The Asian Secretaries
Formation pilot session was held in the Philippines at the campus of Union Theological
Seminary in Pala-pala, Dasmarinas, Cavite from 5 November to 9 December 1977.
Participants came from twelve
national movements with Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Hong
Kong, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand sending a participant
each and Indonesia and the Philippines having two each. Two others — one coming
from the Mission Intern (Ml) program of the United Methodist Church, USA, and
our own Frontier Intern (Fl) from .Indonesia— joined the group. All in all
there were sixteen participants not counting the regional staff, the support
staff and the resource persons.
Lecturers were President Levi
V. Oracion of the Union Theological Seminary, Senator Jovito R. Salonga, Fr.
Carlos Abesamis, SJ., Sr. Mary John Manansan and Dr. Feliciano V. Carino,
former General Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation now Head of
the Philosophy Department, Philippine Christian University. Lectures focused
on Global and Asian Realities, Philippine Situation, Theological Reflections,
Bible Studies, Group and Personal Formation. There were also seminars on the
WSCF in its international, regional and national work, national movements,
administration and finance, chapter building, etc.
The dynamics of the group
evolved from the sense of community that was achieved among the participants.
The participants themselves worked out the organizing of the sessions based on
what has been prepared by the Local Committee. The level of participation from
each participant was rather high and helped in resolving difficult moments
native to a group composed of people coming from different cultural
backgrounds. The Union Theological Seminary community did much not only in
taking care of the physical needs of the participants but also in enlarging the
community by participating in some sessions open to all.
The
rhythm of the five-week program ran like this:
1/ The first week-end was
spent at Union Theological Seminary campus for the acquaintance session and a brief
orientation on the first "Plunge-In" - live-in and exposure in the
rural areas of the Philippines.
2/ Plunge-In One —
participants went to
four rural areas: farmers and fisher-folk,
export zone workers, sugarcane workers and miners
for one week.
3/ Reflections on Plunge-In
One — participants orally and in written form shared their experiences with
each other and derived new insights on their own situations back home.
4/ Plunge-In Two -
concentrated mainly in urban Greater Manila although two team were assigned to
the University of the Philippines at Los Banos and in Cavite
province. In the urban areas, the groups went to ZOTO, slum places in
Novaliches, where industrial plants are located, and campus situations.
5/ Lectures, Seminars and
further Reflections at UTS — this was the time for all the major in-puts.
During the whole period at UTS, there was a lot of provisions for worship,
socials, evaluation and other activities. This last block of time
lasted for two weeks.
6/There was also a post-ASFOR
program in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia Singapore and Indonesia. The idea was
to check on their experiences in the Philippines and situations in their own
countries, and also share what they learned from ASFOR.
The over-all theme for ASFOR
'77 was "Faith and Social Justice". Since this was the first session
of this program, theological and biblical studies focused on the general
theme. It is envisioned that each ASFOR shall dwell on some specific area of
this general theme.
Go to Book 4, Faith
& Social Justice