The 2008 CUAC Triennial in Hong Kong and Guangzhou (People's Republic of China) will be an opportunity for us all to accomplish many things. It is obviously an opportunity to dialogue between "East" and "West”, and about all the categories and stereotypes that have developed worldwide as a result of that colonial divide. But beyond the stereotypes, there are also current realities.
In many parts of the world, Christianity developed on the back of colonialization. But very soon, as subsequent history describes, it became a process of an "indigenization" (incorporatization into the indigenous culture). And there, it developed its own local authenticity.
Theologically, in the Incarnation, "the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us" and thereby took on the qualities of our particular and peculiar human living. Is this what is currently understood as "indigenization"?
While some of us may look at this in "the East", it actually transposes the question back to "us" in "the West" (or whoever is thinking the thought) as to what has been the cultural Incarnation in our part of the world?
Many of the current tensions and controversies in the Anglican Communion have to do with tensions between what is the pristine "Incarnate Word" of Christ on the one hand, and the "Inculturated" Word on the other.
When is the "Incarnate Word" no longer "The Word"?
When is it "the Word"?
What happens, or should not happen, in the process of "Inculturation"?
This conference will give us an opportunity to explore the tensions between these polarities, not only in distinctions between so-called "East" and "West", but also in terms of "North" and "South", liberal and conservative, ethnic and universal, etc. Modern communications have thrown our world into an immediate awareness of each other's culture without a framework to handle the discrepancies and differences that we will inevitably encounter. Here is a chance to
try to sort these out.
The 2008 Triennial will hopefully be a framework for discussion and pursuance of these questions. It is not just a series of experiences and lectures, but open sessions for active participation where we all need to start a discussion on the essential questions - both internationally, and within the Communion.
The Asian Pacific Chapter initiated the theme--Excellence, Character, Service--as a way of indicating what Christian academic institutions in their part of the world set as their educational goals. They noted that in the West, the category of Excellence" seems to dominate the academy. But for them the outcome of higher education is also the development of moral character and service to one's culture and society, as well as the strictly academic goal to excel in knowledge. As they hold up this interpretation of educational purpose, they ask other institutions around the world what their goals are
beyond the strict acquisition of knowledge and refinement of skill? And what if they are Christian and Anglican institutions?
And that poses the question the human outcome of our educational endeavors, both in terms of the development of human community and also for the development of faith and values. As "Christian" institutions of the Anglican tradition, are we responsible for the education of our students in the fields of human community and faith and values? Even if we operate in societies where religion is distinct from social and cultural operations, or even when it is subsumed within it, what role do we play as colleges and universities whose pursuit is certainly knowledge in the broad sense, but increasingly the acquisition of data and skills in the narrow sense?
We need to have a discussion, internationally and intercultural, on these questions...
The 2008 Triennial is a framework for doing these things, not just in terms of what it offers in terms of experience, but also in the opportunities it offers in terms of discussion and dialogue.
Remember that CUAC is simply a network of institutions of higher learning around the world which have been initiated and still hold some relationship to the churches of the Anglican Communion. That defines the importance of our listening attentively to each other and our value of each other. We can show this and explore this through involvement in the 2008 Triennial. What do we do educationally?
