WSCF - The Current Generation and Perspectives

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WSCF - The Current Generation and Perspectives

By Amanda Tibbey

It is indeed an honor to present something of the perspectives of the current Asia-Pacific Regional Committee to you, members and friends of the Federation spanning many years of service, dedication and commitment. I know that many of you have contributed some greatly, to financing your visit to Bangkok, which is of great assistance to the Federation and to CCA. May we thank you for your commitment in that and pledge ourselves to use our time wisely to the glory of God and to creatively furthering the mission of God in the university context through the WSCF and national SCM groups.

I will speak mainly from the perspective of one who became involved with WSCF A-P when appointed as student vice-chairperson of the region in 1979, serving for two years, then being elected as chairperson in 1991, re-elected in 1994 and serving until the next regional committee in August 1995. At the national level, I joined the Australian SCM as a student in late 1977, served as part-time staff in 1979-80 and as national chairperson in 1986-87.

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Our Theology and Context

One of my favorite hymns, which I first heard in the SCM, was Lord of the Dance, the chorus of which says:

'Dance then, wherever you may be.

I am the Lord of the dance, ' says he.

'And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be

and I'll lead you all in the dance,' says he.

This hymn images God as leading us in a dance, which may take us through fire, terror, sweetness and joy. At a WSCF meeting in Indonesia, this powerful image was enriched for me when a person from India talked about an image of Christ on the cross he had seen in India, where Christ is on the Cross-, but surrounded by fire and light and has one leg lifted, as if dancing. The understanding of God that I hope we in the WSCF are able to impart to students is an image of God who is with us, who leads us in a dance, who loves us deeply, who suffers when the little ones suffer, who is present in our pain and in our human struggles with and for the fisher folk, the dalits, women workers, people with AIDS, for forests instead of wood chips, for food instead of weapons, for development which serves people, for knowledge instead of propaganda and ultimately for life, not death. It is powerfully opposed to an understanding of a God who is a patriarch, impartial, a remote judge, a ruler before whom we must grovel, who beats us into submission. It asserts that the God who is revealed in the Bible, through the tradition of the church and the lived experience of Christians today is a God of love, who gathers us tenderly, who radiates measureless love, who worries over all of humanity and the whole earth and who leads us in the dance. It is a perspective, which takes the incarnation and its meaning for us today seriously.

Does it matter what our ideas about God are? I think it matters a lot, because these ideas shape our understanding of who we are,

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how we relate to God and to each other. Our programs are hinged around these concerns, which affect the way in which we do bible study, how we struggle to contextualize theology, how we worship, how do we do SCM business and how we relate to the world.

An incarnational theology and way of life will be, by definition, messy, not perfectly ordered, sometimes rash, sometimes bloodied and struggling, but always engaged and involved, which is how we believe Jesus leads us to be fully part of this world God made and engaged in its struggles.

SCMers these days, as in days gone by, are very interested in being part of movements, which promote the participation of God's people in decisions, which affect us. The worldly dynamic of power in fact actively excludes all who do not conform to the notions of correctness held by the powerful. In our different national contexts, this may mean workers, indigenous people, women, disabled people, gays and lesbians, migrant workers, prisoners, people of different ethnic or regional origins. Such people are squeezed out of the decision-making process, pushed to the fringes, left out, excluded. At the vortex of power, this means that only white, middle-class males with certain political views are allowed by the powerful to feel good about themselves. The rest of us have to feel inferior in different ways and as though we do not conform to expectations for one reason or another. This is so if we consider global dynamics in the churches and society and in our national and local situations.

This is also true on the campuses. Students increasingly feel the pressure to conform as the range of academic staff is narrowed, the more progressive staff squeezed out, universities privatized, better funding given to faculties which can provide products (usually scientific) which can provide dividends to large corporations, higher tuition fees demanded, more work given to

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students, fewer employment opportunities available and so on, all of which make it somewhat dangerous to be a free thinker or to question the status quo too closely. This has long been the case in most of Asia, but I believe that it is increasingly the case in countries like Australia, Aotearoa / New Zealand and Japan as well.

In some countries, the state and its military and police brutally suppress students, as in Burma, for example. Nevertheless, it is not only the naked brutality of military regimes, which controls populations today, but also the logic of the marketplace. Economic rationalism and technological developments such as satellites and the information superhighway are making concepts such as democracy and participation seem passé and increasingly unattainable really at precisely the time that the demand for real democracy is getting stronger. What is offered instead, by way of a sweetener, is a reward system for those who conform to the logic of power, namely - money, greater power, access to opportunities and the like.

In this context, the SCMs around the region are usually counter cultural. Indeed, at its best, I believe that the SCM helps people to live enmeshed in the suffering, struggles and glories of those who the church too often leaves outside its doors: those who are on the fringe, marginalized. At its worst, the SCM probably produces people who are untouched. Perhaps somewhere in the middle are those who, having been given tools of analysis and opportunities feel superior to the churches. It is true that once the mystique of the church is uncovered (like the emperor with no clothes), by a fuller understanding of the heart of God's mission, it is impossible to continue to blindly obey the hierarchies with which our churches are blessed or cursed. But on the other hand, the church has, in the SCMers, a cadre of people who are trained from the head and the heart to, give all to being disciples in the world. These young people are active in our churches, in people's movements and in the academe, participating in God’s work of making all things new.

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In most countries, the SCM is still a strong and vital training ground either for those who end up living lives of service to the marginalized, through the churches, the academe or in society in general. How does it happen that so many SCM students end up choosing costly, risky, or groundbreaking activities or lives? Sometimes we could be forgiven for thinking that it almost happens by osmosis, in that students are drawn together, in an atmosphere of freedom and learning and learn from each other as well as from the wider community of senior friends. This is true to some extent. If each of us looks back, we can see certain people in the SCM who inspired and encouraged us by their friendship and example. Many of those friendships continue down through the years, richly fertilizing the churches, the academe and society in general. That certain spark is special and immeasurable and, I believe, is otherwise known as the Holy Spirit, that fire, wind, dove, comforter and still small voice within.

However, the other part of the equation is the patient hard work of the staff and members of the movement who work, sometimes against tremendous odds and under great pressure, to ensure that students are presented with a concept of the discipline, demands and celebration of the Christian life, challenge, friendship and camaraderie.

Renewal of the Churches

After the WCC Assembly in 1991, I was asked to work in Sydney with two groups of church youth in workshops. When they were asked to use their imaginations and to draw the way they would like the church to be, it was amazing the number who drew a picture of the walls of the church being taken out and the church opening up to all that is beyond its walls. I am sure that that is

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how we would all like our churches to be responsive to the needs of others, in dialogue with those around us and involved in matters, which affect society. Instead, sometimes we are stuck with what one CCA resource person recently called mission compound type churches, where the walls are built higher and higher, the barriers to membership made greater and greater, the burden of belonging heavier and heavier. The WSCF needs to work with the liberational feelings and desires of church youth and give them opportunities to deepen and widen their reflections and perceptions.

The SCM is called to participate in the renewal of the churches. This is not always easy. It often seems to happen (in Australia at least and I suspect elsewhere) that the agenda of SCM becomes the agenda of the churches about ten years later. Why is that? Is it because the same people who made up the SCM became active in their churches and were finally allowed to have a voice in their churches when they reached the respectable age of thirty or forty or got married, or is it because the SCM is open to read the signs of the times before the churches are? Perhaps, it is a bit of both. Unfortunately, that often makes the interaction between SCM members and the churches uncomfortable, because the SCMers are perceived by church heavyweights as being too radical. Notice that the church never thinks it is too conservative!

Priorities of the WSCF Asia-Pacific

Women's Participation

So, what is the WSCF doing in the Asia-Pacific today? What are its priorities? In the last 15 years, I believe we have seen an enormous change in style of the WSCF Asia-Pacific, particularly manifest in the time of Ting Jin and now continued with Wai Ching in forms of women's participation in WSCF Asia-Pacific. Because we said that, it is important for women to be involved in

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the Federation at all levels, and decided to structure that into the way in which we operate, very intentionally, there are many more women now who are given opportunities to travel, attend meetings, take a representative role, speak and participate in all ways. This has required structured work, to overcome centuries of men in decision – making roles thinking men who are highly qualified and more valuable than women are.

For example, we have a rule in this region that within a four year period, a movement must send as many women as men to international meetings. If the movement cannot nominate women, we have refused to accept the nomination. This is a hard-line stand, you may say, but because full participation of women is a matter of justice, it is a stand decided upon by the region and which is bearing fruit in terms of sharing opportunities much more, and among a wider group of people. Instead of the General Secretary attending so many gatherings, a wide variety of people, particularly students and at least half of whom are women attend. This meant that at the last Regional Committee there were some SCMs, which were represented at a Regional Committee by women for the very first time, a significant achievement.

This means that the contributions will be more balanced and that we are fertilizing the national movements more richly. It is also a witness to the fact that women are valuable in the face of so many aspects of culture and tradition in all our countries that tell women that we are not valuable or valued. That is the biggest shift I have seen over the period of the last 15 years in the life of the movements and the region. It has meant that we have also conducted leadership training programs such as the Student Empowerment for Transformation (which has its antecedents in ALDEC, ASFOR and HRD) on questions such as how men and women better work together, the feminization of poverty, doing theology from women's perspective and so on. We now have a full Women's Committee, composed of women from the region,

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which meets and corresponds to keep the issues in front of the movements and challenge movements to move from a male-oriented style to an inclusive and participatory style. Asia-Pacific region has been in the forefront of ensuring that the value at the global level of the WSCF Women's Commission has been realized and we have striven to ensure that models of working which ensure that women will not be the second fiddle in a team are affirmed, implemented and developed. Giving those opportunities to women and students has equipped them to go on in their lives with the experiences of contributing richly to the Federation and beyond. I believe it is a model for the inclusiveness we talk about in the kingdom of God. We see a reversal of worldly values and a valuing of all God's people.

In 1979, when I was elected as a student vice-chairperson of the A-P Standing Committee, it was the first time, I believe, that we had decided to have equal numbers of women and men, students and senior friends on the Regional Standing Committee. It was only because the WSCF made a conscious decision to value representation as well as experience that the shape and complexion of the leadership body changed. I stand here as the first woman chairperson of the WSCF Asia-Pacific, the youngest when I assumed the post in 1991 and one of the few lay chairpersons. Indeed, it was when Ting Jin pointed these things out to me that I agreed to stand, as an indication that we are seeking to change the culture of SCM leadership so that it is closer to the students, more inclusive of women and lay people which began a long time ago in the WSCF and is only just starting to take place in the churches, namely taking the participation of women seriously and giving women more opportunities to serve on more than the food committees, the morning tea committees and the logistics committees, on which we have capably served for many generations. Annathaie Abayasekera of Sri Lanka reminded me that she was the first woman General Secretary of a national SCM in the Asia region and that was in 1966! That is surprisingly recent, I am sure you will agree.

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Critiquing "Development"

Programmatically, the WSCF Asia-Pacific has also taken seriously the changes in society, particularly so-called development and students have spent time and energy critiquing various models of development to work out which ones really empower the poor and oppressed, which are top-down, what the role of the IMF-World Bank is and how we might live sustainably, without destroying the earth. The sharing of ideas from people from India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and other places has enriched us all.

Socialism and New Perspectives

The Philippine SCM has served the region by hosting a seminar on socialism and where it is going as a paradigm. Other contributions, regarding ideological perspectives and paradigms have made us aware that as well as class, we need to integrate questions of gender, environment and ethnicity into our understanding of our task and vision. I believe that most of the SCMs of the region are open to this wholistic way of analyzing issues of social structure, which in some ways echoes the idea of the minjung, the little peoples who are the economically poor but are a larger category than that, who stand at the fringe as being the subjects who must control their own, our history. Whilst socialism as a rigid model is critiqued, there is still a strong desire amongst students in the region for a more humane and equitable society, indeed a revolution in the social structures. However, in many national situations, the strategies and tactics of students are possibly less confrontational than in the 1960s and 1970s. It is perhaps a time of bridge building as well as denunciation, for many.

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Justice for Indigenous People

Last year, a workshop took place, involving people from Aotearoa, Australia, Taiwan and the Philippines beginning what I hope will be a deeper understanding of the situation of indigenous people who suffer so much throughout our region. During that consultation, one Australian Aboriginal resource person and participant, Pauline Clague, whose mother Joyce Clague was in the SCM as a student, told her mother about the consultation. Her mother, in the SCM in the 1960s, said: Isn't it sad that you still need to have consultations about racism? We were having them when I was in the SCM. In many ways, it is sad, in that racism is still there, but in another way, it underlines that each new generation of students needs to be confronted with the burning issues of our times, even if many of the situations of injustice have not been quickly overcome. Racism and oppression of indigenous people is an issue in many of the countries of our region and needs continued analysis and solidarity building.

Human Rights

Human rights continue to be a great concern, as it has been in previous generations. Ahn Jae-Woong put that squarely on the agenda in his time in office and it has continued to be a matter of prime concern. At the world level, it took Gigi Balan, a Filipina and co-secretary general of WSCF, to reinvigorate our participation in the UN, in the Human Rights Commission and human rights fora available to us as an organization having consultative status with the United Nations. That status is envied by many human rights NGOs around the world and with an office in Geneva; we are well placed to intervene in the process. Wai Ching has worked to ensure that WSCF Asia-Pacific has participated in such interventions, as has Africa.

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In Hong Kong in February, a seminar was held to start to bring those countries in which SCMs are actively involved in struggling for human rights. We wish we had more resources to give those movements actively involved in day-to-day human rights struggles, but we do at least have a small solidarity fund, which member movements can access and two human rights honorary coordinators have been appointed, a practice, which had its genesis in Aim's time.

Bible Study und Worship

Another important thrust has been to prepare bible studies and worship materials coming from our part of the world and our context. People's theology is often not written down, but it is important to find ways to share reflections. We must continue to create programs, which help students to discover and unfold-the basis of the hope that is inside them, in order to help them make their own connections between politics and theology, faith and society. We can go still further in this spiral and considering that our region is so rich in dance, music, poetry, song, theatre and picture, 1 hope that the WSCF can move with the deep roots of people's traditions in making the gospel real for all people.

Inter-faith Dialogue

There is also openness in a number of SCMs to include those who are not Christian, but are Buddhist, Hindu, and atheist or just confused seekers of the truth. This is a difficult issue and one the churches do not seem to have dealt with in a formal way (except to put up the barriers). Once again, I think that the SCMs are pioneering inter-faith relationships in their own way.

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Becoming Really "Asia-Pacific"

Another challenge facing our region is to make it more tally Asia-Pacific. Here, I must point out that Australia and Aotearoa are not considered by Pacific people to be part of the Pacific. At present, in the Pacific, or Pacific Islands as you may know them, there are SCM movements in Fiji and possibly PNG, with some interest in the Solomon Islands. When Marshall Fernando was based in Fiji in the early seventies and Akuila Yabaki was chaplain at the USP, some very vital developments took place, including WSCF funding Fr. Walter Lini, then a theological student from Vanuatu, to go to the UN Decolonization Commission. Vanuatu is now fully independent and Fr. Walter Lini, an Anglican priest, was its Prime Minister for many years. Akuila informed me that the current Prime Minister of the Solomon’s was in the SCM. In the Pacific, university education is very precious. It equips those who qualify to eventually play leadership roles in their countries. The rebuilding of the SCM in the Pacific may assist justice, peace and the integrity of creation in that part of the world. We are very pleased that there are a number of SCMers from the Pacific at this meeting and we will continue to hope and pray that SCM spreads again in the Pacific. Indeed, at some stage, the question of whether the Pacific region should be a region of its own, as it is in WCC structures must be looked at. Many Pacific people are impatient with structures which are Asia-Pacific in name but in fact treat Asia as the big guy and the Pacific as the little guy. We need to work further on dealing with that.

Links with China and Vietnam

Wai Ching's term in office has seen a visit to China to explore possibilities of linkage with theological students in ten theological schools in China. We are very excited about this remembering that Bishop Ting was on the staff of the WSCF from about

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1945 – 52 in Geneva. As Taiwan is a member of the WSCF Asia – pacific, further steps will of course be taken in consultation with Taiwan. We are also exploring links with Christian students in Vietnam.

Global Styles of Work

Another challenge facing WSCF Asia-Pacific is, as ever, to ensure that the Geneva inter-regional office works in a collegial way with the regions. There is a tendency, which I think is also apparent in other ecumenical structures towards locating an increasing concentration of power, federation money and influence in the IRO. Europe feels very strong as Europe at present and we who are not there need to ensure that our ways of working, ideas and experience are taken into account at the global level. Ever since the very important step of regionalization, that has been a struggle and it continues to be so.

Towards Student-Led Movements

As a region, the current leadership is keen to ensure that the national SCMs remain dynamic student organizations. Where the SCMs have strong institutional links with a church, with YMCA, or with senior friends, we are exploring and encouraging ways in which the students in each national situation might be given more of a voice in running the organization. We feel that in this way, training opportunities and skills building will be enhanced, the movement quality strengthened and student character of the SCM will be affirmed. This means that students and senior friends may be experimenting and trying out new ways of relating together, so that the senior friends are more truly friends and supporters of the SCM rather than being the SCM itself. If we want the movement to continue, it needs our support, but should be student-led. This means trusting and encouraging the articulation by students of

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their insights and vision and ensuring their full participation in. decision-making. Wai Ching has spent much time in trying to nurture democratic and consultative processes within movements at national and local levels as a sure foundation for a leadership where young people can have faith in themselves and take more responsibility for SCMs.

Having said that, in this centenary year, it is timely to remember the sweat and hard work of those who have labored in previous generations, to celebrate that and to realize fully the almost sacred trust that we in the current generation have inherited. Thus, where relationships with senior friends have become more loose and distant, we are encouraging the current generation to rebuild the links of fellowship. In the academe, a senior friend who is a member of staff can help build the SCM and play a valuable role in it. A pastor who is a senior friend can commend the. SCM to his or her flock. Invite SCMers to give talks at the local church and so on, and senior friends who are active in people's movements can extend the hand of friendship to welcome the young ones when they come on board. In Australia, the movement gets almost all of its funds from pledges of the senior friends.

The Challenges of Fundamentalism and Ageing

We have all heard the complaint; the SCM is not producing enough ecumenical leaders. Could we look at it another way? The SCM has produced many leaders, has given a lot to the ecumenical movement. Maybe now is its hour of need in which the ecumenical movement can give something back to the SCM. I speak of the reality in which the aggressive fundamentalist and evangelical push in the churches and on the campuses is stifling and the ecumenical movement is complaining that it is graying.

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Resources

In this situation, the fact that WSCF Asia-Pacific has one executive staff worker for the whole region and we have one main leadership program per year, which involves participation from every country in the region, is a scandal for the churches. Compare that with the CCA budget or even the budgets of the National Councils of Churches, let alone denominational budgets, which are by far the largest. In almost every country, the SCM has very few paid staff; its programs are always under funded. In such a climate, it is a wonder that the SCMs are able to do so much, not that they do so little. Please think about how you, individually, could help the SCM, from your existing budget, program, church contacts and the like. Perhaps the time has come to humbly request churches within these so-called tiger economies of Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea to financially assist with the work largely and to perhaps share resources with the SCM there or in another poorer country.

Ecumenical Linkages and Partnerships

In a similar vein, perhaps we all need to think more intentionally about how we involve SCMers in our churches and even academic structures. In the NCCs, do we offer the SCM office space? Do we help them look for funds? Do we give them a share of funds we have raised? In addition, most importantly, do we reserve a place on committees for SCM representatives? Without that kind of induction into the life of the NCC, young students may not link up with the ecumenical movement as strongly as we would all hope. It is very important for the NCCs to continue appointing SCMers to things and taking a long view so that even if not every appointment works out brilliantly, the churches keep encouraging and working with the SCM. The same applies denominationally.

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When we consider the Lund principle, that the churches should do together everything, which can be done together, apart from those things, which in conscience they feel compelled to do separately, a principle enunciated forty-three years ago, we realize how far our churches are from making that a reality. In the university context, the Lund principle challenges denominations not to fund denominational chaplaincy appointments but instead to work ecumenically, which means working with the SCM to do student ministry together in new ways, not necessarily based around clergy and chaplains, but perhaps around enabling a number of people, including students who wish to work part-time, recent graduates, theological students and ordained clergy to work together. The unceasing desire for the churches to control such appointments could ruin such experiments, but if the SCMs in various countries find it appropriate, there could be some very creative partnerships developed. That will require trust on the part of the churches and respect for the long-cherished and vitally important independence and autonomy of the SCMs from the churches, but is certainly worth thinking further about. In Australia, one state office of the Uniting Church has just agreed to make available a sum of money sufficient for the SCM to appoint an SCM staff worker who will work from the Uniting Church of Australia state office. That is a wonderful example of a church backing ecumenical student ministry in a tangible way, trusting, and working through the SCM.

Finally, if we cast our minds back ten, twenty, forty, or however many years ago we were students and think of the complaints of our parents and grandparents about us: did they fondly or angrily say that we were rag tag, disheveled, unruly, undisciplined, thoughtless or brash? I suggest that it would be marvelous if all of us could suspend judgment of the current crop of SCMers in our countries, about whom we may be tempted to say just such sorts of things. We were probably perceived like that ourselves when we were students! Instead, let us take a leap of faith, ask these young people onto our committees, invite them to give talks to our fellowship of young people, invite them to afternoon tea, give them a grant of church funds to help their work, because we may be surprised… perhaps, just perhaps, it is the work of God.

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