MOVING SCHOOL PAKISTAN 2023
- November 5th-10th, 2023
- Theological Institute for Laity (TIL), Pakistan
Theme: “Synodal Church as Steppingstone for Public Good Promoting Interreligious/Intercultural Dialogue and Cooperation, Ecological Sustainability, and Peace”
I. Purposes of ALL Forum & 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 event-based occasion. Recognizing it deeply, Asian Lay Leaders (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.
II. Purpose of Moving School
Since 2017, ALL Forum has conducted the “Moving school” for Youth in many countries in Asia such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. In Asian context, it is natural that the ALL Forum’s programs put more stress on religious plurality and dialogue among religions and cultures in the continent. Asian Christian youth are living in a complex situation, being part of a minority religion and having such diverse religious traditions including those from Indigenous Peoples’ (IPs) communities and various local cultures including those from Sabah, Malaysia, where the 2023 Moving School is planned to be held in the coming November, 2023. They have experienced and even suffered from denying their own cultures. Sometimes, they feel a sense of guilt because some of their families are a tribe’s leaders or shamans and related to IPs’ traditional religions prescribed as ‘superstitions’ which is not in uncommon.
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