FOREWORD

Faith & Social Justice was the central theme of the inaugural session of ASIAN SECRETARIES FORMATION (ASFOR), which was held at the campus of Union Theological Seminary in Manila, the Philippines, November, 1977. It was the focus of the action/reflection study and encounter of SCM workers and leaders across Asia in the context of the realities of Philippine society and the role of the church and Christians in it.

Asia staff has decided that the papers and documents of ASFOR sessions should be made part of WSCF ASIA BOOK series so that our publication efforts may be integrated.

We are greatful to the contributors of the current book: scholars who try to understand the role of Christians in the struggle for social justice in the Philippines and the students and youth across Asia who made the encounter of faith and politics, church and society, possible. But, they themselves must be seen, in the final analysis, as supporters of the people - the workers and the farmers - in the making of a society which is just and free! We likewise thank the SCM Philippines and the Youth Department of National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) for their unstinted support of ASFOR and for helping make the Manila conference possible.

Thanks must also go to friends and supporters across the seas — AGD of the Evangelisches Missionswerk in Stuttgart, Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church in New York, United Church of Canada in Toronto, United Church Board of World Ministries in New York, Methodist Missionary Society in London, the Australian SCM, and the participants and national movements themselves.

NAEL CORTEZ

WSCF Asia

Hong Kong

June 1978