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Office of Laity and Family (OLF)
AsIPA Desk
The AsIPA Desk of the FABC Office of Laity is based in Taipei.
It was set up to respond to the need to promote and
hold training for all member conferences of the FABC
towards their vision of Church in Asia for the third
millennium, as a Participatory Church, a Communion of
Communities.
AsIPA Calendar 2009
January to December 2009
Collaborative Research Project of East Asian Pastoral Institute (Manila) and AsIPA desk FACB-OLF
Research and Evaluation of AsIPA process in five countries.
Participating archdioceses & dioceses:
Cheju – S. Korea
Kurunegela – Sri Lanka
Mangalore – India
Nueva Segovia – Philippines
Thare & Nonseng – Thailand
September
AsIPA Training Programme
Sta. Catalina Center of Spirituality, Baguio City, Philippines
14 – 25 September 2009
Details…
October
AsIPA 5th General Assembly
Regional Major Seminary (REMASE), Catalunan Grande, Davao City, Philippines.
20-28 October, 2009
Theme: “Do this in memory of me” (Lk 22:19)
Bread broken and Word shared in SCCs/BECs
Details…
AsIPA Leadership Team
The AsIPA Leadership Team of the FABC-Office of Laity and Family (OLF) met in Singapore Sept 29 to Oct 3, 2008 to prepare, coordinate and edit the final texts of the AsIPA modules. Thest texts are either in full or in part translated into more than 30 Asian languages. The members of the team come from six different Asian countries. The meeting was the last one under the leadership of Ms. Cora Mateo who is to be succeeded by Ms. Wendy Louis from the Singapore Pastoral Institute (SPI) as the new AsIPA Desk Coordinator of FABC-OLF. The next AsIPA General Assembly which is also prepared by the leadership team will be held in 2009 in Davao, Philippines.
AsIPA Training for Priests
A training session and exchange of experiences on the "Asian Integrated Pastoral Approach" (AsIPA) program of the FABC-Office of Laity and Family will be held in Singapore Nov 11-15, 2008. The participants will have an exchange and training with Fr. Jose Marins and his team. Fr Marins is a pioneer in Basic Ecclesiastical Communities (BEC) Approach for pastoral work in Brazil, Latin America. Beyond priests from Singapore, the training is also open to priests from other countries. The main topic of the session will be the role of priests in BECs and BCCs (Basic Christian Communities). For more information, contact the FABC-OLF AsIPA Desk: Cora Mateo asipa.tp@catholic.org.tw or Daphne Leong in Singapore daphneleong@catholic.org.sg
AsIPA Courses 2008
The AsIPA Desk of the FABC Office of Laity and Family announces the following courses this year:
Philippines
Singapore
India
- In India, the Pallotine Animation Centre in Nagpur offersa 40-day in 2004. This year's course lasted from January 8 to February 17, 2008.
There were 53 participants from India and Sri Lanka.
For all these courses, please contact fabc.asipa@gmail.com
AsIPA
General Assembly in November
AsIPA, the “Asian Integrated Pastoral Approach
initiative of the Office of Laity and Family of the FABC, will have
their fourth general assembly Nov 8 to 15, 2006 in Trivandrum, India.
The theme of the assembly will be SCC's/BEC's towards a Church of
Communion.” The conference seeks to study how the Integrated
Pastoral Approach can strengthen the Church as communion, which
effective steps are to be taken for nurturing small Christian communities
and especially how to live the Eucharist and the sacraments in small
Christian communities. The meeting is also supposed to discover
effective structures and plans for exchange and sharing of resources.
Two email addresses have been created for further
contacts and informations: asipa2006@yahoo.com and asipaassembly@rediff.com
More
Report on 4th AsIPA General Assembly
On 8th November, 2007, approximately 300 delegates and chief guests to the 4th AsIPA General Assembly were welcomed in the traditional style of the culture of Kerala by coming into the venue (Maria Rani Centre, Archdiocese of Trivandrum) in a procession accompanied with dancers and musicians. His Excellency, Abp. Pedro Lopez Quintana, the Papal nuncio to India, inaugurated the assembly and delivered the inaugural address. Other guests of honour who joined the nuncio in lighting the traditional lamp and delivering messages were Abp. M.C Soosa Pakiam, local ordinary of the host diocese and Chairman of the FABC Office of Laity.& Family, Bp. Gratian Mundalan, Vice-President of CBCI, Abp. Stanislaus Fernandes, Secretary General of CBCI, Aux. Bp.. Joshua Mar Ignathios, of the Syro Malankara Archdiocese of Trivandrum, Mr. Abraham Arackal, Vice President of the Catholic Council of India and Ms. Cora Mateo, coordinator of the AsIPA Desk of the FABC Office of Laity & Family. Abp. Stanislaw Rylko, President of the Pontifical Council for Laity sent a message to the Assembly.
The inaugural Eucharist was presided over by Abp. Quintana and concelebrated by 18 bishops and 130 priests delegates of the assembly.
The country reports shared on the 9th November helped to review the progress made in the Church in Asia towards the vision of a Participatory Church, a Communion of Communities, articulated by the FABC in Bandung in 1990. The keynote address by Bishop Fritz Lobinger, on 10th November emphasized the ministry of lay people in the building of SCCs (Small Christian Communities). Bishop Peter Kang of Korea spoke about The Multiple Dimensions of Church, pointing out that the SCC is an opportunity to form lay people to participate actively in the mission of the Church. Bishop Bosco Penha of India spoke about "The Eucharist as the Theological Foundation of SCCs and stressed the connection between the celebration of the Eucharist and our lived reality saying that "The Eucharist has to become a reality in our neighbourhood towards social transformation. Fr. Paul Puthanangady SDB, of India, spoke on "Living the Sacraments in SCCs - Initiation into the sacraments and the Role of the SCCs". Finally Fr. Arthur Pereira of the AsIPA Resource Team, gave a presentation on the effective steps in nurturing SCCs. That evening Abp. MC Soosa Pakiam hosted a colourful cultural programme and dinner for the delegates at his residence in Trivandrum.
On 11th November, the delegates discussed their "Role in the SCCs in the light of the inputs of the previous day". Bishops, priests, religious women and lay leaders did some serious and soul searching reflection which they shared with each other later in the afternoon.
November 12th, was a day that will be remembered by delegates for a long time. They visited various parishes in the Trivandrum archdiocese where they were given a warm welcome, participated in the Sunday Eucharist with the local community and shared lunch in a SCC group. They visited families in the parishes, listened to the stories of peoples lives, and learnt how the SCCs have become the basic structure of the Church in the archdiocese which is working towards the vision of a new way of being Church. On 13th November the delegates reflected on their immersion experience and shared how they were greatly inspired by the animating role of parish priests as well as the active participation of laity in the functioning of the SCCs. They ended the day with cultural presentations from their respective countries/regions.
On 14th November they will join in the celebration of the Eucharist at the Rally of SCCs in the Archdiocese of Trivandrum which is the culmination of the celebration of the year of the SCC in the diocese. The assembly ends on 15th November with the presentation of the final statement and the celebration of the Eucharist presided over by Cardinal Telespore Toppo of India.
The assembly has reinforced the vision of the FABC towards building a Communion of Communities. It has effectively evaluated the progress made thus far and pointed out areas for improvement. The delegates present renewed their commitment to working towards the vision of a new way of being Church using the AsIPA programme.
A Short Background History of AsIPA
During the 5th Plenary Assembly the Asian Bishops
expressed the response of the Church, at the level of
its very being, to the demands of evangelization in the
third millennium: the Church (must become) a
“Communion of communities where laity, religious
and clergy recognize and accept each others as sisters
and brothers…it must be a Participatory Church
…” (FABC IV, 8.1.1-2)
Part of this vision on a “New way of Being Church” was
the growing concern to discover a more contexualized pastoral
approach that would take into consideration the cultures and
needs of the local churches. In various meetings and during
visitation with individual dioceses and church leaders,
the FABC OL was regularly requested to introduce and share
materials that would meet the formation needs of people today.
Among the many materials was the approach, developed by the
Lumko Missiological Institute associated with the Bishops Conference
in South Africa. The FABC OL facilitated a number of Lumko exposure
Programs in Asia and discovered that there were many positive responses.
Because of the level of interest in Lumko, one of the workshops at the
5th Plenary Assembly of FABC in Bandung, Indonesia in 1990 was devoted
to introducing some of this material. As a result of the enthusiasm of
the bishops who participated, the FABC OL was requested to organize 2
international Asian level Lumko training courses. The first of these
was co-sponsored with the Pastoral Center Taiwan and was in Mandarin,
the second took place in Thailand and was conducted in English.
In November 1993, a Consultation sponsored by the FABC offices of
Human Development and Laity was held in Malaysia. It was during this
consultation that AsIPA (Asian Integral Pastoral Approach) was born.
The FABC Consultation in 1993 gave a positive evaluation of the formation
programs conducted by the FABC OL and encouraged them to continue the
adaptation process of Lumko materials into Asian context and to develop
its own materials.
AsIPA is the achievement of a long process: As the importance of the
role of the laity became more accepted, the local Churches also realized
there is a corresponding need for lay formation, so that lay people could
play their rightful role in the Church. In some early attempts at lay formation,
the emphasis was on an academic approach which led to the realization that a
different model of formation was needed:
A model that would incorporate the principles of adult education,
respect for the experience of the participants and be open to the real
situation and needs of the local community.
The meaning of AsIPA (Asian Integral Pastoral Approach)
AsIPA is Asian because it seeks to implement the vision articulated
by the Asian Bishops and to face the realities of the Asian peoples
that challenge the Church in Asia: our pluralism, the existence of the
great Asian religions, the vast numbers of young people and their vitality,
massive poverty, the women’s movement, the ecological movement etc.
It is Integral in that it seeks to achieve a balance between the
“spiritual” and the “social”, between the individual and the community,
between the hierarchical leadership and the co-responsibility of the laity.
It is therefore integral in both its approach and its content.
It is Pastoral in that its goal it to implement the vision of the new
way of being Church, and particularly to train lay people to carry out their
mission in the Church and in the world .It thereby constitutes a demand that
priests be trained to encourage the co-responsibility of the laity and to
work in teams. This requires a new style of leadership.
As an Approach, AsIPA is a process of realizing the
vision of a participatory Church. It addresses the entire people of God.
It is a pastoral approach, which is “Christ- and community-centered”,
allowing the participants of training courses to search for themselves
and to experience a “New Way of Being Church”.
AsIPA Courses
Training programmes on international and national level
(for pastoral leaders, priests and lay people) with exposure to BCCs
have proved to be effective tools to see the vision and to acquire the
skills needed in a Participatory Church (e.g. new leadership style,
Gospel based communities, participative formation programmes)
Materials Developed
To date, there are four series of materials with specific
objectives that will assist the facilitators and the participants
in a training course: These AsIPA texts are compiled by trainers
who are involved at the grassroots level. They can be used for
small communities, for neighborhood groups and even for sessions
with larger groups in a parish hall. They are prepared as a guide
for a participatory process and compiled in such a way that with
minimum preparation, a facilitator can use them following the
instructions in the text. AsIPA texts have been translated into
more than 15 Asian languages.
Current Status of AsIPA
The Second AsIPA General Assembly in October (2000) gave a clear
picture how far the effort has gone. It gathered 105 participants
from 12 Asian countries and Papua New Guinea for an exchange of experiences,
to share locally developed materials and to deepen into the methodology.
The Assembly identified 4 main challenges: inculturation, becoming agents
for change, harmony and dialogue, and collaborative style of leadership.
It also recommended that a general assembly of diocesan and national teams
be held once every 3 years to be a continuous forum of exchange and deepening
in the vision of a Participatory Church. The first General Assembly was in 1996
attended by trainers from 8 Asian countries and Papua New Guinea.
An Editorial Board was set up to develop new training booklets. In some countries,
locally produced texts are also being used and through the Editorial Board, some of
those materials are designed to be suitable for the wider Asian formation sessions.
After the second General Assembly, an Editorial Consultation Network was created to
meet increasing demands from local teams.
To date, the different AsIPA courses at Asian, national and diocesan levels
have reached almost all the member conferences of the FABC, in 17 countries.
There are AsIPA teams in 12 countries to coordinate efforts. Six are national teams.
The FABC-OL AsIPA Desk has been taking charge of international coordination and
organization to form the Asian facilitating teams.
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