF 2007

From the 2nd September till the 22nd September, The Christian Conference of Asia together with the World Student Christian Movement AP organized a program for youth. This program was called the School for Ecumenical Leadership Formation (SELF).

Participants from 19 countries from the Asia Pacific region, representing their local NCC and SCM movements participated in this empowering program on the theme ‘Young People Working Towards Wider Ecumenism in a Pluralistic Society’. The Student Christian Movement Sri Lanka with the support of NCC Sri Lanka kindly hosted SELF-2007.

The first module of SELF was on the history of the ecumenical movement. M P Joseph facilitated this module. The speaker briefly took us back to how the ecumenical movement came into existence and all the important events that came along with the formation of the ecumenical movement.

The following sessions focused on geo political and globalization situation in the Asia Pacific region. These sessions were facilitated by Carmencita Caragdag and Chan Beng Seng. This module gave an insight to participants about the various political and economical issues that many Asian countries were facing. Carmencita focused on the United States as being the sole ‘empire’ were globalization and its impact on Asian countries were concerned. 

Another interesting session that many participants enjoyed was a session on feminist theologizing conducted by Yong Ting Jin. This session focused on re-reading the Bible from a feminist perspective. Although this method was no longer a new concept to most participants, yet many felt it was helpful and eye opening.

Being in Sri Lanka, many had wondered about the local political crisis that the Sri Lankan people were facing. Rev. Bishop Chikera facilitated the session that focused primarily on the Sri Lankan context: Conflict and Prospect for Peace. This session gave the participants a deeper insight n the ongoing civil war in Sri Lanka.

The highlight of the entire program was the exposure trips for the participants. The group was divided into 3 sub groups. Each group was taken to 3 different places.

1. The tsunami site in southern Sri Lanka.
2. Displacement - this group was mainly exposed to the lifestyles of the people that had been displaced due to the civil war.
3. Plantation - this group was exposed to the lifestyles of the Tamil people that live in the tea plantation area of Sri Lanka.

Visit to a school in the area while on exposure to a tea plantation

The last few days were focused primarily on sharing of the current situation of ecumenical movements in each country. Through this participants were able to learn about various ecumenical movement and its activities in different contexts.

Overall the program was an empowering experience as it was an eye-opener to many social realities that take place in the Asian context. There are many challenges that today’s ecumenical movement face and as young people and future leaders it is important that we join together to preserve the ecumenical spirit in times to come.

Abigail Peter