These councils and churches are committed to working together in mission, leadership development, ecumenical relationships, and issues of social justice such as human rights, peace and reconciliation, poverty alleviation, and interfaith dialogue.[1]
The offices of the Christian Conference of Asia have been located in Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand;[2] since 2006.[3] In 2023, the General Secretary (since 2015) is Dr Mathews George Chunakara.[4]
History
Representatives of churches, national council of churches, and Christian councils decided to constitute the East Asian Christian Conference during a meeting at Prapat, Indonesia in 1957. It was inaugurated at an assembly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1957 under the theme Witnessing Together. The fifth Assembly in 1973, meeting in Singapore, decided to change the name to Christian Conference of Asia (CCA).[5] It established its regional offices in Singapore at Toa Payoh Methodist Church in 1974.[6]
The organisation operated from Singapore until its expulsion from the country in 1987,[7][8] when the Singapore government charged that it was engaging in political activities and had broken a promise of not doing so.[9] The organisation's assets were frozen and eventually returned in 1988.[10] Member churches and council in Singapore, the Methodist Church of Singapore, the Anglican Church of Singapore and Singapore's National Council of Church withdrew from the organisation,[11][12][13] leaving it with no official representations from Singapore since. The organisation replied to the charges that there was a 'basic misunderstanding of the role of the Church in society and the way which church and state relate to each other'.[14]
