5th Assembly: Singapore, 1973

The 5th Assembly was a landmark Assembly in the life of the organisation, it was when the East Asia Christian Conference (EACC) formally changed its name to the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA). It was also the first time that insistence was made about spreading out the representation at the Assembly among church executives, laity, women, and youth under 27 years of age.

Sessions at the Assembly included ‘The Asian Struggle’, ‘Christian Action in the Asian Struggle’, ‘The Struggle for Justice, Liberation, and Development’, ‘Renewing the Church for Christian Action’, and ‘Forward in Ecumenism’. Further issues on ‘Message and Communication’, ‘Life and Action’, and ‘Justice and Service’ were considered in groups.

A message from the Assembly on ‘Message and Communication’ reads:

“We believe that the purpose of God for the church in Asia is life together in common obedience to Him for the doing of His will in the world. We also affirm that His purpose for us is that we are involved in the struggles of Asia—struggles of poverty, injustice, and oppression. In the midst of this Asian situation, we have sought to hear God’s call to us toward unity, mission, and communication.”

Another message from the Assembly on ‘Justice and Service’ reads:

“How is the Christian responsibility for justice and the struggle towards it to be concretely manifested in such situations? What priorities are to be set forth for the variety of service programmes among people who are becoming self-aware? What visible international concern of the Christian church is to be found in the struggle of the afflicted people of Asia? And to what extent, in the midst of all this, should the churches also continue to respond to the perennial needs of people who suffer under natural calamities and disasters, which recur so frequently, and the victims of a human conflict whose visions are often limited by circumstance to survival and existence?

“These questions call for a continuous and drastic re-examination of the orientation and content of the service programmes and social projects of the churches, and for the courage and openness to participate alongside the struggling people in the process of humanisation. The era of great statements is over: now is the time for action. Christian action in the Asian struggle will take place concretely as Christians participate in the struggles of the peoples of Asia for the total liberation and fullness of life promised by God.”