NEW DELHI (UCAN) -- Asian Christian youth groups have agreed to set up an ecumenical forum to coordinate their programs and help accelerate Church unity.

Members of the Youth Desk of the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), the Asia-Pacific chapter of the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS), the World Council of Churches (WCC) Student Federation, and the Student Christian Movement (SCM) met in New Delhi Oct. 7-12.

"So far, no attempt has been made for an ecumenical youth network. With coordinated programs, youth can bring the Churches together through collective action," James Isbister of the CCA Youth Desk told UCA News.

Twenty-five delegates, including three Catholics, from Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam agreed to try to build a new network.

The meeting, titled "Human Rights in Asia: The Need for a Prophetic Youth and Student Christian Voice," was sponsored by the CCA Youth Desk and the youth unit of the National Council of Churches in India.

"Student wings of Churches have almost identical programs. Coordinating and networking will make them more effective," Isbister said.

Terence Krishnasamy of Manila-based IMCS Asia Pacific told UCA News that Church student bodies need links. "Right now, we work in isolation," he said.

"Bringing the (Christian) student networks together will certainly give greater impetus to the Christian youth movement in Asia," said Krishnasamy, a Malaysian.

"Student Christian groups have been involved in the protection of people's rights and human dignity," for example in toppling former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos in 1986, said Lung Ngam Ling, CCA youth executive secretary.

However, Ling said "the same energy is giving way to disillusionment," and there is a "need for an active student Christian voice in Asia" amid the emergence of the free market and growing religious fundamentalism.

Swami Agnivesh, founder of India's Bonded Labor Liberation Front, said in his keynote address that religious groups preach justice but are not prepared to face the challenge of unjust social structures.

"Human rights, dignity and development are inter-related," said the saffron-clad Hindu ascetic, the recipient in 1991 of the first Anti-Slavery International award.

Despite having "great access to human hearts," religions "do not include human rights in their agenda," Swami Agnivesh said, adding that youth must bring such issues to Churches' agendas.

WCC Student Federation member Priyanka Mendis, a Sri Lankan, said her country is ethnically divided between Tamils and Sinhalese.

"Christians are the only community whose constituency includes both Tamils and Sinhalese" in the country, she said.

"Yet the Church in Sri Lanka, both Catholic and Protestant, has a tendency to be on the side of the powers that be," said Mendis, a Baptist.

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