Asian Youth Academy (AYA)/
Asian Theology Forum (ATF) 2023
- August 19th - 29th, 2023
- Rumah Khalwat Tegal Jaya, Bali, Indonesia
Theme: “Gender Justice, Interculturation and Integral Ecology for the Sustainable Future in Asia.”
I. Uniqueness of ALL Forum
Following Pope Francis’ teachings, ALL Forum as a Non-Formal Education (NFE) platform promotes the church of “going out to” the poor and the marginalized. In this, three elements are distinguished: 1) Collaborations among diverse-oriented organizations, 2) providing on-going and holistic programs for youth formation on pan-Asian level and 3) promoting “wider ecumenism”. Put it more closely, ALL Forum is based on concretized and praxis-centered collaborations among seven partners as of 2022: lay-centered theological research institute of Woori Theology Institute under which there is the Center for Asian Peace and Solidarity (CAPS, Korea); spirituality-centered Fondacio Asia, Philippines; Indigenous Peoples (IPs) & ecologyfocused Jesuit Companion for Indigenous Ministry (JCIM, Philippines) & Research and Training Center for Religio-cultural Community (RTRC, Thailand); a lay-centered training and formation for lay missionary (LAMIN, Myanmar) & a lay-centered Theology Institute for Laity(TIL, Pakistan); and IMCS-AP (International Movement of Catholic Students) as a major Catholic student movement in Asia located in the Philippines. Secondly, from its close collaborations of the groups, ALL Forum could provide on-going and holistic formation programs for young lay leaders in the whole Asia. Lastly, ALL Forum focuses on Catholics but is not limited to them. It promotes a wider ecumenical, inter-religious and inter-cultural encounter and learning for mutual growth.
II. Purposes of ALL Forum and Its Methodology
Despite young lay leaders working for “social ministries” have played an important role in bridging Church to societies in Asia, encouraging and empowering them through accessible education or training has not been hardly provided by any formal education institutes in the local churches except some lay organizations. But their supports have often stopped at a short term or an eventbased occasion. Recognizing it deeply, ALL Forum is to provide them with a solid and systematic formation program for them.
ALL Forum is committed to training and educating young Church workers about urgent matters in Asia today such as youth, women and girl children, ecology, migrants, Indigenous peoples (IPs) and other marginalized whom Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) has designated as the subjects of “special pastoral concerns” by harnessing the Catholic Social Teachings (CSTs) and “Pastoral Spiral” methodology of FABC. Especially ALL Forum is to provide young lay leaders with a combined program like Asian Youth Academy (AYA)/ Asian Theology Forum (ATF), “Moving School” for those who cannot afford to join AYA/ATF which has been holding on a national or regional level, and online courses on CSTs, basic theology and lay spirituality especially thrived during the covid19 much affected in Asia.
As an effective and relevant spiritual formation project for young activists, the AYA/ATF places much emphasis on their religious identity amid the all-things-mixed global world. It also aims to make them what Pope Francis calls “missionary disciples” armed well with strong Christian identity with socio-political awareness, socio-cultural analysis and spiritualties from various religions. Combination of AYA with ATF is to be an intensive and effective tool for “witnessing the Gospel” by developing and strengthening the youth’s Christian identity and deepening their critical idea and knowledge on the society in Asia including the matters of interreligious dialogue, peacebuilding and working together for common good knowing Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism and IP religious traditions predominating the largest continent in the world. ALL Forum has done the AYA/ATF for the last 10 years so far. All the three programs are based on theo-spiritual approach as a contextual doing theology, or “theology of relevance” to Asian peoples and cultures.
III. Timetable AYA/ATF 2023
