SET
1994
(Student Empowerment for
Transformation)
How can students do
theology amidst the sufferings of women in Asia-Pacific? Such was the focus of
the 1994 Student Empowerment for Transformation or SET '94 which brought
together 24 participants from 11 countries in Asia-Pacific and one from
The three-week critical
formation programme ran from August 1 to 25, 1994 in
The theme, "Students
Doing Theology Amidst the Sufferings of Women in Asia-Pacific," was so
chosen when the WSCF A-P Regional Committee realized the need to bring together
women and men into partnership in coping with the problem of patriarchy — in
terms of ideology, power structures and personal lifestyle. The Committee felt
that "unless both sexes come to a similar level of understanding about the
need to do away with patriarchy, the two cannot work together in true,
mutual-supportive, partnership." The programme objectives were the
following:
·
To understand the different forms of sufferings of women in
Asia-Pacific countries - e.g. overseas migrant workers, tourism, prostitution,
dowry system, women labour, family system and political movement;
·
To conscientize women and men to identify with their situation
in society as both victims in the patriarchy system, and that both can be or
are oppressors, taking part in continuing patriarchy;
·
To critically examine the faith traditions that we received,
especially on the ways our theology and Christian practices have reinforced
patriarchy and thus, women's oppression;
·
To explore new ways of understanding the Bible and
approaches to doing theology so as to reconstruct a Christian vision of the
liberation of women and men and a holistic community; and
·
To self-critique and assess the life of our national movements
and our own personal lifestyle as to how we can be enabled to contribute to a
new community of mutual partnership and to live in search of a critical
understanding of our faith.
Following is the summary
of the highlights of SET '94:
Exposure:
One major part of the
SET programme is the exposure to some of the realities in the host country to
enable participants to experience first hand the life and struggle of the people.
For the exposure to Korean realities, the participants were divided into four
groups and for three days lived with a chosen community in the following areas:
a rural agricultural area around Nong Min Church; a rural agricultural area
around
Biblical-Theological
Reflections:
Bible Studies I & II
were conducted by Rev. Dr. Kim Young Oon, director of the Community Bible Study
Institute. He emphasized the need to read, study and
interpret Scriptures as a community that all may share both understanding and
confusion, and hopefully come up with valid interpretations of the truth. Bible
study is to do any of the following: (a) confirm what one has known, believed
or experienced as right and true; (b) correct one's or the other's wrong
concept or misunderstanding; and (c) complement one's belief or experience to
make it solid to the community's common efforts.
Texts used for the
community Bible study were Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 14:3-9. Applying the
philosophy of community Bible study, these texts were studied with
participatory methodology to enable the participants to share and learn as a
community. Dr. Kim reminded the group that as the Bible was given to the
community, it is "important to think of it in community, to experience it
in community, and to exert efforts in community... for in doing everything in
community the Bible becomes more meaningful as the word of life to us."
Two Other Bible studies
were led by Dr. Kang Nom Soon with the thrust of rereading the Bible from the
women's perspective. She said that through this perspective we can discover the
dynamic power of the Bible and find out the common suffering under racism,
classism, militarism and sexism; and then we can let Jesus' healing power
relieve all the evil power that binds all the oppressed people. Using such
texts as Psalm 99:4, Jeremiah 22:3-5 and Genesis 1:28, she emphasized the idea
that to know God is to do what is just. However, she said that although we do
have some inner feelings of rage/anger at injustice, we have been taught,
especially as women, to keep silent about it. But today, even the concept of
justice has become so distorted. So we need to re-discover its true meaning by
letting it come from the marginalized, such as the women. Justice also involves
the "righting" of all social injustices. And when both women and men
work together in partnership for justice, then church sexism cannot happen.
National and SCM
Reports:
Participants of the
programme came with their respective country and SCM reports which dealt with
the social realities in their home countries and their corresponding response through
the life and programme of their respective SCMs.
The national/country
report highlighted three major issues faced by their respective countries and
how they affect the lives of the people as well as the students. The same also
highlighted the responses of Christians/churches in their respective countries.
The SCM reports basically described the participants' understanding of SCM in
their respective countries (i.e. objectives, roles, functions and
constituency); issues that their respective SCMs are engaged in and the
rationale for doing so (their understanding of how Christian faith plays a role
in the face of such issues); and how these things concern the participants
respectively as Christian students.
Inputs:
I) An input on the
Korean situation was made by Prof. Hee-Yeon Cho. This included a detailed
description of the historical changes of Korean society, process of
democratization and the people's movement, and the Korean model of development
and their implications. A few days after this input, SET '94 participants also
had a chance to experience solidarity action for the unification of the Korean
peninsula through participation in the human chain at the Panmunjom, the border
between the North and
II) An input on "Asian Feminist Liberation
Theology" was made by Dr. Chung Hyun Kyung. She defined theology as word about
God, rather than of God. Doing
theology therefore is finding with our most honest recollection, our critical
consciousness, our situation, and with all our capacity, the meaning of God,
the presence of God and the meaning of the words of the Bible in our situation.
Briefly, it is critically reflecting on one's faith. She also emphasized the
need for an Asian theology — the kind of Christianity that includes, rather
than denies, our Asian identity, embracing rather than eliminating our Asian
cultural wisdom and heritage. But this Asian
theology must also be from the Third World perspective, that is,
addressing the problem of the non-person, the issue of dehumanization of people
and nations which is prevalent in the
Ill) An input on
"Faith Reflection Amidst the Sufferings of Women in Asia-Pacific"
with focus on the life of women's movement in
Men and Women Caucuses:
Separate men and women
caucuses were held to give participants time to be among themselves as men or
women. In the men's caucuses, the men participants reflected on their personal
understanding of themselves as men, listing down both positive and negative
ideas about men as expressed in their respective societies. They also shared
about their conditioning and upbringing as men; how these influenced them; how
they felt about them; and what they would want to be changed if they had the
opportunity to change it. They also did a Bible study, among other activities.
The women's caucuses included a sharing of experiences, both painful and
joyful, when they first became aware of their being women; of their concept of
the ideal woman that they want to be and the difficulties they encounter.
Creative methods were used in expressing these such as through drawing and
creative worship.
Joint caucuses were held
for sharing some of the things which happened at each group with the other
group. One thing was noted at the joint caucuses: that men tended to analyze
the topic before slowly sharing their feelings; while women tended to share
their feelings on the topic before analyzing deeper. With these differences,
plus reasons of socialization and personality types, conflict may arise instead
of dialogue, hence the need to be patient, honest and to listen to each other.
Workshops:
A number of workshops
were held at the latter part of the programme. Creative cultural work shops
included Korean mask dance by Kim Myung Kon and minjung art by Kim Bong Jun.
The Korean artists said that colonial rule and dictatorship which characterized
most Asian countries have destroyed Asian cultures. Hence, there is a need to
struggle for both our political and cultural rights.
Leadership skills
workshops were aimed at equipping the participants with skills for enabling
leadership in their movements. These included awareness games on their usual
style of leadership and discussion-sharing on alternative models of leadership.
A programme planning workshop was aimed at enabling participants to experience
actual planning of a programme that demonstrates their faith responding to
their context's issues and realities.
Evaluation:
At the close of the
programme, a written evaluation was made by all the participants covering different
aspects of SET ‘95 and recommendations for future programmes were also made. A
number of responses were positive comments on the overall programme: that the
biblical reflections and inputs on feminist theology have been very interesting
and stimulating; that the participatory leadership style used in the conduct of
the programme inspired involvement of more participants. However, suggestions
were made for more or longer exposure opportunities; for better preparation of
the participants; and for more opportunities for inter-personal relations
outside the structured schedule.