TOPIC : PRESIDENTIAL
ADDRESS
OCCASION: WOCATI GENERAL ASSEMBLY
DATE : December
8-13, 2002
VENUE: CHIANGMAI,
THAILAND
Greetings and Welcome
In Hawaii, as our friend Yeow Choo Lak would vouch, they
say "Aloha" for welcome. In the Philippines, we say
"Mabuhay!". But in Thailand the word is Yindee Tonrup.
I wish I could greet you all in your respective mother tongue
to express my heartiest welcome to the Chiangmai WOCATI assembly.
The latest list I received says that there are 42 of us gathered
in this exciting city of Chiangmai, ready to make historic decisions
on the future of global theological networking.
It is believed that the birthing of the first child is the most painful experience of a mother. If the putting up of a theological congress of universal magnitude were a birthing process, the Chiangmai WOCATI should not be painful anymore since this is already the third of its kind. But holding it after a long interval of six years, made it like we are starting WOCATI all over again; like the first child is just born.
From the communications received from the esteemed delegates of this august body. I notice that 91% are new. Some even asked me "Please tell me what WOCATI is all about", while others wrote "We thought WOCATI does not exist anymore." Good question and observation. WOCATI is still around. But it may cease to exist. The answer is in our hands.
A Quick Flashback
Years ago. Dr. Samuel Amirtham, then the Director of the Programme
of Theological Education (PTE) of the World Council of Churches,
now known as Ecumenical Theological Education, saw the need for
theological associations in the world to network closely. He,
therefore, initiated meetings of executive directors of theological
associations in Africa, America, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin and
Central America. The meeting in Singapore in 1987 breathed life
into the World Conference of Association of Theological Associations.
It was, however, in Kaliurang, Indonesia where its first birthday
was celebrated and the inaugural meeting was held.
A number of persons performed nurturing roles during WOCATI's infancy. Foremost of them is Dr.Leon Pacala, then Executive Director of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS). He was appointed to raise funds for WOCATI, a task which he fulfilled magnificently. Dr.Yeow Choo Lak, then the Executive Director of the Association of Theological Education in Southeast Asia (ATESEA), as the secretary of (WOCATI) Executive Committee, did the paper work with the strong support of his counterparts from the rest of the world. It was generous grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts and Lilly Endowment Inc. that enabled WOCATI to carry on its operation.
The WOCATI Congress
The first WOCATI congress was held in 1992 in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania while the second congress was held in 1996 in Nairobi,
Kenya.
The third congress should have been held in 2000 but it had to be postponed for two reasons: There have been resignations fro n the Executive Committee. The first to resign was Dr.Kigasung Wesley due to his election as bishop of New Guinea. Dr.Ian Williams, our secretary-treasurer, followed since he left the academe to work in a parish where, he believed, he felt called to serve. Our president, Dr.Barbara Brown Zikmund, was the third to resign. This she did after leaving Hartford Seminary and accepting a new job in Kyoto, Japan. Just before this assembly, our five members from Africa, Douglas Waruta and Mary Getui stopped writing. From eight the Executive Committee members became three: Leonor Rojas, Petros Vassiliadis and myself As the vice-president of WOCATI, I suddenly found myself its reluctant president. On that same year I was elected president of an 8,000-student-university. The work in the university, while planning for this Congress, has been mentally, emotionally and physically demanding. The university, Wesleyan University-Philippines, which used to have one campus, now has three located in the northern part of the country.
The resignation problem was compounded by lack of financial resources. There has been a heavy competition for funds from foundations. Then, too, for some reason, many of the member associations do not remit membership dues. The Executive Committee could not meet or the little funds left would be eaten up by airfares and board and lodging expenses. ATS came to rescue WOCATI. Its staff put this organization on the internet at no cost on our part. It tried to raise funds for us but that seemed to have failed.
We Are Here To Decide
There is no need to overemphasize the problems that WOCATI
faces. We need a strong leadership that is committed to make WOCATI
go. But that is not all .We need resources that will support that
leadership.
Dr.Barbara B. Zikmund once wrote that congresses like what we have now are very expensive and that it makes more sense to have small regional meetings. Is this the need of the hour? There is a TV program in the Philippines entitled "Fine, whatever." But that we cannot say of WOCATI. We need to decide. Whatever is not fine!
And the decision is whether to revive WOCATI, inject new life into its dying stage or just let it die naturally and be more merciful and apply euthanasia. The answer is in your hands.
A World of Gratitude and Appreciation
Let me end by saying that this assembly would have not
been a reality without the committed and able support of particularly
two friends, Chris Meinzer of the Association of Theological Schools
in the U.S. and Canada (ATS) who worked from the United States
and Salvador Martinez who patiently did the ground work from here
in Chiangmai. I was in the Philippines, trying to reach out to
all of you, very often wondering to the verge of frustration why
answers to my letters would not come as early as I expected them
to. There is, however, another person who has been working for
WOCATI behind the scene. What you read on the web about WOCATI
is her creative work. That person is Loretta Groff of ATS. Electronics
supplied the speed we all needed to make this assembly happen.
Thanks be to God. Thank you to all of you. May God continue to
bless WOCATI.
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