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 Message from the Second Global Gathering of the Global Christian Forum 4 - 7 October 2011, Manado, Indonesia The second international gathering of the Global Christian Forum (GCF) met in Manado, Indonesia, from 4-7 October, 2011. Experiencing joy at being together and aware of the abiding presence of the grace of God, we came from 65 different countries and numerous Christian churches, traditions and expressions. The 287 participants included 18 young adults from across the globe, representing two international student organisations, who participated fully in the discussions and deliberations. This gathering brought together the great streams of the Christian faith, replicating in this way the first international Global Christian Forum gathering in Limaru, Kenya, in 2007, acclaimed as the most diverse Christian assembly in history. We gathered in Manado around the theme of ‘Life Together in Jesus Christ: Empowered by the Holy Spirit’. When we met for prayer and worship, which we did regularly, in plenary, at neighbourhood churches and in small groups, a deep hunger for unity in Christ was both experienced and acknowledged. To a large extent this depth of connection was made possible by the commitment to create open space and a relational community. While the fact that Christian churches are divided causes such a gathering no small amount of pain and struggle, we do not doubt it is the will of God in Christ that we be one (John17). One of the most poignant moments of the four days was a panel of churches and communities that have experienced healing and reconciliation in Christ. These included the resurrection of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in Albania; the Taizé Community; the reconciliation of Lutherans and Mennonites at the international and local levels; and the extraordinary stories of the churches in China and the churches in the Middle East and northern Africa. The substance of plenary papers and presentations flowed out into conversations where participants met in regional gatherings as well as in tradition-specific groups. Bible studies gathered groups of people across traditions and nationalities, as did the larger discussion groups. All this permitted and encouraged the formation of relationships that transcended differences and also allowed for a deepening understanding of ‘the other’. The overall focus of the Global Christian Forum gathering in Indonesia was two-fold. First, the GCF began to engage the enormous shifts in world Christianity. Our discussion included the pervasive consequences of resource inequality and the dangers of inadequate terminology such as ‘Global South’ and ‘migrant churches’. All present recognized that these topics will challenge us for years to come. Aware we were meeting in the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, we were addressed by an Islamic scholar and by His Excellency, the Governor of North Sulawesi about the multi-faith character of Indonesia. Second, the GCF recognized the upsurge of Pentecostal and charismatic movements which celebrate the person and work of the Holy Spirit. In light of these considerations, the GCF asked the questions, ever ancient and ever new: What is the Holy Spirit saying to the Church locally and globally? What is the Spirit’s direction as we seek to be good stewards of God’s creation? The ‘guiding purpose’ of the Global Christian Forum, approved at the first global gathering in Limuru in 2007, is to create an open space wherein representatives from a broad range of Christian churches and inter-church organizations, which confess the triune God and Jesus Christ as perfect in his divinity and humanity, can gather to foster mutual respect, to explore and address together common challenges. Participants in Manado offered the following reflection on the gathering: • We reaffirm the Forum’s guiding purpose. We have heard the Spirit calling us not only to continue to foster respect for one another but now also to move forward together exploring and addressing common challenges. • We express great appreciation for the extraordinary hospitality offered by our Indonesian hosts, and we promise to pray for them as they live in a complex interreligious situation. • We give profound thanks for the insightful papers, presentations, group work, and inspiring worship. This meeting of the GCF focused on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. We discovered a great blessing in the sharing of faith stories and the fostering of a relational community. We were indeed humbled by the stories of the reconciliation of communities and individuals. The gathering became a grace-filled moment in the life of the Church. • We appreciate the leadership of the GCF Committee and are grateful for the exemplary service of Hubert van Beek, GCF Secretary from the Forum’s inception. In particular, we give thanks for the holistic approach that brought together churches and international Christian organizations. The speakers helped deepen our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit as well as assisting our consideration of the changes and trends in world Christianity. We affirm the centrality of Scripture throughout the meeting. In response to these many blessings, we commit to pray for unity and seek opportunities for common witness. • We also commit to renewed attention to the relationship between unity and mission. Disparity of resources and imbalance of power must be addressed. We must also address the need for a broader inclusiveness in our own gatherings, considering age, gender, regions, traditions, ethnicities, and abilities. • We experience the open space in the Global Christian Forum as a gift of God. In a fragmented world and church, this unique expression of unity, embracing the breadth of world Christianity, is a source of inspiration and hope. We believe it is a helpful model for building authentic Christian relationships in every place. We know that God’s Spirit draws the body of Christ into unity for the sake of God’s mission in the world. So we commit ourselves to nurture the Global Christian Forum, as the Spirit leads, as witness to God’s saving and transforming love. Second GCF Global Gathering Information This second GCF global gathering brought together great streams of the Christian faith: African Instituted, Anglican, Catholic, charismatic, Evangelical, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Protestant, and contemplative communities. At this meeting the participants came from 65 countries and all continents. The gathering included 12 Christian world communions, global ecumenical organisations, 6 world Evangelical/Pentecostal/Charismatic organisations, a number of regional organisations, and two global student organisations, the World Student Christian Federation and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. These papers and presentations were presented: Prof. Dana Robert spoke on ‘Witness and Unity in 21st Century World Christianity’; the Rev. Dr Kim Sang-Bok David addressed ‘Trends and Changes in World Christianity’; Mr. Peter Crossing presented the Atlas of Global Christianity; Rev. Dr K. M. George addressed ‘Bearing Witness to Christ and to Each Other in the Power of the Holy Spirit’; Dr Opoku Onyinah spoke about the history of Pentecostalism and its contributions to World Christianity; President Michelle Moran, International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, Rome, described the development of the charismatic movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Participants received on CDs the recently launched statement ‘Christian Witness in a Multireligious World: Recommendations’, jointly produced by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the World Council of Churches, and the World Evangelical Alliance. In the final plenary, the Indonesian host churches established an Indonesian Christian Forum. posted by cbs on Monday, October 17, 2011  Guidelines from the Second Global Gathering of the Global Christian Forum 4 – 7 October 2011, Manado, Indonesia Discerning the future of the Global Christian Forum We experience the space created by the Global Christian Forum (GCF) as a gift from God. We affirm the GCF committee’s leadership and urge them to continue seeking the Holy Spirit’s guidance in shaping the Forum’s future, offering the following as our contribution to this discernment. Sharing faith journeys The practice of sharing personal and community faith journeys is central to the GCF, and we believe it is one of the Forum’s unique contributions to the body of Christ. It demystifies and bridges differences between us, leads to mutual appreciation, encourages humility, and helps us to recognize the work of the same Holy Spirit in each other’s lives. Next steps for the Global Christian Forum The GCF should move to the next level in providing a platform for building relationships. The GCF should therefore continue to organize gatherings periodically, including at the global level, which facilitate sharing theological issues, enhance our understanding and appreciation of different Christian traditions, and offer an experience of others’ modes of worship. And, because our encounter with one another as brothers and sisters in Christ must affect our behavior and attitudes as we return to our own communities and contexts, the GCF committee and participants should encourage regional and national Christian forums, as well as forums for specialized ministries (e.g. reconciliation, healing, justice, etc.). The gatherings of Christians in the spirit of the GCF at the more local level will enhance the GCF mission in the future. Participants Organizers of future GCF gatherings should make every effort to ensure that participants are representative of the diversity of worldwide Christianity and its leadership, in gender, age, economic capacity, physical ability, region, ethnicity, tradition, etc. Special attention should be given to improving the participation of women and youth, including on the GCF committee. We also hope that future gatherings will encourage greater balance in sharing between presenters and participants, and improve translation capabilities to allow full participation of non-English speakers. Unity and God’s Mission GCF participants value the opportunity to take concrete steps toward a greater experience of Christian unity without abandoning theological distinctives and traditional identities. One aspect of this unity is the evidence provided by our shared faith journeys that we are fellow agents of God’s mission, called and sent by the same Lord Jesus Christ and empowered by the same Holy Spirit. We believe that this recognition of sharing in God’s mission must be manifested at the local level, as well, and that the expansion of the GCF via regional, national, and local forums could improve our understanding of unity. These forums should not avoid issues of mission that divide Christians at the local level; for example, different understandings of church growth. We believe that such work is critical in light of the changes in world Christianity. In the pursuit of unity, the GCF should actively seek to include more recent manifestations of Christianity (e.g. independent churches, megachurches, contemporary Chinese churches, etc.) that are not encompassed by common historical traditions. Topical issues We have heard the Spirit calling us, not only to foster respect for one another, but now also to move forward together in addressing common challenges. GCF participants believe that the Forum has the potential to be a space for discussing relevant topical issues, even and perhaps especially where we are not in agreement with one another. To take just one example, GCF participants have questions and concerns about the presentation of other religions within the Forum gathering. We trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to draw us closer to one another and strengthen our bonds of trust and friendship, allowing us to engage matters of theological and ethical difference among us. We believe that the Forum is already helping Christians better to navigate the challenges of a multicultural and multi-religious world. The changing face of world Christianity Over the past century the rapid growth of Christian populations in Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world has shifted the demographic center of Christianity, making it a genuinely worldwide religion. This shift will shape the work that GCF does and the way in which we carry it out. In particular, the significant resource imbalance between Christians worldwide raises profound concerns for both unity and justice. We recognize that Christians are called to serve and to empower the poor, the persecuted, and the marginalized, regardless of their location, both individually and systemically. Structure GCF should maintain a modest, flexible structure and avoid institutionalization. The GCF should practice financial transparency and accountability regarding spending and fundraising. The GCF committee should review its composition and function as it works with and considers how best to support the new GCF secretary. Above all, GCF staff, leaders, participants, and supporters should pray diligently for its work and mission. Manado, 7 October 2011 posted by cbs on Monday, October 17, 2011 GLOBAL CHRISTIAN FORUM, Manado 2011UPDATE 2 WORLD CHRISTIANITY HAS A NEW ADDRESS, A NEW LOOK AND MANY NAMES An unprecedented change in location and composition of Global Christianity leads to profound realignment Manado, Indonesia 05 October, 2011 “The story of Christianity as a worldwide faith is being written before our eyes”, declared Dr. Dana Robert of Boston University School of Theology, as she addressed a group of world church leaders on the fundamental realignment of Christian faith around the globe. “Christianity has undergone one of the greatest demographic and cultural shifts in its 2000 year history,’ Robert said. She was speaking to the Global Christian Forum (GCF) at Manado, Indonesia, which in itself reflects changing patterns of Church engagement. Uniquely, the gathering has brought together leaders from all major church traditions, all theological perspectives and major world communions including the Anglican Communion, the World Council of Churches, the World Evangelical Alliance, the Pentecostal World Fellowship and representatives of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for promotion of Christian Unity. In a statistical analysis of the changing demographics and practices of global Christianity, Mr. Peter Crossing of the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity, told the GCF that a century ago (1910), 66 percent of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, but today it accounts for only 26 percent of the world’s Christian population. He said the “Global North (defined as Europe and North America) contained over 80 percent of all Christians in 1910 falling to under 40percent by 2010”. In 1910 less than 2 percent of all Christian lived in Africa but by 2010 this had skyrocketed to 20 percent or world Christianity by 2010. Crossing, who is a researcher for the Atlas of Global Christianity, said that whilst the overall number of Christian’s globally had remained fairly constant over the last one hundred years there had been “dramatic change in the centre of gravity of global Christianity”. A century ago the statistical ‘centre of gravity’ for Christianity was near Madrid, but “in 2010 the statistical centre had shifted to somewhere just south of Timbuktu in Mali. This 100-year shift is the most dramatic in Christian history,” Crossing said. But one thing has not changed and that is where the financial resources reside. “Finances are still firmly in the (global) North; sixty percent of Christians live in the South, but they have only 17 percent of Christian income,” Crossing said. Crossing also noted that a century ago Christianity was largely a Western phenomenon: “including strong European Roman Catholic presence in Latin America, where few church leaders were Latin Americans.” Today the new expressions of Global Christianity are coming from Africa and Asia. He said the change was most dramatically illustrated by in the ‘mother-tongues’ used in worship and the number of denominations: today Mandarin Chinese is the 5th most prevalent language used to worship God – 100 years ago China hardly registered. (The top four today are Spanish, Portuguese, English and French.) Globally, there are some 41,000 Christian denominations, reflecting “the fragmentation” of the global church, Crossing said. Within these profound changes Crossing said there had also been major developments in existing churches: revivalism, indigenous churches and renewal churches had flourished in every continent but, again, especially in the South. Another presenter, Dr. Sang-Bok David Kim, of the World Evangelical Alliance, told the GCF, that the huge changes in the church internationally meant “Christianity is no longer a ‘white mans’ religion. Christians are now everywhere.” Looking at comparative numbers Kim said Christianity was still the world’s largest faith grouping with 32.9percent of the global population followed by Islam at 22.9 percent. “Muslims are increasing faster than Christians, not so much from conversions, but due rather to their higher birth rate (1.9 percent, Christians 1.2 percent)”, he said. Although the Global North has declined in numbers overall evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic communities continue to grow there, as well as in Africa, Latin America and Asia, Kim said. Kim noted one of the most “astonishing success stories” has been the work of evangelical missions since post World War II and the subsequent growth of indigenous evangelical movements globally. ”Evangelicals numbered 82 million (2.9 percent) in 1960 and they have reached 546 million in 2010 (7.9percent)’, he said. Reflecting on the changes, Dr. Robert said they raise critical questions for all churches: “Contemporary Christians are focusing on mission for multiple purposes – both to recover tradition and to recover from tradition. “Conversations about mission and witness has become an urgent agenda for declining mainline Christians… as they struggle to reframe their identity in a global marketplace. At the same time, adherents of new ministries often see their witness as a recovery of primitive Christianity that challenges the older denominations”, Robert said. Robert opined that “Today’s urgent need for Christian unity does not look like the 1950s and 1960s, when self-satisfied Protestant leaders pushed for organic unity at the expense of diversity of witness. The growth that characterizes world Christianity today means that unity will be taken seriously only where mission is taken seriously”, Robert said. That mission however is varied. Kim noted that “re-evangelization” is the prime task of many churches such as in the Russian Orthodox, which was “concentrating more on evangelization of the 80 percent nominal Orthodox Christians” rather than concerns of proselytism of the 1990’s. And Crossing said statistics showed there was over 1.136 billion hours of evangelism across the globe per year: “enough evangelism for every person to hear a one hour presentation of the gospel every other day all year long”, but “it was mostly directed at other Christians”! ENDS Kim Cain Global Christian Forum – Communications Secretary +62 8219 056 7841 posted by cbs on Thursday, October 13, 2011 Global Christian ForumMeeting in Manado, Indonesia 4- 7 October, 2011 UNIQUE GLOBAL GATHERING BRINGS UNPRECEDENTED NUMBERS OF CHURCH LEADERS TOGETHER FROM ACROSS BREADTH AND DEPTH OF WORLD CHRISTIANITY A unique gathering of the leaders reflecting the breadth and depth of world Christianity will begin in Indonesia beginning tomorrow, 4 October. The Global Christian Forum (GCF) meeting at Manado on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi will bring together all the great streams of modern Christian faith: Anglican, Charismatic, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Protestant, Roman Catholic, mega churches and many contemplative communities. The meeting comes at a time of dramatic shifts in world Christianity. The last two decades have seen the majority of Christians living in the ‘global south’, while much institutional strength for traditional Christianity remains in Europe and North America, but with declining church attendances. In what is only the second such Global Christian Forum gathering - the first being in Kenya in 2007- the GCF will have over 300 representatives from every continent on the globe and every Christian tradition from 81 countries. Coming together in unprecedented numbers and variety, leaders representing 12 world Christian communions and 9 global ecumenical organizations, including the World Council of Churches, the World Evangelical Alliance and the Pentecostal World Fellowship, will sit side by side with national councils of churches, evangelical organizations and mega church leaders from around the world. The Vatican will be represented through representative of the Pontifical Council for Promotion of Christian Unity. The Salvation Army, Seventh Day Adventists, Society of Friends and Syrian Orthodox Church leaders will all be there. Meeting around the theme ‘Life Together in Jesus Christ, Empowered by the Holy Spirit’, the church leaders will explore ‘what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ today. Each participant will tell the story of what is happening in their own context. Members of the convention will also discuss the future directions of the GCF, which has always maintained non-institutional structures and practice. To complete the picture there will be a sessions on ‘trends and changes in world Christianity and sharing of statistical research complied through the Atlas of Global Christianity. The global changes in Christianity is one of the reasons why Indonesia was chosen as the venue of the 2nd Global Christian Forum, as it is the world’s largest Muslim nation but with significant religious diversity, including a large Christian population. The worship life of the gathering will reflect the various traditions of delegates. It will be facilitated of Father Ghislain, from the Taize community in France. · Second Global Christian Forum news will be made public through the GFC communications office. Daily updates will be sent to religious media publications and post on the GFC website: www.globalchristianforum.org MEDIA CONTACT: Kim Cain, Communications secretary: kimcain101@gmail.com.au
posted by cbs on Tuesday, October 04, 2011 |
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