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Richard Rogers on South East Asia
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Over the last 2000 years, through the faithfulness of so many of God's people, the Kingdom of Christ has grown enormously. In Europe, the Americas and the Pacific, almost all the countries have Christianity as their predominant religion. In Africa, the figure is nearly 60%. However there is still one region where the Gospel has yet to fully reach and that is Asia. Asia contains 83% of the world's non-Christians and hardly any of its countries have Christianity as the major religion. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and traditional beliefs still dominate most of these countries. This picture is seen clearly in South East Asia, where there is a rich diversity in economics and religion. There is the extreme wealth of Singapore and the poverty of Laos. There is the religious freedom in Thailand alongside the closed borders of Vietnam. In some countries, such as Cambodia, where a new church is planted every week, God's Kingdom is growing at a phenomenal rate. In other countries such as Sri Lanka, growth is very slow indeed. In South East Asia, Crosslinks has in the past only been in partnership with the Church in Myanmar. The main reason for this was the lack of any Anglican Church in the other countries. However in 1996 the Anglican Province of South East Asia was formed which consisted of four Dioceses, one of which is Singapore. Singapore Diocese is responsible for Singapore, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Indonesia. About two years ago, following initial missionary outreach into each one of these countries, Crosslinks was invited to help in the development of this work and one particular country where Crosslinks might have a role to play is Indonesia. Indonesia is roughly the size of the United States, consisting of 17,000 islands and 215 million people. All citizens must belong to one of five religions - Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Protestantism or Catholicism. Over the last few years the number of Christians has grown to nearly 20%.and this has caused resentment among the more militant Muslims. Augustinuo Titi, who is pioneering the Anglican Church in Indonesia, is a lawyer, highly educated, influential and a man of God. He has lost members of his own family who have been killed in the Jihad, and he has had his own life threatened. Despite enormous opposition, including the destruction of many new churches, Augustinuo, along with a growing number of believers, are reaching out to the people with the Gospel. He works in co-operation with the Diocese of Singapore and they have formulated and are implementing a bold Mission strategy. It includes taking God's word to Sumatra, the largest unevangelised island in the world; as well as reaching out to one of the world's largest unreached peoples groups - the 35 million Sundanese who live on the island of Java. It is an enormous undertaking, yet being part of the world wide Anglican Communion means that they are not alone. They can call on all of us for support and prayer. It is possible that Crosslinks might become part of this and other work in Asia in future years. |
If Crosslinks is not to be defined geographically, what are the mission possibilities for the twenty-first century? Richard Rogers considers South East Asia and Jem Hovil looks at Uganda
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Richard Rogers is the Crosslinks Regional Coordinator for the South West and Wales |
 Jem
Hovil on Uganda
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