Spirituality of Transformation for JustPeace

The 16th General Assembly of Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs

Introduction

We, the Asia and Pacific Alliance of YMCAs, gathered in Singapore March 9th -13th 2004, in the name of God, to discuss the theme 'Spirituality of Transformation for Just Peace' and to recognise the call to bring renewal to all aspects of human society. We are confronted by a multitude of problems, prompting more suffering and oppression in almost every facet of human life and all social structures. In the context of globalisation, the YMCA is challenged to return to the original inspirations of its Founders and the insights of the Good News of the Gospel.

Our Understanding of Spirituality of Transformation for JustPeace

Our spirituality of transformation is for JustPeace. Justice, for us, lies at the heart of the Scriptures. Justice is about the fundamental relationship between God and the Human Person, and with the whole of Creation. Justice is the mandate of God to share the goods of the earth with each human person, in keeping with the plan of God. Justice seeks to respect the dignity of each human person and their right to live in freedom as children of God. Justice also maintains the balance among the fundamental structures of society; namely the State, the Market and Civil Society.

From our perspective, personal and social justice has to be the path to Peace. Peace is not the absence of war and violence; rather, it is acceptance of the need to respect each human person and enable all to live in harmony. Peace is possible only with the eradication of the root causes of war, aggression, violence, counter violence and other violations of human rights.

Justice ensures Peace and it is, indeed, the plan of God for all of humanity to live in Just Peace.

Renewed Strategy for Transformation

Against the backdrop of global forces, we have become more aware of the intimate link between the three cornerstones of society today - the State, Market and Civil Society. After dialogue and reflection, we thoughtfully considered our contributions as members of Civil Society. We examined both our existing relationships with the State and the Market, and worked to identify creative ways to find and forge a new solidarity with the suffering and oppressed.

Participation in Civil Society

We understand that without active and voluntary participation to policy processes in our daily lives, we cannot successfully accomplish the task of structural reform. Without structural reform, we cannot succeed in our mission to develop and nurture young people so that they will become social change agents and lead us to a more just and peaceful world.

Extending our understanding of the transformation mechanism, we believe it is imperative that YMCAs - particularly in the Asia and Pacific region - give priority to equipping citizens with better communication tools and skills, the analytic power to evaluate policies and programs, and leadership skills to initiate local community networks. And work of this type, we believe, will be implemented more efficiently if we cooperate further, participate more actively with other YMCAs in our region and throughout the world, and commit to share information and evaluate our experiences.

Thus we believe that we can work to promote JustPeace by becoming more involved in Civil Society - especially in the areas of advocacy, lobbying, empowerment through education and awareness building, networking and the development of other rights-based initiatives that address the issues of youth, women, the poor and the marginalised (including outcasts and tribal groups).

Emerging Paradigms

Although local and national YMCAs are distinctly different, and work to address different needs and issues, we can discern common threads and patterns in the challenges we face. Through dialogue and analysis of contextual models of the YMCA in action, new ways of thinking about how we might further the YMCA mission in our region have emerged out of the Assembly. Collectively, we can think of them as 'Paradigms of Spirituality and Development'.

In the 2004 - 2007 Quadrennium, YMCAs at local, national and regional level are challenged to explore, enrich, widen and upgrade their manifestations of spirituality and development: to create, shape and enact new ways of thinking. YMCAs are also challenged to reach out to more people - especially those most in need - and to cooperate with each other, as well as with other institutions and agencies, to achieve fundamental human rights.

New Forms of Partnerships

We know that our active participation in the civil society for building of Peace founded on Justice will be strengthened by a commitment to develop new paradigms of spirituality and development. At the core of any new paradigm, there must be a partnership with the suffering and oppressed.

Partnering with the suffering and oppressed is our way of expressing our commitment to our fundamental belief in justice and peace. It is our way of communicating our unique and intimate relationship of care and concern for each other through social and rights based action for JustPeace.

For this primary partnership to be effective, we need to begin with a keen awareness of the current realities, strengths and weaknesses within our YMCAs and YMCA structures. We must continue to review, renew and strengthen the relationships within the Alliance and, in this context, work more rapidly to integrate Youth and women into all aspects of the Alliance. Our new understandings of partnership will not only help us to become more effective and efficient in the work that we do, but will also help us to become one with the whole human family through our strengthened global YMCA structures. Our partnership approach also requires that we actively encourage and develop networks among the suffering and the oppressed, and with other communities.

The primary partnership, between the YMCA and the suffering, reflects our faith in globalising solidarity. This we believe is the way in the new millennium to ensure a truly universal peace that can only be built on justice. In the context of the globalising world, with the glaring inequalities of income and provision of basic human needs, the most important challenge for YMCAs is to forge a true solidarity with the poor, oppressed and marginalised of the world. Using the word 'solidarity' in a different way, we also believe that our YMCA work can best be achieved through an internal commitment to the processes and practice of solidarity. By this we mean that the various levels of the YMCA act together, and are accountable to each other, in light of our commitment to the Paris Basis and Challenge 21.