ASIA MISSION CONGRESS (AMC)

Posted: 20th October 2006

C.S.C --The month of October is always called in the Catholic Church THE MISSION MONTH. This year an important event of the Church in Asia is taking place: From October 18 to 22, 2006 is being held the second ASIA MISSION CONGRESS in city of Chiang Mai, Thailand. The first Missionary Congress was celebrated in December 1979 in Manila, Philippines. This second Asia Mission Congress of Chiang Mai is being co-sponsored by the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and by the Pontifical Mission Societies, as it was the first congress of Manila.
This AMC of Chiang Mai has delegations from all the different countries of the immense Asian continent. The main theme of the congress is: "TELLING THE STORY OF JESUS IN ASIA", in an effort to help the delegates to share their "faith experience". In the congress of Manila in 1979 the participants were mainly Church officials, theologians and especially missiologists. Now in Chiang Mai the great majority of the delegates are lay people. Their reflection and sharing about the different ways the "Story of Jesus" is being told in Asia, will help the delegates to enrich their faith experience and to come back to their own countries with new ideas about how to become better witnesses of Jesus in their own environments. The aim of this congress is to develop among Catholics in Asia the awareness of being missionaries in their own continent and to reinforce their identity.
Under the orientation of this interesting thematic "the delegates of our local Church in Cambodia will be prepared themselves to join together in order to spread the story of Jesus to the millions of Cambodians who are now more open to hear about the Good News of Jesus", said bishop Antonysamy Susairaj, Apostolic Prefect of Kompong Cham who is joining the Cambodian delegates.

Late John Paul II expressed in the Apostolic Exhortation ECCLESIA IN ASIA, after the Asia Synod of 1998, that "Christ was born in Asia" and that the Christian faith was not foreign to the Asian Continent, although Christian were only a small minority, between 1 and 2%.

This AMC was organized before the death of John Paul II who was always encouraging the local Churches to celebrate Mission Congresses at continental level every four of five years. Those Mission Congresses held in Latina America have become famous. The last two congresses have encompassed the entire American continent.

One important thought of late John Paul II given to the Asian bishops gathered in Manila in 1995 can help the Church in Asia to gain confidence: "In the first millennium, the Cross was planted in the soil of Europe and in the second in the Americas and Africa. We can pray that in the third Christian millennium, a great harvest of faith will be reaped in this vast continent of Asia? ?Asia is thirsting for the living water that Jesus alone can give".


Why to have a MISSION CONGRESS?
A Mission Congress is the consequence of a faith experience. They started in Mexico in 1977. This first Mission Congress had delegations from all the Latin American countries, making it the first Missionary Congress of the Latin American and the Caribbean Catholic Church. The Catholic Church in the American continent has celebrated already 7 missionary congresses, being the last one the CAM II, held in Guatemala in the year 2003.
The Church in the Asian continent, learning from this experience the Church in America, has started to organize its own Missionary Congresses. This upcoming Asian Mission Congress will not be an academic or scholarly conference, but it will be a sharing of the Faith in Community. There will be sharing of personal experiences in different mission related areas like with elderly and youth, with the different Asian religions, with the world of Media but also the fact of Consumerism or the experience of Migrants. Every day of the congress will be under a different heading beginning with the Story of Jesus in Asian Peoples and followed by the Story in Religions and Cultures of Asia up to the Life of the Church. At the conclusion of everyday a "Reflective Theological Synthesis" is foreseen.

Article Source: Catholic Social Communications Cambodia