National Council of Churches in the Philippines

Sangguniang Pambansa ng Mga Simbahan sa Pilipinas

Tribute to Clement John

It is with anguish and a great sense of loss that we at Peace for Life have received the news about the untimely death of Clement John. How are we to re-imagine PfL without him? Haven’t we always taken it as a given that in all our major activities within the ambit of ecumenical concern, we have an ever-reliable partner, generous with his time and resources, sharing insights and ideas; a sophisticated mind that easily grasped the ramifications of institutional politics and vagaries of the much bigger world geopolitics?

He was a pillar in the founding of Peace for Life. It is no exaggeration to say that without Clement’s efforts and collaboration, Peace for Life might never have become, especially in the light of the fact that the very idea of its existence—the necessity to establish an international multi-religious movement that builds and promotes faith-based resistance to the U.S. Empire—is a most contentious one.

We greeted Clement’s retirement from WCC last year with much equivocation. Without him, we could not but feel that our strongest ties with the institution frazzled.  But on the other hand his being out could mean even more valuable time for PfL and its issues, unencumbered as he would be by the usual bureaucratic and organizational constraints. It would be a new arena that would allow his visions to soar. He would be going back to Pakistan and get involved with the country’s concerns on sectarian conflicts and religious intolerance.

Given the crisis faced by the present ecumenical movement and the ambivalence of the stand of many of its institutions on globalization and empire, of even more profound relevance beyond our self-centred concerns was Clement’s unwavering adherence to progressive politics and moral responsibility that is at the very core of ecumenism.

Most of us here in the PfL came to know about the ecumenical movement at the time when it was a movement for social transformation that unambiguously rested on social justice; when it wholeheartedly embraced in solidarity liberation movements and all those in struggle against apartheid  and imperialist oppression. Clement John was among that generation of ecumenical workers who made the community a strong progressive force within the larger movement for liberation.

A strong commitment to progressive ecumenism marked his years with both the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and the World Council of Churches (WCC), even long after it ceased to be fashionable to the other so-called ecumenicals.

For these, and his unstinting support for the liberation struggle in the Philippines, we will always be grateful. Thank you, Sir, for being a gentleman of principle and conviction. Clement John will forever be for us a giant within the ecumenical movement.

 

CARMENCITA KARAGDAG  & VIVIAN DE LIMA

(On behalf of the PfL Secretariat and the Working Group)