Interview
Can you describe the audience and setting for your lecture?
Rev. Ashwood: The Graduate Program in Theology of Universitas Kristen Indonesia Maluku welcomed me for a guest lecture held both in person at the UKIM and online. Following on the Faith and Order conversations on decolonialism from a racial and gender justice perspective, I spoke to faculty, staff, and graduate students examining how the legacies of colonialism continue to shape church structures and ecumenical relationships. Then, I explored the implications for Christian and what it would mean for Christian communities to move from rhetorical commitments to lived, restorative practice.
Who opened the session?
Rev. Ashwood: Rev. Dr Yohanes Parihala, secretary of the Graduate Program, welcomed me as "a sister in Christ who walks with us in this search," and situated the lecture's theme within Maluku's own history of colonial mission and interfaith coexistence. He told participants that decolonial ecumenism "is not an abstract debate" for the region, but a question that "touches our worship, our leadership, our theological education, and how we witness together."
Rev. Parihala urged ecumenical dialogue to examine "whose voices are centered" and "whose stories are told," asking whether unity in Christ leads to "justice, dignity, and mutuality or does it only maintain the status quo.”
In his welcome remarks on behalf of the university leadership, vice rector for Partnership Affairs Dr Ardilson Pembuain expressed hope that the lecture would "broaden our perspectives, challenge our thinking, and deeply enrich our understanding of ecumenism and justice in a global context," and encouraged participants to bring the conversation back to their churches and communities.
What were some highlights from your lecture?
Rev. Ashwood: Drawing on biblical scholarship and postcolonial theory, I traced the sociopolitical hierarchy of the Pax Romana, a system of patricians, freed persons, and the enslaved, as the world into which Jesus was born: a Jew under colonial occupation, from a family of artisans rather than the ruling class.
I argued that Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom of God directly challenged this imperial order, citing his instruction to his disciples that, unlike the rulers of the nations who "lord it over" their people, "it will not be so among you,” rather, whoever wishes to become great among them must become a servant (Matthew 20:25-26). I connected this to Jesus' declaration of justice for the marginalized and oppressed in Luke 4:18–19, and invited participants to reconsider even the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) in this light.
I read the closing line of the prayer, “that the kingdom, the power, and the glory belong to God forever,” not merely as liturgical praise but as a direct counter-claim to the titles Roman emperors assumed for themselves. Read this way, the prayer does not call believers to withdraw from the world because earthly power is meaningless; rather, it removes any claim to absolute legitimacy from earthly rulers, including colonial structures that persist within the church itself. On this reading, I affirmed the supremacy of God's reign as the theological ground for confronting worldly power, not a reason to retreat from it: no earthly authority is owed the total allegiance due to God alone, and it is this conviction that authorises the church to challenge and dismantle unjust structures rather than accommodate them.
What was the framework of decolonial disruption you outlined?
Rev. Ashwood: Referencing sociologist Anibal Quijano's concept of the "colonial matrix of power" spanning control of economy, authority, gender and sexuality, and knowledge, I outlined a corresponding framework of decolonial disruption for ecumenical life: decolonizing theology, ecumenical resources, authority structures, and understandings of gender, alongside a renewed grounding in Christo-centric principles and ecumenical social action.
I called for concrete steps rather than declarations alone, including truth-telling and reparative justice regarding the church's historical complicity in land dispossession and the transatlantic slave trade, de-centring institutional power in favour of grassroots and synodal models, and centring the voices of Indigenous, Black, feminist, and liberationist communities as legitimate sources of theological understanding.
I closed by returning to my title question, framing decolonial ecumenism not as a settled achievement but as an ongoing demand: that the church's talk of justice be matched by a "lived experience of faith that is just action." The lecture concluded with an open discussion, in which students engaged with how these questions relate to theological education and church life in Maluku and the wider Indonesian context.
