Globalization for Global Community: A Challenge to Ministerial Formation‪.‬

The end of the Second World War (1939-1945) witnessed the ending of the subjugation of a large section of humanity of the world, as people under colonial bondage began to assert independence and claim autonomy. Such a trend around the globe gave the impression that humans were moving to a new era of self-managed interdependent communities. That dream was soon shattered with a new polarization between Communist and non-Communist blocks of countries and led to the Cold War phenomenon. However, five centuries of exploration, migration, settlement, international trade, commerce, and travel around the globe has created an environment of intense interaction between people in different parts of the world, leading them to an awareness of being a global family of communities. In Christian terms, the changes escalated a sense of ecumene (from the Greek word oikos, home)--Earth as a place of common dwelling. The major religions of the world in various ways have taken advantage of such global mobility and interaction to spread their faith beyond their original location and in the process have emerged as world religions and global faith communities. The ironic outcome is that some world religions have more followers in countries or regions outside of the place where they emerged and the people from whom they originated. Buddhism and Islam are good examples of this phenomenon. There is no likely possibility of reversing such trends. Within another four to five decades the majority of Christians will be found in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, countries of the South, overtaking the present European and Euro-American majority. (1) While Christianity is spreading in the countries of the South and Islam is making headway in Africa, Eastern religions, especially Buddhism, are finding greater acceptance in the North.