Ecumenical youth meet in Kolkatta to commemorate Edinburgh 1910

Hundreds of youths from different Christian denominations and religious traditions will converge next year in Kolkatta for a "National Ecumenical Youth Assembly (NEYA)".

Organised by the Commission on Youth of the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), the January 6 - 10 meet will identify new and creative perspectives in the direction of ecumenical mission in the 21st century.

The assembly will consist of about 700 youth activists, students, theologians, leaders between the age category of 15-35 years of age, females and males in equal ratio from the NCCI member constituents, special invitees from other religious traditions, South Asian regions and other countries.

With the theme "Come, Let's Be Friends", the youth assembly aims to "renew and revitalize young people's tampered and broken relations with their fellow beings, nature and the creator."

NCCI's Commission on Youth identifies friendship as a new and inclusive paradigm of relation to ecumenism for relating with the whole of creation. It believes that friendly relation alone will bind and unite all humanity together.

However, the focus of deliberations will mainly be on subjects like ecumenical formation, perspective building, interfaith cooperation, leadership training, cultural expressions, community building and others.

The youths will also study on social themes such as environmental issues, nuclear disarmament, HIV-AIDS, poverty, migration, economic meltdown and gender concerns.

Incidentally, NEYA 2010 also commemorates the centenary year of the World Missionary Conference held in Edinburgh in 1910. The conference was seen as the beginning of the modern Protestant Christian ecumenical movement.

Among objectives enumerated, the National Ecumenical Youth Assembly will vie to "contribute in the facilitation of local, national and global ecumenical networking among young people; challenge and transform attitudes and structures that limit youth participation and leadership; and facilitate intra church, inter-denominational, inter-cultural and inter-religious interaction."

Besides concentrating on the imperative and crucial youth issues and concerns of the church and society, it will also help continue the legacy of ecumenical youth movement and set new and creative trends in ecumenism.

Scriptural reflections, thematic presentations, case studies, panel discussions, theatre exercises and live worship will be part of the youth assembly programme.