Early Life
Aruna comes from India and born in 1949. She belongs to the Church of South India. She was educated in Bangalore, has a M.A. in English and has completed a part of the Bachelor’s Degree in Theology programme at the United Theological College of Bangalore. She is married and has two sons. In 2004, she completed a Doctorate in Ministry with the San Francisco Theological Seminary in the US.
Aruna was a member of the Student Christian Movement of Bangalore and India for five years, and served in various posts in its executive committee. She was an active member of the Free University 1971, a student group involved in a slum project and study of the Indian situation. She was involved with Vimochana, a forum for women’s rights, in Bangalore, and other women’s groups in Tamil Nadu.
Works
Aruna worked as lecturer in English at the Government College, Kolar, and at the National College, Bangalore, for the academic year 1972/73. In 1974 she was invited to join the Vicharodaya College, Women’s College, Ecumenical Christian Centre, Whitefield, Bangalore, as Lecturer, and from June 1976 was invited to become Dean of the programme.
In 1982 she was invited to join the staff of the National Council of Churches in India as Executive Secretary of the All India Council of Christian Women a unit of NCCI, playing an advocacy role for women and building a women’s movement in the church, and helping church women relate to secular women’s movements.
In 1983 she served on the Worship Committee of the WCC IV Assembly in Vancouver, and had served as Vice Moderator of the working group of the Sub-unit on Women in Church and Society of the WCC for the period between the Vancouver and Canberra assemblies. In this capacity she was a member of the Advisory Group which organised the Seoul World Convocation on Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation and was a member of the writing group on Biotechnology to bring in the feminist perspective particularly on reproductive technologies.
She took up her appointment with the WCC in May, 1991 as the Executive Director for Planning and Integration in the General Secretariat of the World Council of Churches. She was Coordinator of the Justice Peace and Creation Team and of the Women’s Programme of the World Council of Churches before taking up this present position.
She continues to be part of a small collective working with urban poor women in Madras. She is a member of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) and has been actively involved in its Women's Commission and is recognised as an Asian woman theologian.
Social Works
She has been involved in lobbying the Indian Government in an attempt to bring change in the Christian Personal laws relating to marriage, divorce, inheritance, etc.
She has given talks on such themes ranging from Women and Work, Human Rights and Women’s Rights to Eco-feminist Theology, Indian Feminist Theology and The Church and Violence Against Women . She has addressed major meetings in Europe, North America and Asia on the North-South question, mission priorities, etc.
She now lives in Chennai, India and resources the churches and the ecumenical movement in India and globally reflecting on the role to empower the Church and society.
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