Lutheran Leader Urges Asian Churches to Expose Systemic Causes of Hunger

LWF Churches Meet in Bangkok for First Regional Pre-Assembly

BANGKOK, Thailand/GENEVA, 7 December 2009 (LWI) - As the ancient prophets challenged the powerful who ignored the cries of the needy, so too must the church today act to dismantle systems that prevent people from getting their daily bread.

This was the central message of the keynote address from Palestinian Bishop Dr Munib A. Younan at the opening of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Asia Pre-Assembly Consultation (APAC) and Asia Church Leadership Conference (ACLC), taking place from 6-9 December in Bangkok, Thailand. “Give Us Today Our Daily Bread: A Holy Call to Justice” was the title of the keynote address.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thailand is hosting the APAC and ACLC, bringing together around 100 delegates from the 47 LWF member churches in Asia. It is the region’s preparatory meeting for the July 2010 LWF Eleventh Assembly, to be held in Stuttgart, Germany, under the theme “Give Us Today Our Daily Bread.” Participants who are drawn from 15 countries in Asia include delegates to the Assembly, LWF Council members and advisers, the Lutheran Council in Asia (LUCAS - comprising bishops and presidents of the region’s churches), women and youth representatives, mission partners and ecumenical guests.

Noting the communal language of the LWF assembly theme, Younan said that “a sincere prayer will seek daily bread for all and will be lived out in ministry to the poor and needy.” Jesus, in continuity with the prophets, called for redistributive justice that earned them no favors with political leaders, he remarked.

Younan is bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL). He was elected LWF vice president at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in Winnipeg, Canada.

Poverty amid Affluence

Out of the estimated 1 billion people in the world who go hungry each day, more than 60 percent (642 million) are in the Asian and Pacific region, said Younan, citing statistics of United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This figure, he noted, includes a disproportionately high number of women and children in a continent where some 800 million people live in poverty. But it is also against a background of “significant gains made in the past three years in per capita income and calorie consumption,” remarked the ELCJHL bishop.

“These increasingly affluent Asians are able to diversify their diets and create an explosion in the demand for livestock, products, fruits, vegetables and feed grains,” he emphasized. He stressed the need for a more equitable and environmentally sustainable agricultural growth to complete the economic transformation of rural Asia. “It must support small farmers. It must also capitalize on changing food consumption patterns in the region and a growing global demand for diverse products,” he explained.

Citing colonialism, debt, militarization, climate change and occupation as some of the issues that create the conditions for widespread hunger, the LWF vice president called the church to engage in prophetic diakonia—service that confronts injustice in the world. He illustrated the meaning of prophetic diakonia with an example from his own context. Lands traditionally inhabited by his Palestinian people have been taken over illegally by the state of Israel; houses are demolished; movement is restricted and families are separated. Retributive violence creates fear among Palestinians and Israelis. In the midst of the suffering, prophetic diakonia names the injustice of occupation, he said, while offering a vision for peaceful coexistence based on justice and security for both peoples.

Prophetic diakonia, he added, “speaks for justice despite personal inconvenience or cost; opposes entrenched means of exploiting others such as class or caste; openly criticizes any violation of human rights; and resists blaming the victim and exposes underlying systemic causes.”

Younan laid out an agenda for the Asian churches, calling them to such tasks as demanding just sharing of resources, holding world leaders accountable for promises regarding climate change and pressing employers to pay wages that allow workers to live in dignity. He challenged the church itself to enable the full empowerment and participation of women, as well as joining hands with other faith leaders to tackle joint problems.

The Lutheran understanding of “daily bread” is that it includes all that is needed for life. Ultimately, the church’s task is to seek daily bread for all, “not bread for some and crumbs for the rest,” added the LWF vice president.

The Asia Pre-Assembly is one of the five LWF regional meetings and two international gatherings to prepare delegates for effective participation in the forthcoming assembly, and deliberate the assembly theme implications in the various LWF contexts.

The Asian region desk at the LWF Department for Mission and Development is coordinating the APAC and ACLC meetings. (791 words)

Journey | Asia Pre-Assembly Consultation

07.12.2009

Lutheran Leader Urges Asian Churches to Expose Systemic Causes of Hunger

LWF Churches Meet in Bangkok for First Regional Pre-Assembly

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