In this week of prayer for Christian unity, we are called to pay attention to the diversity of Christians as well as to their mutual relations. We explore here some of the ways through which Asian Catholics respond to the presence of evangelical Christians.
Evangelical churches, which stress that one has to be “born again” to follow Christ, have been the trendy Christianity of the past 40 years in Asia. Evangelicals are seen as having strong feelings against ecumenical relations compared to Anglicans and Methodists, who are more supportive.
The evangelical branch of Christianity has grown significantly across Asia. The Evangelical growth was second only to Pentecostalism, which we consider an intrinsically different tradition. It would be interesting to focus on Evangelical-Catholic relations since Evangelicals are a relatively newer Christian force to consider in Asia.
But before focusing on the Catholic-Evangelical encounter, we must first consider the immense diversity of ecclesial, political, and socio-economic situations that Asia represents. Depending on whether we look at Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, or Bhutan, the socio-economic context, the local history, the vitality of local Churches, and their mutual relations vary tremendously.