World YWCA Participates at the Second Global Gathering of the Global Christian Forum
The World YWCA, represented by Reverend Pirjo-Liisa Penttinen, General Secretary of YWCA of Finland, participated in the second international gathering of the Global Christian Forum (GCF). The gathering met in Manado, Indonesia, from October 4-7, 2011, under the theme “Life Together in Jesus Christ, Empowered by the Holy Spirit.”
The GCF brought together 287 participants from 65 different countries and numerous Christian churches, traditions and expressions, including 18 young adults from across the globe representing 2 international student organisations, according the Forum’s website. The GCF has replicated the success of the first international Global Christian Forum that was held in Kenya in 2007 which was acclaimed to be the most diverse Christian assembly in history. At that historic first Christian assembly in Limuru, Kenya, the Global Christian Forum, brought to the forefront its guiding purpose: “To create an open space wherein representatives from a broad range of Christian churches and inter-church organsations, which confess the triune God and Jesus Christ as perfect in his divinity and humanity, can gather to foster mutual respect, to explore and address together common challenges.”
Reverend Penttinen reports that the “there was representation from Christian World Communions, Ecumenical organisations, Evangelical/Pentecostal/Charismatic organisations and churches, Orthodox Patriarchates, the Catholic Church, Regional Councils, Conferences, Alliances or Associations (like World Vision, WYWCA), and Churches, covering all geographic areas and all traditions, mega churches as well as migrant churches, both women and men, a range of age groups from young people to more experienced church leaders.”
The Global Christian Forum seeks to offer new opportunities for broadening and deepening encounters. It is especially intended to promote new relationships between and among Christian communities which have not been in conversation with one another, which are in conversation with only a select group of partners, or which have engaged in existing ecumenical relationships. The Global Christian Forum is pursuing this goal through the creation of a space where participants all meet on an equal basis, to foster mutual respect, and to explore and address together common concerns.
“The story of Christianity as a worldwide faith is being written before our eyes,” declared Dr. Dana Robert of the Boston University School of Theology, as she addressed a group of world church leaders on the fundamental realignment of Christian faith around the globe. “Christianity has undergone one of the greatest demographic and cultural shifts in its 2000 year history. Reflecting on the changes, they raise critical questions for all churches: Contemporary Christians are focusing on mission for multiple purposes – both to recover tradition and to recover from tradition. Conversations about mission and witness has become an urgent agenda for declining mainline Christians… as they struggle to re-frame their identity in a global marketplace. At the same time, adherents of new ministries often see their witness as a recovery of primitive Christianity that challenges the older denominations,” Robert said.
The different speeches and presentations delivered at the GCF portrayed the wide spectrum of global Christianity, with discussion centering around topics such as: the trends and changes in the world of Christianity; the Atlas of Global Christianity; the power of the Holy Spirit; the history of Pentecostalism and its contributions to World Christianity; the development of the charismatic movement within the Roman Catholic Church, to name but a few.
The forum deliberations focused primarily on the enormous shifts in world Christianity today, the pervasive consequences of resource inequality and the dangers of inadequate terminology such as ‘Global South’ and ‘migrant churches’, and the challenges ahead. Also discussed was the upsurge of Pentecostal and charismatic movements which celebrate the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The GCF also discussed changing trends and the participants’ heard first-hand experience of churches from across the world. They also looked for the further vision for the Global Christian Forum.
The Global Christian closed on a note of great appreciation for the hospitality offered by their Indonesian hosts. The participants offered their reflections by reaffirming the forum’s guidelines and expressing their appreciation for the leadership and organisation of the GCF Committee and the GCF Secretary, Hubert van Beek. The GCF closed with a commitment to renew attention to the relationship between unity and mission and to continue to experience the open space offered by the Global Christian Forum as a gift from God.
