SAYING that the process of renewal is a continuous movement that should permeate the life of the Church, especially that of Asia, Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences’ secretary-general and Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo proposed some fundamental ways for the ongoing renewal of the Asian Church.
“Renewal is a continuum of movements that have different beginnings but has no end…There are periods of dormancy and periods of awakening, periods of decline, as well as periods of intense sustained renewal,” said Quevedo.
The FABC secretary-general spoke before delegates and guests at the start of the Asian Bishops’ 9th plenary assembly at Pius XII Center in Manila, August 11.
Vital ideas for renewal
In a report he presented to the assembly, Quevedo portrayed an Asian church in an ongoing process of renewal and proposed some vital ideas for the continuous revitalization of the Asian Church.
“Use the FABC vision of a renewed Church-in-mission and its primary pastoral focus of building the Local Church as an inspiration and guide for renewal,” the prelate said.
He noted that the vision of a renewed church-in-mission in Asia discussed during the first plenary assembly in Taipei 35 years ago still rings true even today.
“It was a vision of renewed Church in a mission of integral evangelization,” said Quevedo.
He also stressed the importance of an in-depth renewal on the part of clergy and religious as servant leaders and authentic witnesses.
“They [clergy and religious] are the main collaborators of Bishops and, given the cultural context of Asia, no significant renewal of the Church can take place without their leadership and witnessing,” he said.
Quevedo also emphasized the need for formation and participation among the laity as essential for Church renewal.
“Only with a committed and participatory laity can church renewal be enduring and lasting,” he said.
The archbishop underlined the importance of building the basic ecclesial communities centered on the word of God and the Eucharist and committed to dialogue with cultures, religious traditions and with the poor.
“The new way of being Church in Asia is best expressed at the grassroots level through the building of Basic Ecclesial Communities or Small Christian Communities,” he said, adding, “they are to be built as believing and praying communities of the Lord.”
Church in mission
The essential aspects of a church in mission have repeatedly been discussed in past FABC assemblies.
Quevedo said that as a Church-in-mission, the Asian Church is “a communion of communities and the humble herald and servant of the Gospel, accompanying the peoples of Asia towards full life in the Reign of God.”
The prelate noted that materialism and relativism have led people away from living faithfully their Christian faith.
“In this age of materialist secularism and relativism many people are losing sight of the fundamental relationship between universal truths and their particular expressions or have somehow drifted away from communion and solidarity,” the archbishop said.
A statement during the FABC first plenary assembly in 1974, the bishops stressed that “to preach the Gospel in Asia today we must make the message and life of Christ truly incarnate in the minds and lives of our people. The primary focus of our task of evangelization then, at this time of our history, is the building of a truly local Church.”
The statement further stressed that “the local church is a church incarnate in a people, a church indigenous and inculturated. And this means concretely a church in continuous, humble and loving dialogue with the living traditions, the cultures, the religions – in brief, with all the life-realities of the people in whose midst it has sunk its roots deeply and whose history and life it gladly makes its own...”
Quevedo said the vision of a local Church as imagined in the statement have become an inspiration for the Asian bishops in their work for renewal.
“The building of a local church is truly an enormous and daunting task of renewal, a thoroughgoing renewal that encompasses the renewal of mission, of faith and prayer life, of community, clergy, laity and religious, of church structures and ministries, of leadership styles, etc.,” Quevedo said.
The prelate believed that the work for renewal has been directed by the principles of co-responsibility, participation, committed engagement in mission with its constitutive dimension of social transformation, contextualization, authenticity and credibility.
The guiding principles, he said, have been repeatedly cited in past FABC assemblies as well as named by scholars who have written various dissertations on pastoral themes developed by FABC.
Movements of Church renewal in Asia
The 7th plenary assembly nine years ago identified movements of renewal happening in Asian Church: 1) A movement towards a Church of the Poor and a Church of the Young; 2) A movement toward a “truly local Church;” 3) A movement toward deep interiority; 4) A movement toward an authentic community of faith, a communion of communities of authentic participation and co-responsibility; 5) A movement toward active integral evangelization and a new sense of mission; 6) A movement toward “empowerment” of the laity in the mission of the Church, requiring a spirituality of discipleship; 7) A movement toward active involvement in generating and serving life in the light of death-dealing forces in Asia; and 8) A movement toward the triple dialogue - with other faiths, with the poor and with cultures.
Quevedo said that it is within the framework of a movement toward a renewed Church-in-mission or toward the building of the Local Church, that the meaning of the Plenary Assemblies in Daejeon and Manila should be considered.
The Daejeon assembly held in 2004 described a movement of forming the family as the focal point of evangelization toward a culture of integral life in Asia.
“Our Manila Plenary Assembly would present, I believe, a movement towards rooting Christian life in Asia firmly and dynamically in the Word of God and in the Bread of Life, the Eucharist,” said Quevedo.
The prelate stressed the importance of seeing the Daejeon Assembly and the Manila assembly within the perspective of a continuum of renewal.
He cited the various assemblies, institutes, meetings, conferences, and symposia which the FABC offices had organized towards achieving a renewed Church in mission since the 2004 assembly.
Looking beyond
Quevedo said a renewed and sustained local Church in mission has been the dream and the prayer of everyone.
“To live the Eucharist as our present Assembly enjoins is a peak moment in the continuum of renewal for the Church in Asia. It is a moment that we all strive to reach and, when reached, it is a moment to be perseveringly sustained,” he said.
But maintaining that graced moment towards a renewed Church-in-mission can only be possible through God’s grace, Quevedo said.
“The continuum of renewal enables a local church to begin anew when renewal has become moribund, to retrace its steps when a foundation block of renewal has been weakened or has become dormant, or to move forward in the process of renewal as inspired and led by the Spirit of God,” he said.
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