AsIPA Desk
The AsIPA Desk of the FABC Office of Laity is based in Taipei. It was set up to respond to the need to promote and hold training for all member conferences of the FABC towards their vision of Church in Asia for the third millennium, as a Participatory Church, a Communion of Communities.
The meaning of AsIPA (Asian Integral Pastoral Approach)
AsIPA is Asian because it seeks to implement the vision articulated by the Asian Bishops and to face the realities of the Asian peoples that challenge the Church in Asia: our pluralism, the existence of the great Asian religions, the vast numbers of young people and their vitality, massive poverty, the women’s movement, the ecological movement etc.
It is Integral in that it seeks to achieve a balance between the “spiritual” and the “social”, between the individual and the community, between the hierarchical leadership and the co-responsibility of the laity. It is therefore integral in both its approach and its content.
It is Pastoral in that its goal it to implement the vision of the new way of being Church, and particularly to train lay people to carry out their mission in the Church and in the world .It thereby constitutes a demand that priests be trained to encourage the co-responsibility of the laity and to work in teams. This requires a new style of leadership.
As an Approach, AsIPA is a process of realizing the vision of a participatory Church. It addresses the entire people of God. It is a pastoral approach, which is “Christ- and community-centered”, allowing the participants of training courses to search for themselves and to experience a “New Way of Being Church”.