BACKGROUND:

During the colonial period, the missionary movement in Asia emphasized evangelistic activity and pastoral care over and above the churches' prophetic role. Today, although their numbers are small, churches in Asia are beginning to tackle injustice, corruption and political dictatorship. The Diakonia & Solidarity Asia Desk, in close collaboration with the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), encourages them in this prophetic direction. We try to help churches to work for peace, justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, Burma, North and South Korea, China and Hong Kong, Laos and Cambodia and the Philippines. We coordinate round tables for ecumenical sharing of resources in Burma, Bangladesh, Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and China.

"An important priority is to strengthen the Asian churches in their awareness and defence of human rights: advocacy, networking, solidarity and empowerment are all relevant to this priority. The desk's ground-breaking links with the Pacific region will also continue to be strengthened." (Commitment to Jubilee: The Seven-Year Review of the WCC Programme on Sharing and Service, 1998)

We have started, and continue to support, collaboration with churches in the Pacific region on problems like logging, fishing and general ecological destruction in Oceania by Asian business companies.

And we see the Asia churches' rich spirituality as a source of alternative lifestyles and solutions to widespread environmental crises.

WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser with Korean Christian Federation president Kang Yong-Sup during a WCC visit to the D.R. of Korea from 17-20 April 1999.

Support for North Korean churches Peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula has been a major concern of Diakonia & Solidarity's Asia desk for many years. With this goal in mind, the WCC brought church representatives from North and South Korea to a 1984 consultation in Tozanso, Japan, in 1984. Three more such meetings - in Glion, Switzerland - in 1986, 1988 and 1990. - helped bring North Korean Christians into the ecumenical family. In this way, the "Tozanso/Glion series" has contributed to reconciliation and, hopefully, to peaceful reunification. WCC support to North Korean churches has not neglected material needs: resources haved been channelled to Korean Christian Federation projects in such areas as theological education, scholarships and church construction; over recent years, we have worked closely with Action of Churches Together (ACT) in responding to widespread famine in North Korea. Other WCC efforts to nurture the peace process have included visits to and from the North Korean churches to and from churches elsewhere. For example, (North) Korean Christian Federation representatives attended the WCC Eighth assembly in Harare in December 1998, and in April 1999, WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser headed an ecumenical team that visited both parts of the divided peninsula. Such encounters provide precious opportunities for meaningful dialogue and fellowship; North Koreans in particular welcome the opportunity to exchange views, share the eucharist and worship with their South Korean brothers and sisters. A meeting on "Peace in the N.E. Asian region" along the same lines as those in the Tozanso/Glion series took place in 2000. The Asia Desk worked closely with the WCC International Relations team and the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) in organizing this.

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