Who can prevent

Wafting fragrance

With a fence?

Who can cut

The coming rays

With a knife?

Sunrise cannot be stopped

By the darkness of clouds.

Wounded branches

Will give forth flowers.

Silent faces

Will shine with His words.

AYA Participant

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Preface

The great promise of the Asian ecumenical youth movement is that it might get completely out of control. Out of control of church leaders and the ecumenical mafia, out of control of funding agencies and project networks, out of control of compromised church-state relationships and corrupt elitist theology.

The Asia Youth Assembly in Delhi last year provided a glimpse, a foretaste of a youth movement out of control. It was invigorating.

Edna Orteza from Mindanao shared her movement's experience of building the power of the people and developing a critical consciousness in order to organise and mobilise. Kim Chul Kee, detained by the KCIA before his departure from Seoul, declared:

…we find hope in the actions and thoughts of the nameless fighters who have sacrificed themselves in the struggle for national liberation. We can see that the life of people, like the reed, is strong and tough: the reed bows before the wind but rises up again as the wind passes. We can see new hope not only for the people of the third world but also for the whole of humanity, in the strength of life that has transcended generations.

Youth from deep in the struggles of their people spoke out in clear voices resonant with determination: Rajanayagam from Jaffna declared the urgency of the Tamil people's liberation; Mimi Ferreira recounted a litany of the oppressions visited on -the people of East Timor by the Indonesian invaders; Sousanna Ounei of Kanaky (New Caledonia) boldly stated the justice of her people's fight for independence from the French invaders and noted the struggle of women for justice within this fight; and Sakamoto Teruki, a fisherman from Minamata, related both the agonies and the joyful spirit of resistance of the victims of Japanese economic imperialism. These people and many others from all over the Asia-Pacific region shared their lives, the well-springs of their commitment, and demanded solidarity from others. All these concerns were gathered up in the workshops at the end of the Assembly. The need for all ecumenical youth and student movements to organise in solidarity

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with peoples' movements was the thread running through all workshops. The emphases which emerged were new and strong: movements must not only support women's struggles, they must also actively advance them and educate their constituencies, especially men, on the basic causes, dynamics and objectives of these struggles. Also, youth must widen their resistance to the militarization of Asian societies into actions to combat all forms of social control both in the church and society at large.

More than this, the Assembly dealt with its theme Thy Will Be Done by first spending a week in small groups all over India living with the people in the midst of their daily concerns and trying to understand their strategies for change. Having experienced the realities of India, only then did the youth of Asia converge in Delhi to tell their own stories. And they told their stories through drama, song, poetry and prayer more than through wordy documents and impressive speeches.

Out of control? Yes. God's will? Definitely.

Gone was the denominational self-consciousness and jostling for power and prestige of church representatives at routine ecumenical events. Gone was the definition of the ecumenical movement as a balance of denominational self-interest and career aspirations of professional ecumaniacs. Gone were the 'real' workshops (those with budgetary implications which the power men attend) and the 'fake' workshops (on spiritual subjects which the powerless, usually women, are siphoned into). Gone were the sterile, contrived liturgies of the lowest common denominator. Gone was the lust for theological security.

Youth have few illusions about the church and have a profound distrust of the lack of movement in the ecumenical movement. But this is not debilitating because the emergence of youth movements from control by others has brought new strength and vision.

The opposite of control is not chaos. Church leaders learned in Western theology and matter-spirit dualism will tell us that it is. But they are wrong. The opposite of control is creation. Or, in political terms, the emergence of collective self-determination. As youth movements get out of control they develop the processes of collective self-determination which are fundamentally reliant on the human spirit and stand against hierarchy, male domination, Christian exclusiveness and financial manipulations Collective selfdetermination is the basis for solidarity among all peoples and is now articulated by youth in ways church and ecumenical hierarchs

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cannot even conceive of (that is, neither understand nor generate) despite their seductive rheto I ric and huge budgets.

Of course the Asia Youth Assembly had many weaknesses and some youth present found difficulty in leaving their ecclesiastical slavery behind. It is not easy. Nevertheless, the Assembly expressed the commitment of many Asian youth to a long-term process of building up the ecumenical youth and student movement at all levels by bringing it out of control and making it truly part of the people's movement, the new creation, and not a mere subsidiary of an ecumenical structure. This redefinition and re-formation of the ecumenical movement makes Asia, in the words of Kim Chul Kee, "the source of new vision and hope for the world-wide ecumenical movement."

The Spirit is always out of control.

Chris Tremewan

CCA YOUTH

Singapore, May, 1985

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Be A Dissenting Minority

In this situation what shall be the role of Christian youth? I would say that they should be a dissenting minority; they should be non-conformists. If we learn lessons from the life style of Jesus and the community life of early Christians, we will be compelled to stand as the community of Jesus, as a dynamic force within the society, acting as a dissenting minority. To live as a dissenting minority is never the same as the present tendency to foster minority consciousness among Asian Christians. Rather it means to involve ourselves with the aspirations of the people of the land for a better future, to raise a dissenting voice against the oppressive forces of our time.

Bishop Poulose Mar Poulose

Chairperson, WSCF-Asia/Pacific

in opening address.