Fellowship of Indian Denominational Churches 2nd General Assembly

Call to respond to issues within Christian discipleship framework

THE second General Assembly of the Fellowship of Indian Denominational Churches (FIDC) was held in Malacca from May 9 to 12, 2008. The theme was “One Heart, One Voice.”

The FIDC aims to find ways to work together in Christian unity in ministry and mission, to share and leverage on human and other resources, to study and publish common issues and concerns of the Indian churches and to have a particular vision and responsibility to reach out to the Indian Diaspora.

The FIDC was founded by the Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist Indian churches in Malaysia and Singapore and seeks to bring the different traditions together to strengthen the Indian churches within and beyond Asia.

With this in mind, various papers were presented at the assembly for deliberation; the topics ranged from exploring frameworks for missions to the South Asian Diaspora, to confessing Christ in a pluralistic society especially in the context of the Indian Christian being a minority within a minority, to cross-currents in family life, to challenges in pastoral mission. The sessions were highly interactive and apart from the formal responses to the papers presented, there were small group discussions and question-and-answer sessions.

The keynote speaker at the assembly was the Rev Dr Sam Kamaleson, a Methodist pastor, evangelist and international speaker whose thought-provoking talks challenged the clergy as well as the lay leadership to respond to contextual issues within the framework of Christian discipleship.

The Executive Committee under the leadership of the FIDC Chairman, Bishop Dr Robert Solomon, and Vice-Chairman Bishop Julius Paul (Lutheran Church, Malaysia) drew up plans for the next quadrennium. Inputs were also obtained from “shadow FIDC Executive Committees” that were set up from among the participants.

Apart from planning ministry programmes and events around issues that were deliberated for action at the assembly itself, it was also decided that a “think tank” be set up at the FIDC level to analytically work through critical issues and challenges that the Indian Diaspora faces.

The assembly also resolved to leverage the FIDC website to enhance communication, facilitate ongoing discussions and stay connected with one another.

The FIDC members presented to the assembly both books which they had recently published as well as books which were ready for publication – these books addressed issues of common concern to the FIDC. There was also a presentation by the Bible Society with a specific focus on reaching the Indian community.

The spacing of the events and programmes gave the 87 participants ample time to grapple with issues as well as fellowship and network with one another.

The third assembly of the FIDC will be held in Singapore in January 2013.