More than 70 participants from various parts of India attended the June 19-21 consultation at the Sophia Centre of the Orthodox Theological Seminary in Kottayam, Kerala, organized by Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and the Vichara, an ecumenical think-tank based in the southern Indian state. It focused on a sub theme of the AMC, ‘Embracing the Strangers and Prophetic Witnessing.’ The consultation sought to understand and embrace the vulnerable “strangers” who can be categorized as refugees, internally displaced people, victims of human trafficking, and migrant workers who are all deprived of their inherent rights and dignity.
As reported by mattersindia.com, participants of a national follow-up consultation of the Asia Mission Conference (AMC)-2017 of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) said, “Our task is to open the closed doors to embrace the strangers, which is a liberative engagement. Contextually, the re-interpretation towards embracing the stranger is not an option, but a theological mandate to meet the needs.” The consultation observed that “Missiologically, embracing a stranger has been taken as one of the mission hermeneutical paradigms in the 21st century. Our understanding of mission has been changing, widening its scope and making paradigm shifts in different contexts. If this shift is taken seriously as mission hermeneutical paradigm in the Asian Churches, it will become a transforming mission not only in Asia, but also all over the world.”
The consultation sought to understand and embrace the vulnerable “strangers” who can be categorized as refugees, internally displaced people, victims of human trafficking, and migrant workers who are all deprived of their inherent rights and dignity.
Source: www.mattersindia.com
