DAY THREE
Day Three of AMCU V, the final day of the gathering, began with morning worship and bible study led by the candidates representing the Asia Evangelical Alliance (AEA). In true Evangelical fashion, the leader led us in a reflection on the necessity of having a personal experience of being confronted with the reality of Christ in our lives. This was indeed a good reminder for all of us, and I believe, especially the participants who had been trained by their theological traditions to think that there was no longer such a thing as absolute truth. This session challenged us to once again return to the Absolute Truth, Christ the Lord.

The first session of the day then began with a panel presentation on the topic “One in the Breaking of Bread and Prayer”. An Oriental Orthodox priest, representing the CCA, shared that in the past 60 years of Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC), they had suffered a painful inability to share a common Eucharistic table with other members of the WCC. This was, to him, perhaps the most painful reality for the Orthodox churches. The more earnestly one desired unity, the more intense the pain of non-communion was felt. He highlighted how anaethemas had been pronounced in the course of Church history, and that some had been renounced later on, but how these renunciations had failed to restore Eucharistic communion among the communities.

A Catholic priest representing the FABC spoke about the Eucharistic celebration shared in a community as a particular sign of something that “particularises them”. This was extremely thought-provoking, I felt. When a community broke bread together around the Eucharistic table, it was being confirmed in its own identity as a community that followed Jesus. The Eucharistic celebration, he said, presented an eschatological vision for a reunion with all creation in Christ. For this reason, he said, we could be hospitable to other people in many different ways, but when it came to the sharing of something sacred such as this, we had to be very careful.

The third presenter on this topic from the AEA presented his case that ecumenical engagements should focus on prayer rather than the primacy of the Eucharistic celebration. He also asked for a focus on Scripture, since this was something all Christians had in common. His arguments were understandable, given that he was a Pentecostal-Evangelical. However, such a conviction would not necessarily sit well with the Catholics and Orthodox Christians, and a greater sensitivity to what we held as being of importance might have been in better order. Then again, the Evangelicals could say the same of our insistence of the Eucharistic celebration as the summit of our union.

When the time was open for discussion, it was apparent that for Protestants the Eucharistic celebration and holy communion was a means to unity, whereas for the Catholics (and perhaps the Orthodox) it was a sign of a full unity that (should have) already existed. The Protestant contribution to this discussion seemed to be “To each his own”, for they did not mind that there were various interpretations for the Eucharistic celebration and did not see it as a hindrance to inter-communion. At times such as this, some non-Catholic brothers and sisters seemed very bent on the right to personal opinions in the teachings of the faith, preferring to leave such issues fluid and relative. Inasmuch as there existed the temptation to reduce everything to the lowest common denominator in the interest of relational friendliness, it was precisely the wrongness of doing so that rendered full communion impossible for now. This was made clear; subtle but clear.

Just after the morning tea break, the Apostolic Nuncio to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand, Archbishop Giovanni d'Aniello, dropped by to visit the gathering and to briefly address the participants. It was an encouraging moment having the papal representative of this territory in our midst.

After that, the discussion rested on another topic dealing with challenges to our fellowship in Christ: care for creation. The presenter, a candidate from the AEA, presented his argument against the idea of the world as a sinking ship. He also described how the idea of perichoresis had to be integrated into our thoughts on creation. Using his local example, he cited the case of the 300 million middle-class citizens of India exploiting creation for personal financial gains. Obviously, a problem of stewardship of creation existed before us which required a solution.

A Catholic bishop, during the time allocated for responses, commented that God created man on the sixth day because if he had created man on the first day, man would have been dead by the second day. This was his way of illustrating how mankind was dependent on creation for our survival. He suggested that we should have a special ministry to the care of creation. Various other participants also contributed their views that creation should be seen as sacred. Many situational examples from various countries around the world were given.

After lunch, the participants were divided into the three main groups they represented, FABC, CCA, and AEA-APS, in order to discuss possible action plans for responses to the various concerns that had been raised throughout this AMCU V gathering.

The CCA participants expressed a deep appreciation of this gathering, especially in terms of the trust and honesty that they experienced in this meeting. They would think further about staffing and resources to support future AMCU gatherings as much as possible. The CCA participants would also like to share models of problem-solving for specific issues with other AMCU participants in the coming years. They proposed that the Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS) and Asia Conference of Theological Students (ACTS) could become the think-tanks for these ecumenical efforts.

The FABC participants would like to take the experiences from the AMCU gatherings to their respective local bishops’ conferences. They would also like to cultivate a creation-theology spirituality among the lay faithful of the Catholic Church in time to come, which would also pertain to the option for the poor. The FABC group also affirmed that the relationality which had developed among the participants of AMCU had helped them to have an openness to listen and try to understand one another’s faith convictions. It was acknowledged that the lay faithful of the Catholic Church in Asia needed much formation on ecumenism and what it meant.

The AEA would like to initiate a dialogue between the Pentecostals and Evangelicals to promote mutual understanding. They would also like to organise prayer events for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. They requested that the FABC and CCA include them in various programmes and activities. They also felt it necessary to develop more concrete strategies to address social issues, and to work on them together with the other Christian groups.

The AMCU gathering officially ended with the evening prayer followed by a sumptuous Thai dinner at the dining hall. The next AMCU would be in 2013.