A Concept Note of Moving School Bukidnon 2018
“Creative Harmony & Collaboration among Asian Christianity and IPs’ Religious/Cultural Traditions for Peace in Asia”

Dr. Paul Hwang/ Director of ALL Forum

 

Purpose

The “Moving school” for Youth in Bukidnon, Philippines, will focus more on empowerment for them in the name of “solidarity” in order to ensure dialogue and collaboration among different religious traditions especially Christianity and Indigenous Peoples’ religions. It also puts stresses on strengthening the young ones’ Christian identity among Church workers in the Philippines in relation to the process of creative intercultural and interreligious encounter. Without a doubt such interreligious dialogue and solidarity aims for peace-building & making in the country and Asia. Inwardly, solidarity should be made manifest with increased laity involvement in decision making at all levels of the Church in order to serve the poor and marginalized people in the country.

 To achieve this goal, ALL Forum will promote various formation programs especially for young lay leaders. We employ the Catholic Social Teachings (CSTs) as main tool, as well as the spirit or principles of FABC like “Triple dialogue” and “Pastoral spiral” which are a dialectical methodology “from below”. As an effective spiritual formation, the Moving School as youth forum places much emphasis on the religious identity amid the all-things-mixed global world. Creative inter-cultural and interreligious encounter is indeed to strengthen the Christian identity of the young which is very urgent and relevant. It is because they need to be conscious of their role in peace-building and serving peoples deeply rooted in their cultures.

Below are the purposes of Moving School in general:

  1. Providing Spirit and Ways to Champion for Peace: Aware of the importance and urgency of protecting diverse IPs’ cultures as human rights to live, young lay leaders are invited to learn and be a champion for their rights. But it should go together with ecological concerns and sentiments so much so that “integral ecology” based on peace and harmony between ecology and human life should be pursued and stressed. It is why Pope Francis has put much stress on the connection or interrelation between “decent jobs” and “ecological sustainability”. Such connectivity reflects well that human world can’t be sustainable unless human concerns nature or ecology first.
  2. Providing “Asian Theologies and spirituality” based on the Context of Philippines: The program will encourage lay people to become good church workers and activists by reflecting their concrete lives in the light of the Bible, their concrete lives reflected in the dialogues with poor, diverse cultures and religions. Therefore, the theologies we mention should be localized and contextualized. It could be a momentum for lay workers to become “contemplative actors” armed with “praying in action”. It is so that the Church of Asia will be greatly helped in her mission. Church workers should work together with theologians, scholars on religions, experts on cultures and many others in various fields, to make Christian theology relevant to the concrete  realities in Asia.
  3. Providing a New Vision and Spirit for Lay leaders based on FABC & CSTs: This Forum will be based on “integral human development” often expressed in Joy of the Gospel and Laudato Si. On the other hand, it stresses the “spiritual dimension” in human development by placing more emphasis on local people’s spirituality, inter-subjectivities and inter-becoming in building their communities where the Spirit of God works. It has a close relationship with practicing interreligious dialogue and collaborations as “dialogue in daily life”, which must be “lay-centered” simply because they are the ones who live out actual lives with different religious followers or non-believers as their neighbors.

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