WCC Assembly - November 2, 2013

Where I spent all of sunny Saturday! 

This weekend is titled "Ecumenical Pilgrimage for Peace with Korean Churches" on our WCC Assembly agenda. The Korean Host Committee has invited delegates and participants of the Assembly to take part in a weekend pilgrimage for justice and peace "to deepen their ecumenical fellowship with the Korean churches and to immerse themselves in the life and struggle of Korean people and society." (Assembly Handbook) A large group of people got up early this morning and boarded high-speed trains to head to Seoul for their pilgrimage and another group of people stayed in Busan to participate in pilgrimages here in town. On Sunday morning we join local parishes for worship.

I spent my short lunch break in the sun!!

Sounds exciting, doesn't it?! I can't wait to hear all about the different pilgrimages people experience... my weekend pilgrimage is with the Public Issues committee. That's right, committees use this weekend to get a whole lot of work done. The working group on "The Human Rights of Stateless People" statement pretty much finished their work the other day so today I worked with "The Human Rights of Stateless People" working group and together we attached the draft statement before us. I am learning tons, and I'm not even exaggerating that! I left my resource book on Stateless People in our meeting room so some pieces that really touched me while reading background information will be shared later on.

So, the process of this committee is that we review all the proposed statements, minutes and resolutions that are sent to us in the first 24 hours of the Assembly, figure out which ones meet the criteria and then present a list to the Assembly seeking their guidance and consensus so we can move forward with our work (this was done yesterday). Today we met from 9:15am until 5:15pm and for most of the day we worked in small groups on the different documents before us. As I mentioned, I worked on the "Statement on Abyei" document which is about a critical situation that has been ongoing in Abyei in South Sudan. (I *loved* our working group!! The world is filled with such lovely people.)

The "Statement on Abyei" working group. 

The process continued into the afternoon when we gathered back as a whole plenary group and started reviewing the documents that had been revised by working groups. How can I explain this process to you... Well, have you ever been part of the process of writing a vision statement with a group of people? Can you remember that moment after you've done the brainstorming and you're now trying to agree on the final set of words, language, order, etc...? That part of the process that just seems to never end? Well, in some ways that is what this is like. The document is projected on the screen and is read paragraph by paragraph, word by word in order to make sure that the Public Issues group is at a

"Official Dinner"

consensus with with is going forward to the Assembly. This process takes a long time, I'm sure that we'll be up all night tomorrow working through the rest of the documents. Today we got through two documents (and we'll have to review some changes in one of them tomorrow), one of those documents was eight pages long. We have somewhere around ten documents before us. To add a bit more pressure on the process we learned this afternoon that all of our documents need to be sent to the WCC office in Geneva by 10pm on Sunday night (tomorrow) so that they can be translated into the other four official languages used by the WCC.

Clam shells in my soup!

I'm interested and fascinated by this work and am so grateful to be part of it... but my goodness, it's a lot of work! Thankfully we have an amazing moderator and amazing staff support and overall great people to work and laugh with.

After a full day of work this evening we were all invited to the Official Dinner hosted by Busan Metropolitan City and the Mayor of Busan. It was a great dinner with good company and some amazing and fun cultural performances with Korean drummers and fan dancers! Thank you Busan for a great evening!

Korean Fan Dancers 

Are you wondering about the above photo? Well... those of you who know me well know that I'm not really a fan of fish and seafood. I've learned how to eat and even appreciate/enjoy some fish like salmon or cod but anything like scallops, clams, lobster, shrimp, etc... just doesn't work for me. Well, at tonight's dinner there was a soup filled with a few different types of seafood, soft tofu and mushrooms. I've been trying to be "adventurous" and was doing alright but then I caught site of the clam shells at the bottom of my bowl... never in my life did I expect that I'd be encountering clam shells in my soup! I enjoyed the broth, tofu and mushrooms and ignored the mysterious/"I don't know what to do with you" things. It was fun, nevertheless!

WCC Assembly - Friday, November 1

Business Plenary seating....

I can't believe it's November 1st... before I know it we'll be at Christmas and if I blink the WCC Assembly will be over. As I've accepted every day will be, today was another very full day. I'm not saying it was bad or too much just full of richness in many different ways.

This morning in our Theme Plenary session we heard greetings from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. I met him briefly yesterday, he is a very nice and humble man - what a gift he is to the Anglican Communion. You can listen to or read his remarks here. Here is one of the pieces that resonated with me:

Archbishop of Canterbury shares greetings

"When we look to God our eyes are turned outwards to His world, and we hear again the command, as Pope Francis said, to be a poor church for the poor. The children of Christ act instinctively to love those who suffer, as He loves us. If justice faints, hope fades. But when justice is loved, and lived, the poor have hope and the whole world begins to sing. Our vision has to be of God and God’s world and the Church made sense of in that perspective."

Rev Nicholas Pang reads the Gospel during our Eucharist
of all the Saints service

There is lots from the Theme Plenary session on Asia today that I'd like to reflect on but I'm afraid that will have to wait until tomorrow (or somewhere thereafter!). This evening we gathered for Confessional Meetings... so all the delegates from the Anglican Communion from around the globe met together at a nearby hotel. Our evening was a lovely one together filled with sharing and listening, receiving many greetings, celebrating the Eucharist of All Saints together (I'm loving worship at the Assembly but there was something absolutely lovely and relaxing about the familiar Anglican service), and enjoying dinner together. I had great conversations with fellow Anglicans which were encouraging and filled with laughter and joy... common connections and experiences alongside unique stories. Our program went late which means that dinner was served at 9:15pm and I didn't get back to my room until just before 11pm. I'm taking note that if I'm every planning an event where there is translation taking place (everything we did tonight was in English and Korean) to make sure to add extra time... everything takes double time. In terms of the sermon though, it add lots of extra reflecting time on each and ever sentence which wasn't a bad thing at all (maybe a method to adopt?!)

And incase you were wondering... overnight Christmas
arrived at Starbucks here in Busan! 

Like I said... it was all very wonderful and inspiring but it's now time for bed as there is no sleeping in tomorrow! Canada friends: Enjoy November 1st - it was wonderful here, I hope it's the same for you!

WCC Assembly - Thursday, October 31

Today was my first day with committee meetings. I serve on the Public Issues Committee which prepares public statements for adoption by the assembly. We meet throughout the Assembly mostly during our lunch breaks but our small working groups (I'm currently on the group that is working on the draft of the "Human Rights of Stateless People") meet at other times (usually during breaks or the evening if required). We will also spend all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon meeting together.

So, why do I say "first day with committee meetings" like it makes a difference? Well... because it does! During our committee orientation and welcome we were told that this is the most labour intensive and demanding of all the committees (I'm pretty sure that over the last five year the meaning of my name has changed to "serves on committee that have way too much work!")... we are the visible face of the WCC, we are responsible for our voice in the world. It's very interesting work but it makes for very long days. I leave my hotel somewhere around 7:40am and I arrive back in the evening around 9:15pm, with meetings now taking up the lunch break it's taken the pace of the day to a whole new level. I am though, honored to be part of this important committee and work.

Our our way to the Theme Plenary session 

Some thoughts from the day:

- Our mornings (from 8:30-10:15am) are filled with prayer, scripture, song and study. We gather for morning prayer at 8:30 and from there move into our Bible study groups. I am in a small Bible Study group (small being around 50 people...) and will meet with the same group throughout the meeting. We break into about five smaller groups of 10 or so people as we spend time discussing and exploring the days reading. Today we looked at Genesis 2:4b-17.

Greetings from the Prime Minster of Korea

- In today's Theme Plenary session we received greetings from the Prime Minister of Korea. In order for this to happen we went through some tight security... our name tags were checked and we had to go through metal detectors before entering into the auditorium. The Prime Minister shared some comments with us and ended by saying "we hope that we can have peace in divided Korea and we hope that the WCC will pray for us as we hope for this peace."

- One of the highlights of my day was listening to Mr. Michael Sidibe who is the Executive Director of UNAIDS. Sidibe shared many stories with us and shared about the goal of having no new AIDS diagnosis and no more discrimination against those who live with the disease. He shared that we need a new paradigm of leadership, one that is more inclusive and more people focused... that in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS we need to reach people where they are in their families and communities. His dream is that by 2015 we will be able to say to the world, "no more babies are born with HIV."... We must be inclusive if we want justice and peace, heath care and education must be for all, no one should be left aside and all should have access to treatment.

Regional Meetings

     0 deaths due to AIDS
     0 discrimination
     0 new cases of HIV
I can't wait to see this become reality hopefully within my time. When you close your eyes can you see this dream coming true?

- I look part in the Ecumenical Conversation called "Evangelism today: new ways for authentic discipleship".

- We met in our Regional groups this evening for a meeting/conversation on the theme of the Assembly, how we as a region can impact the Assembly and the important issues in our region. This is the only time that we will meet as a region.

I have some reading on Human Rights of Stateless People to do before sleep takes over (and it's already past my bed time!) but you can see the second edition of Madang Live sharing what happened yesterday as the opening of the WCC Assembly took place here.

WCC Assembly - Madang Live 1

Go here to view the first of the daily video summaries "Madang Live":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfW2UFSJc58&feature=player_embedded

WCC Assembly - Wednesday, October 30th - Things have started!

The "disciplined and diligent delegates at orientation 

It's been quite an amazing day... amazing people, amazing sounds, amazing words, amazing sharing, just amazing. The 10th Assembly of the WCC formally started it's meeting today and my goodness are there a lot of people here... it's a good thing that BEXCO (the convention center we are meeting in) is literally massive.

This is going to have to be a quick overview of the day because I am tired tonight and it's only day one of our ten day meeting. So, here are some pieces from the day:

5000 People gathered together for the Gathering Prayer

- I learned this morning as I sat in the orientation session that a) not many people decide to attend this session and b) I probably didn't need to be there... I'm glad I went but my experience was that I had received the information during the Youth Pre-Assembly already; read the materials in the information sent out before the Assembly; or that coming from my work back in Canada I already know how a number of the processes work (ie: consensus, nominations, etc...)

- There are 700 youth (people under the age of 30) present at this Assembly in many different capacities. The WCC General Secretary told us that this is the youngest Assembly yet!

- The Assembly delegates are made up of 52% women and 48% men.

Standing room only during Gathering Prayer

- Our time in the Gathering Prayer was probably one of the highlights for me... like really, when does one get to be part of worship with 5000+ people in the room? 5000 voices in many different languages all praying together prayers of lamentation and thanksgiving... 5000 people listening to the Word of God... 5000 people raising their voices in song.

- During the Gathering Prayer the room was so packed that there was only standing room at the back... how lovely would it be for this to be a problem we had on Sunday mornings?

- Our Opening Plenary session brought many greetings from all sorts of people including a letter from Pope Francis, greetings from the local community, thoughts from four young people and (the most powerful part in my opinion) a dramatic opera and dance presentation by local Koreans sharing the 5000 year history of Korea and the quest for justice and the hope for peace.

Full auditorium for the Opening Plenary

- We heard reports from the General Secretary and Moderator  and ended our "work" time for the day with our first Business Plenary which included matters that were referred to the policy reference committee and the public issues committee and the approval of our assembly committees and leaders. This plenary included consensus decision making, long line-ups at microphones and between the hearing of the above mentioned reports and this session we managed to get 45 minutes behind schedule!

Korean dramatic opera presentation 

- Evening Prayer tonight was Anglican Evensong... nice and familiar!

WCC Assembly - Tuesday, October 29 - More reflections

Today I wrote for the Anglican Church of Canada WCC blog, so if you're looking for more reflections on the last day of the pre-assembly you can read them here: http://www.anglican.ca/resources/wcc2013/youth-pre-assembly-day-2/

WCC Assembly - Tuesday, October 29, Peaceful Protests

"Jesus is the Christ National Protest against WCC"

As the WCC Assembly begins to meet in Busan, Republic of Korea with the support of many local churches it became obvious that not all of the Christian churches in Korea support the WCC and its work. Today we encountered a peaceful protest consisting of hundreds of Korean people who do not support the work of the WCC and who are not happy that we are meeting here.

I say "peaceful protest" partially because that is what I've been told it is but mostly because that is what I've experienced it as. Life in any free country, people are welcome to their own opinions and views and expressing those opinions and views in peaceful ways.






We have a great Korean Host Committee who is keeping tabs on this protest and who are dealing with it. We also have a large number of police on the grounds of BEXCO (where we are meeting) who offer a peaceful presence to make sure that everything goes well.

It's important to remember that this protest is probably going on because it stems from the history of Korean churches and their WCC involvement - it's not necessarily directed to us who are here today but to the historical memory and encounters.

Peaceful police presence 

This article was shared on the WCC Youth Pre-Assembly Facebook page from the Korean Times and provides some background information.

Regardless of all this going on - all continues to be well, I still feel very safe here and we continue to gather and feel welcome!