The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka has celebrated the 60th anniversary of the wider Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) with a service of thanksgiving in Colombo’s Christian Reformed Church. Around 250 representatives of the member churches took part in the service, which was led by the heads of churches and Christian organisations in Sri Lanka. The National Christian Council of Sri Lanka includes the two dioceses of the Church of Ceylon – Colombo and Kurunegala – and the Jaffna diocese of the Church of South India.
During the service, a number of people who made a significant contribution to the ecumenical movement was honoured; and the general secretary of the CCA, Mathews George Chunakara, paid tribute to the historical contributions of Sri Lankan churches to the Asian ecumenical movement; particularly since the founding of the East Asia Christian Conference (EACC), the forerunner of CCA.
The Bishop of Colombo, Dhiloraj Canagasabey, as President of the NCCSL, led the service, alongside other Sri Lankan Church leaders: the Revd Ebenezer Joseph, NCCSL General Secretary; the Revd Stanley Nelson, President of the Christian Reformed Church; the Revd Saman Perera, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church; Colonel Yousaf Masih and Colonel Rebecca Yousaf, of the Salvation Army; the Revd Priyantha Wijegoonawardene , General Secretary of the Bible Society; and the Revd Dr Jayasiri Peiris, Principal of the Lanka Theological Seminary.
As part of the celebrations, the Churches held a seminar on the Asia Mission Statement, which was adopted at the international Asia Mission Conference, held in Myanmar in October.