Milestones

MILESTONES OF AsIPA

MILESTONES OF AsIPA
1970
1970

Church In Asia

Pope Paul VI
Visit of Pope Paul VI – After Vatican II, challenge to be Church in Asia, to make visible the Asian face of Jesus, the Christian faith rooted in Asian soil; to implement the vision of Vatican II
1972
1972

Approval of Statutes of the FABC in Rome

logo FABC
1972

Apostolicam Actuositatem

Start of the study to set up an Office for the Laity within the FABC with background of the document
on Laity, – “Apostolicam Actuositatem”

1974
1974

First FABC Plenary Assembly in Taipei

  • “The Mission of the Church in Asia” – this assembly reflected on the effort needed to carry out the task of evangelization in Asia with the people at the heart of the process.
  • The Bishops established that evangelization could significantly take place within a TRIPLE DIALOGUE – with the POOR, with CULTURES and with OTHER FAITHS.
1982
1982

Third FABC

The Committee for the Laity was officially started as a concrete step to become a full Office of Laity (which later became Office of Laity and Family after FABC 8).

Arch. Joseph TiKang (Taiwan) was the first Chairman, Fr. Jess Breña as Executive Secretary

1984
1984

Bishops’ Institute on the Lay Apostolate (BILA) – TAIWAN

The first Bishops’ Institute on the Lay Apostolate (BILA) – a search for a formation program to awaken the laity to their vocation to holiness and to be co-responsible for the mission of the Church.

1984

Training Courses using the Lumko Method

We started to give training courses in Asia using the Lumko method (first at BILA 1)

1986
1986

Fourth Plenary Assembly of FABC

  • The Fourth Plenary Assembly of FABC on “The vocation and mission of the Laity in the Church and in the World of Asia” declared the committee on the Laity as a full-fledged Office of the Laity (FABC OL)
  • Fr. Tommy Murphy (Taiwan) was Executive Secretary
  • More training was given using the Lumko Method
1990
1990

Fifth Plenary Assembly of the FABC

  • The Fifth Plenary Assembly of the FABC in Bandung, Indonesia.
  • The Bishops declared that the Church in Asia will have to be “A Church of Communion,… a participatory
    Church, …witnessing to the Risen Lord…where the gifts of the Holy Spirit to all: priests, religious, lay people be recognized and put to use…”
  • The Bishops at FABC5 requested that formation courses be started to enable the local churches to move towards this “new way of being Church” responding to the challenges of the new millennium.
  • A mandate was given to FABC OLF to start these courses, using the Lumko method at first.
1991
1991

Pastoral Training

  • First international courses in Chinese (Taiwan) and in English (Thailand) with Fr Oswald Hirmer and Fr Fritz Lobinger. (They both became Bishops later in South Africa)
  • Bishop Oswald Hirmer who was with us from the start, was 6 months based in Asia, living in Singapore and accompanying our processes in different countries for the next 5 years.
  • 1992 – 1993 – many local level programmes were conducted using the Lumko materials and method.