1. Universal Renewal.
The total globe is experiencing cultural upheaval. The future
of mankind turns on the intentional shaping of these forces of
change which are erupting. The global activity of the great nineteenth
century church was a mayor force In occasioning this eruption.
The universal church of today has a clear obligation to participate
in providing creative form for these trends which it has helped
to release. Particularly the church must be concerned with the
human aspect of current world development. Though the church cannot
do this alone, she cannot simply leave It to others. And the massiveness
of her role requires every manifestation of the global church
working corporately together toward this end. The first step is
to awaken and equip ourselves on a worldwide bests for this
worldwide task.
2. Local Emphasis.
Such shaping of historical forces takes place finally at the level
of local community. The basic dynamic in the Church for undertaking
thus task has always been and continues to be the local church.
It is here that the practical aspects of social change are forced
out. The need is for passive, Intensive training programs geared
to the preparation of the local church for its response to the
historical situation. The present apathy, powerlessness, and seeming
Irrelevance of the local church across the world Is due to inadequate
Intellectual and practical tools and methods out of which people
can grasp afresh the meaning of their lives in initiating the
action necessary for altering the structures for human community
in the 20th century.
3. Leadership Training.
The fifty years of church renewal already passed have set the
theoretical context for the missional role of the church. Now
the task is the creation of the constructs whereby this vision
may be manifested in the life and action of the local church across
the planet. Depth retraining of the leaders of the local congregation
Is the foundation of the new missional thrust. Such training must
be practical, offering methodologies of social change, methodologies
for new and effective forms of Imaginal education, and methodologies
In the religious life out of which issues the capacity to stand
In the midst of the demands of the times. The leadership required
cannot be realized by half hearted efforts or compromising superficial
training programs. This education must be radical. It must deal
both In scope and In depth with the human Issues underlying the
present day worldwide social change. It must produce a sensitive,
Informed, dedicated and disciplined leadership on the local level
that is relevant to our actual world and prepared to serve in
it.
4. Action Proposal.
As an effort to meet this need, the Ecumenical Institute, at the
request of awakened Asian churchmen and under the sponsorship
of key leadership within the various denominations of the historic
church in Asia, is conducting a sixweek International Training
Institute for Asian Churchmen in Singapore, August 3 through September
14 of this year. The School is designed to recruit and train local
leadership, both lay and clergy from over eighteen countries in
Asia.
5. Broad Intent.
The Training Institute in Singapore is designed to bridge the
gap between the vision of a renewed church in mission, and the
concrete spelling out of that vision In the life of local congregations
for the sake of the humanization of mankind. It intends to serve
the established church through the development of local leadership
adequate to meet today's complex challenge to the universal church.
The Ecumenical Institute, whether in the United States or abroad
intends to be catalytic In the sense that local churchmen are
equipped to do the work of renewal of the church In their sphere
of action. The aim of the Training Institute is to provide them
with baste tools which they can adapt to their own unique situations
in being the church as mission, to mankind.
6. Tactical Aims.
The broad intents of the Training Institute will issue forth concretely
in the following tactical aims:
a. The participants must become a group of colleagues grounded
in their local situations across Asia who, by virtue of their
work together In the Institute, have a Lifelong basis for
sharing their developing wisdom and being a leavening force for
renewal In the church and the society.
b. Each participant must become highly skilled In effective
methods of social change. He must return to his local situation
fully trained In social analysis, modelbuilding, and strategic
planning for action.
c. The participants must be equipped to plan and execute programs
of mass education. They must be able to plan seminars and training
projects and systematically recruit participants from their local
churches, their denominations, their regions and their nations.
d. Each participant must be able to follow up mass education
with the formation of guilds of awakened churchmen who are prepared
to participate in church renewal and nationbuilding at every
level of society.
e. The participants must become a part of an international
team of teachers who are able to train others within any culture
in the world, thereby sharing insights and wisdom from their unique
situations. Each participant must become a teacher of teachers.
7. Participants.
The participants for the Institute are young awakened churchmen,
who are committed to the role of the historic church in society,
and who have participated in previous courses of the Ecumenical
Institute or other significant efforts in church renewal. The
participants are both laymen and clergy, both men and women. Participation
is geographically comprehensive. Delegates are coming from every
major area of Asia. North East Asia including Japan, Korea, Taiwan,
and Hong Kong; from Pacific Asia including the Pacific island
groups of Melanesia, Polynesia, and Micronesia, Australia, and
New Zealand; South East Asia including the Philippines, Singapore,
Malaysia, and Thailand, and South Asia including every major region
of India, Ceylon, and Pakistan. All come representing their churches,
and were selected with great care by the churches in their regions
(see the attached construct of regional participation).
8. Auspices.
Sponsorship for the Training Institute has been obtained from
church leaders throughout Asia. The list of sponsors includes
both laymen and clergy, Protestant and Roman Catholics. To name
but a few: The Right Rev. Gilbert Baker, Bishop of Hong Kong (Anglican),
David S.C. Chen, Principal, Taiwan Theological College, His Excellency,
Most Rev. Stanislaus Lokuang, Archbishop of Taipei (Roman Catholic),
The Rev. Stephen TongHwan Moon, Professor of Christian Education,
Hankuk Theological Seminary, Seoul Korea (Presbyterian), The Rev,
Alexander John, St. Mark's Cathedral, Bangalore (Church of South
India), The Rev. R.D. Joshi, Bishop of Bombay (Methodist), Dr.
D.T. Niles, President of the South East Asia Conference, The Rev.
Takeshi Takasaki, President of Tokyo Union Theological Seminary,
and the Rev. Yap Kim Hao, Bishop of SingaporeMalaysia (Methodist)
and the host sponsor to the group of participants.
9. Faculty.
The staff of this initial Training Institute will be drawn from
the faculty of the Ecumenical Institute. All members of the Training
Institute staff will have had overseas experience as well as extensive
experience in developing the comprehensive curricula of the Ecumenical
Institute. During the past two years, thirtyfour Ecumenical
institute staff members have conducted 10; International courses
plus many consultations in the theoretical and practical aspects
of church renewal,
10. Curriculum.
Though the emphasis of the entire curriculum is intensely practical,
the sixweek program will include a comprehensive theological
and practical mastering of the wisdom which is part of the 20th
Century revolution in humanness. Each of the ten theoretical courses
(six sociological and four theological) will concentrate on key
Images and models and will be integrated into a total image of
the human adventure. Ten methods courses will move toward grounding
this theoretical gestalt in terms of personal and corporate dedication
to the process of social building, and in terms of viable techniques
of effecting social change. Further, both the theoretical and
practical studies will be tested and implemented through workshops,
labs, tutorials, and service projects in which each participant
will begin the process of application and adaptation of the images
and tools which will be mastered in the formal courses. The attached
curriculum chart shows the interrelationships of these various
aspects of the curriculum.
11. Procedure.
The entire sixweek program of the Training Institute will
be an exercise in corporateness. The participants' lifetogether
will be under a common discipline. They will experiment with organizing
themselves into a mission task force. They will operate as small
cadres In carrying out the variety of activities that define the
school. A common symbolic life will be emphasized. Meals will
be held in common so that skills in serious group conversation
can be developed. The total program will be a laboratory in which
the participants will be discovering in new depth what it means
to be accountable to and for one another for the sake of common
service to the world.
12. Finances.
The International Training Institute for Asian Churchmen can serve
as a critical experiment in the future enabling of the leadership
of the church across the globe. Like programs are needed in Africa,
Latin America, and Europe. For this reason, the costs of the International
Training institute have been kept to a minimum, seeking to show
how inexpensively this kind of comprehensive training can be.
The per student cost will be about $650 for the sixweek
period. This will include roundtrip travel, room and board,
and tuition costs. The attached budget delineates the operating
costs involving administration, basic educational materials, books,
documents, visual aids, laboratory, cultural trips and the like.
All of these are included in the tuition fee. It is important
to note that the governments of several of the participants do
not allow funds to be taken from the country, and further, many
of the participants are on subsistence incomes. Here is an effort
in which both religious bodies and secular agencies concerned
with the human aspect of world development can join hands in providing
the necessary economic enablement