AYA ATF 2018 - Asian Lay Leaders Forum

Theme: “Towards Improved Conditions and Inclusive solutions for the People at the Margins amid Limitless Development and Ecological Crisis in Asia”

27th July – 5th August 2018

Maryridge Retreat Centre, Tagaytay, Philippines

Asian Youth Academy (AYA) and Asian Theology Forum (ATF) in 2018 will focus more on the issues of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and ecological crisis which has threatened the poor in Asia especially IPs. For this, the meeting place would be in Philippines where many IPs live. The program is to help open up their eyes on IPs for local religious institutions and the societies, as well as the whole Asian as major topics of FABC’s special pastoral areas like migrants, women/girl children, family, Indigenous Peoples, youth and ecology.

What’s more is the fact that Pope Francis announced a special assembly of the Synod of Bishops, scheduled for October 2019, to involve prelates from Latin America’s Pan-Amazon region, that is, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guyana, Guyana, Perú, Venezuela and Surinam. The main purpose of the Amazon gathering will be to identify new paths for the evangelization in the region, particularly IPs who are “often forgotten and without the prospect of a serene future,” and to the crisis of the Amazonian rain forest, considered one of the world’s “lungs” because of some 20 percent of the oxygen of the planet produced by its abundant vegetation.

Facing such serious challenge as well as the neo-liberalism-driven globalization and ecological crisis, a result of especially the former, various religion-based NGOs need to make their workers armed with a wisdom and insight in order to put their ideas and visions into practice at the grass-root level to cope with the urgent challenges. That means these activists should work together with scholars of other fields, like economists, sociologists, experts on cultures and many others, so that they could make their theories tuned well with the concrete realities in Asia.

The format of the AYA/ATF program is Exposure-Immersion; Workshop; Cultural Exploration & Visitation.

This is the final statement of all the participants of AYA/ATF Philippines 2018 program.

Photos of AYA/ATF Philippines 2018 program.