The partners have agreed to the following objectives:
In order to ensure sustainability and bridge the gap between the senior and younger generation of lay leaders, we bring them together – local Church and FABC officials, and those from other continents in the name of “solidarity”. Solidarity should be made manifest with increased laity involvement in decision making at all levels of the Church. To achieve this goal, we will promote the various formation programs run by us, and promote new ones, especially for young lay leaders. We employ the Catholic Social Teachings (CSTs) as the main tool or methodology, as well as the spirit or principles of FABC like “Triple dialogue”.
Going beyond “classical” missionary activities like giving aid and verbal preaching, it focuses more on “Integral human development-based mission” (IHDM) in line with the FABC’s famous “Triple Dialogue” with the poor, diverse religious and cultural traditions. The IHDBM approach could be a paradigm shift in doing mission by responding to “Right-based Approach” (RBA) in human development fields like the UN’s the Post 2015. This is also a parallel to the “area based integrated development” approach for greater sustainability. On the other hand, the IHDBM stresses the “spiritual dimension” in 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.
When it comes to studying and doing theology, one probably thinks that the job should be taken up only by bishops or priests. Although Asian theologians have focused much on “contextual theologies”, it remains unclear to what extent it has reached the people at the grassroots and how has such theological thinking enabled Church workers to practice their social ministries. A similar question can be posed for the FABC documents and Vatican II Council teachings. ALL Forum could be a platform for lay workers to become such “theologian-actors” as well as be infused with sound theological reflection, that the Church of Asia will be greatly helped in her mission. Theologians should work together with scholars, experts on cultures, actors and many others in various fields, to make Christian theology resonate with the concrete realities in Asia.
Not assistants but partners, the ALL Forum and its partners’ intends to gradually build-up a network of shared resources and capacity for any further assistance that can be offered through this partnership to various levels of the parish, diocese and region. Since local Churches’ situations vary, and are often found wanting in capacity in many emerging Churches, any modules or workshops can be adapted to the local situation.
The concept of the pilgrimage program is to be understood as an “Applied Triple Dialogue”—that is trips to places in Asia where Christianity and other traditional religious beliefs live together in harmony by being well localized or inculturated in terms of dialogue with the poor, culture and religious traditions. On the other hand, it could also provide visits to religion-related conflict regions where the pilgrim witness an urgent need of the Church’s working for peace. The pilgrimage will be divided into three regions: East Asia, South-East Asia and South Asia according to the groupings made.
These pilgrimages will be a “contextualized” trip to improve or complement the current “Israel-and-Europe-focused” pilgrimages, seeking to revive locality and its spirituality in Asia, following the recommendation of FABC (BIRA IV/2, 1985). The ALL Forum organizes such a new kind of pilgrimage in which each pilgrim will experience actual life of the poor, rich cultural diversity and sacred places of various religious traditions in Asia in order to promote peace and interreligious dialogue.
The pilgrimage will have various modules or types, one of which will include a visit to centers or institutions of Faith-based Organizations (FBO) working for social actions in order to understand a right role of religion in the world. Below are some examples of which most people in Asia, including Catholics, do not have any knowledge: