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ASFOR '77

 

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

 

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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.