MS Nepal 2019

“Empowering Youth as Caretaker for Ecological Sustainability,

Interreligious/Cultural Cooperation & Peace in Nepal and Asia”

Dr. Paul Hwang/ Director of ALL Forum

Background

On 25th September 2015, 193 countries of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development which contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The first and the foremost Sustainable Development goal is to “End Poverty in all forms everywhere”. There should not be any doubt that poor nations and marginalized people are more severely vulnerable to effects of environmental damage. Poor people are the most undefended ones when it comes to the effects of environmental pollution, climate change and global warming. It is very important for everyone to recognize that poverty and environmental issues are interrelated.

Climate change and threats to the integrity of creation have become the significant challenge of the multifaceted crises that we have to confront. Climate change directly impacts peoples’ livelihoods, endangers the existence of small island states, reduces the availability of fresh water and diminishes Earth’s biodiversity. It has far-reaching impacts on food security, the health of people and the living habits of growing part of population. Due to climate change, life in its many forms as we know it can be irreversibly changed within the span of a few decades. Climate change leads to the displacement of people, to the increase of forced climate migration, and to armed conflicts. Global warming and ecological destruction become more and more a question of life or death.

Purpose

Facing such serious challenges, ALL Forum realized the need to strengthening our young leaders 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.

The “Moving school” for Youth in Nepal will focus more on empowerment for them in the name of “solidarity” in order to ensure dialogue and collaboration among youth with different background, traditions and religions to find solutions of the problems in their society. It also puts stresses on strengthening the young ones’ Christian identity among Church workers in Nepal in relation to the process of creative intercultural and inter religious encounter.

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 is a dialectical methodology “from below”. As an effective spiritual formation, the Youth Forum places much emphasis on the religious identity amid the all-things-mixed global world. Strengthening the Christian identity of the young is very urgent and relevant because they need to be conscious of their role in peace-building and serving people in needs.

Below are the purposes of Moving School in general:

• 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 subjective and inter-becoming in building their communities where the Spirit of God works. It has a close relationship with practicing inter religious 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.
• Providing “Asian Theologies and spirituality” based on the Context of Nepal: 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.
• Providing Spirit and Ways to Champion for Peace: Aware of the importance and urgency of human rights as a result of peace in many fields more and more, young lay leaders are invited to learn and be a champion for human 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.

Program

Main themes of the moving school: “Empowering Youth as Caretaker for Ecological Sustainability, Inter-religious/Cultural Cooperation & Peace in Nepal and Asia”

Schedule : November 18th to 23rd,2019 ( include arrival and departure dates)
– Arrival : Monday, November 18th – Opening Ceremony

– Day 1 : Mutual Engagement (exposure-immersion)- Tuesday, November 19th

– Day 2 : Workshop 1, Wednesday November 20th – Poverty and Ecological Crisis is One Reality with Two Faces in Nepal and Asia
Morning Session : Socio-political and economic Analysis of Ecological Crisis under the Neoliberalism-led Economy System in Nepal and Asia (local speaker)
Afternoon Session : Practical Capacity Building of Young Leaders to Empower And Support Their Communities in Light of Laudato Si (local speaker)

– Day 3 : Workshop 2, Thursday November 21st – FABC’s CSTs: “Triple Dialogue” and Spirituality on Diversity
Morning Session : Asian Churches, FABC and Triple Dialogue (speaker from ALL Forum)
Afternoon Session : Spirituality for Intercultural Encounter and ‘Full Citizenship’ in Relation to the Abu Dabhi Declaration on “Human Fraternity” (speaker from ALL Forum)

– Day 4 : Workshop 3, Friday November 22nd – Youth For Human Rights and
Inter-religious Dialogue
Morning Session : Women’s Role for Human Rights, Peace and Common Good in the Society and Various Religions in Nepal (Local Hindu, Buddhist, Indigenous Religions, Moslem and Christian resource persons- Women speaker from Nepal if not possible for mobilizing or choosing local speakers.)
Afternoon Session : Synthesis and Integration of the Program (from ALL Forum)
Evening Session : Closing Ceremony and Cultural Night

– Day 5 : Departure, Saturday November 23rd