Dear Partners in Theological Education,

Greetings from theological educators from Asia!

We are writing this letter to express our thankfulness to you for your continued support and partnership in theological education in Asia. Realizing that Asian theological educators have to strive together in training future church leaders, 15 representatives from the regional and national theological associations, networks and partner organizations for theological education in Asia met at Trinity Theological College, Singapore from June 10-11, 2011. We have decided to form ourselves “Asian Forum for Theological Education” (AFTE) to promote ecumenical formation programme of the churches.

We have decided to work together in strengthening theological education in the following areas:

(i) Cooperation among theological educators in training future church leaders; 

(ii) Mutual learning through exchange of theological resources between the different regions within Asia;

(iii) Dialogue between the different denominational and theological traditions;

(iv) Promotion of quality theological education; and

(v) Mutual solidarity support mechanism and network for emerging churches in  Asia.  

While expressing our deep appreciation to ETE-WCC, CCA-FMU and FTESEA for bringing us together under this platform, we also seek your support and partnership in realizing our vision and hope.  We thank the dynamic leadership of Dr Dietrich Werner (ETE-WCC), Dr Antone Hope (FMU-CCA) and Dr H.S. Wilson (FTESEA) for their support, encouragement and cooperation in this initiative. We also thank EMW, Germany for support and encouragement during the initial discussion in July, 2010 in BIT, Bangkok.

We are attaching herewith the communiqué of the first AFTE meeting and we look forward to your continued advice and partnership in training future ecumenical and church leaders in Asia.

Yours Faithfully,

Dr Huang Po-Ho
Convener

Dr Wati Longchar
Recording Secretary