As the Council for World Mission (CWM) Assembly heads into its fourth day, it marked the start of a series of 16 workshops where participants could be challenged by various speakers who shared their experiences and stories.
Six workshops kicked off the series on 15 June:
- Education Transforming Power
- Gender: Leadership and Power
- Racism, Power, and Privilege
- Caste: Discrimination and Power
- Dismantling Militarised Empire
- Discovering the Historical Collections of the CWM and their Potential for Future Research
Education Transforming Power
The session sought to ask, discern, and name intersecting threads that create and/or perpetuate the misuse of power. Even though it is widely believed that education is the key to transforming power, there is yet much to debate on how it can be used to shift understanding and the practice of power.
Participants were invited to explore the tangled threads of power using the method of intersectionality and being intentional about making space for and valuing the insights and agency that the marginalised bring to the process.
Led by Rev. Dr Seforosa Carroll, Academic Dean and Lecturer in Cross Cultural Ministry and Theology at the United Theological College, School of Theology, Charles Sturt University, Australia, the workshop also aimed to reimagine and reweave a new agenda for education that will allow life to flourish.
Gender: Leadership and Power
Programme Coordinator for Gender Justice at the World Communion of Reformed Churches, Rev. Dr Minwoo Oh’s workshop on gender, leadership, and power provided a welcoming, safe space for participants to share their experiences of gendering and gendered leadership and power dynamics in their own contexts, whether within the church or in broader society.
Through heartfelt conversations, participants were allowed to explore how they respond to these challenges in leadership and power dynamics within their Christian faith, and how to effectively navigate those challenges.
Racism, Power, and Privilege
Rev. Philip Vinod Peacock, Executive Secretary, Justice and Witness of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, posited that racism is often articulated through missiological language as it builds on its colonial legacies of supremacy. Extrapolating it to the church, Peacock opined that it has been and continues to be vested in racism, both through its practice and theology and goes further to point out that even today, Christian unity and communion are compromised by racism.
Participants were led through a participatory, performative reading of Genesis 16 and 21 and the Hagar narratives. Group discussions also posed questions such as how believers can understand racism and the power and privilege that it gives to some and takes away from others today.
Caste: Discrimination and Power
One of the more defining traits of inequality that exists in Indian society today is the prevalence of caste, itself being an integral part of Indian culture and its social relations.
Rev. Samuel Mall, Assistant Professor in the Department of Christian Theology at Bishop’s College, Kolkata, India, decried caste as the reason that divides society hierarchically, thereby creating and sustaining inequality. It normalises oppression of those who are at the bottom of social structure. However, the rigidness of caste identities and the nature of caste discrimination have undergone a considerable change.
Through the deeply introspective session, Mall walked participants through to arrive at a deeper understanding of the modern complexities of caste oppression and the level that it operates that affects political, social, economic, and the religious lives of the downtrodden.
Dismantling Militarised Empire
Mincing no words on a highly sensitive and often incendiary topic, Prof. Jude Lal Fernando, Associate Professor at the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies, Trinity College Dublin, bravely peeled off the veneer of the Empire that promised peace by keeping the world in a permanent state of war.
During the session, he challenged the participants to deeply reflect on the ways in which they can denounce the Golden Calf of military dominance/war Paradigm and expose its false promise of peace and prosperity by demanding answers to the questions of “Whose peace? Whose security?”
Discovering the Historical Collections of the CWM and their Potential for Future Research
CWM Archivist, Jo Ichimura, gave a concise overview of the historical collections housed in the CWM archives including case studies on research and use of the materials.
The highly interactive session also saw participants given the opportunity to learn how to use the catalogues and explore online digitised materials.
A Q&A session rounded up the workshop, allowing participants to enquire on the plethora of collections and the management of archives, providing a unique window through which participants can consider and share ideas around the potential of the collections for future research.
Tough conversations in breakout groups
Throughout the workshops, the invited speakers presented on the topics with a clear sense of purpose – to expose the various issues and challenges that continue to stymie not just the global mission movement but also forge life-denying systems that persistently create inequality, injustice, and even death.
The speakers presented their topics in stark and pointed ways that challenged the beliefs, perceptions, and worldviews of the participants while simultaneously posing tough questions that invited rigourous dialogue and discussions.
The participants were encouraged after each presentation to break into groups to share their answers and stories in response to the questions and presented them to the rest of the room.
