SU Church Workers Convocation 2012 Proceedings

Table of Contents 2

3

4

The Church and Christian Education: Chal-lenges and Perspectives 5

1: Christian Education—An Arm of Mission? 2: Education Behind, At and Beyond the Wall 13-21

The Role Of The Divinity School In Expanding Christian Education

22-23

The Role of the Divinity School in Expanding Christian Education

31-38

Challenges to CE in Sunday School Programs of the Church 39 The Effective Pastors & Caring Pastors 40 How to Teach Islam in the Church 41 The Philippine Budget: Implications & Challenges to the

Churches 42

Healing Presence: Spiritual Care of the Soul 43

The Role of Christian Education in Promoting Earth Rights

44

Christian Education as Soul Craft: Conflict Sensitivity and Principles of Non-Violent Communication

45

Rev. Joel R. Camba 46 Rev. Solomon B. Bilaoen, Jr. 47

48

“Lente” 49

50

Challenges in Doing Christian Education” 51-53

54-55

56-57

58

59

60

61

Mila Limpiado De Jesus

It has been the tradition of the Divinity School to produce the proceedings of the Church Work-ers Convocation and make this material available to the participants at the end of the gathering. The production of the proceedings started sometime in the early 1970s using the Rural Mimeo Press method. Members of the Documentation Committee would stay up late to work on the stencils and pounding the typewriters, collating and binding the manuscripts with large staplers. Someone adept in drawing on stencil using the stylus would be commissioned to do the cover of the proceeding booklet and the fillers. Towards mid-1990s, with the advent of higher technology, the production was done on computers. Later, the DS student organization held logo drawing contests, with the faculty sitting en banc and student representatives to judge the best work that captures the theme. There were times when the whole DS community would sit together to discuss the logo. Still, members of the Documentation Committee had to stay up late, or even hardly take a nap, “walang tulugan”, to encode manuscripts ofspeakers who usually gave their materials after delivering their piece – some handwritten with a lot of marginal notes. Students would usually ask for vitamins to keep them going.

There are lessons learned from the experience. Students learn how to work with fellow commit-tee members under pressure of deadlines. They also learn some skills in organizing and lay-outing the materials, proofreading with a bit of editing, running after the speakers for manuscripts, photography, working within the budget, and negotiating with the printing shops for cheaper rate or asking for dis-counts. Moreover, students learn through the setting the so-called

One of the setbacks, however, is that students assigned to the Documentation Committee, unlike the members of other working committees, do not get a chance to take a glimpse of the actual sessions during the Convocation. They are holed up in the workstation, so pressured because they know that participants have become so demanding to get their copies before they go back to their local churches. The Docu Committee members understand this phenomenon, knowing that possession of the Proceedings is best concrete evidence to show that one has attended the Convocation. Yet, the student-members of the Committee graduate without having listened to any of the speakers, or without having participated in a single workshop, more so the banquet, during each Convocation time.

In this light, the members of the current Documentation Committee implored from everyone involved that manuscripts be sent at least a few days earlier, so that they can organize and layout the materials without feeling harassed, and make the complete Proceedings available on the last day of the affair. The Committee will put the soft copy of the Proceedings online. It is then up to the participants and anyone interested to download the said materials for their perusal.

Thus, we in the Documentation Committee are pleased to present this 51st Church Workers Convocation Proceedings. We hope this material will serve not only as a souvenir, but as a resource in the educational ministry of the church.

Thank you.

The 51st Church Workers Convocation Proceedings

51st Church Workers Convocation The Church and Christian Education: Challenges and Perspectives 2

The great commissioning of Jesus to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 is one of the bases of the Mission of the Christian.

The church is composed of both women and men with equal responsibilities in doing God’s ministry, as shown in the life of Jesus Christ. These women and men are entrusted by God to be stew-ards of all God’s creation. They are empowered by the Holy Spirit to care, sustain, nurture, and spread the love of God through words and deeds within and outside the community of Christian believers.

The plant, as part of God’s creation, signifies the life and hope of the church.. The thorns sym-bolize the problems and issues of Christianity that challenge the Christian faith and beliefs. Noticeably the thorns are protruding from different directions, indicating that the problems and is-sues of Christian community may emerge from anywhere in the life and ministry of the church.

The Bible, the earth, the plant, the cross, Holy Spirit, woman and man signify that each one is integral to the task of doing God’s ministry and in communing with God.

Napoleon A. Romero Jr.M.Div. -Senior

The Logo


MESSAGE


Dr. Malayang is serving his second term as President of Sil-liman University. He finished his High School from Silliman, and went to earn his BA in Philosophy at the University of the Philippines in 1974. He proceeded to get a Masters de-gree in International Affairs from Ohio University and his doctor of philosophy in Wildland Resource Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Malayang has been involved in environmental management and international development. He had served as Undersecretary of the De-partment of Environment and Natural Resources from 1993 to 1995. At the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, he was Full Professor and Dean of the School of Environmental Science and Management. His field of research interest is on Forest and Environmental Policy and Governance, Biodi-versity, Environmental Security, Environmental Philosophy and Ethics, and Institutional and Environmental Transfor-mations in Southeast Asia.

Silliman University is a teaching, preaching, and healing institution. It teaches the way, preaches the truth, and heals so that people will live the fullness of life. It if does not teach, preach and heal, it is not Silliman. I greet and welcome you to Sil-liman. You are special people, special in the sense that you minister to the church of Christ. I hope that this Pastors’ Convocation will be an opportunity for many of our pas-tors who always are in the field to imbue with more theological equipping so that you will become more effective divinity workers. I think that is what this annual affair is all about. That is really my prayer. God bless.

THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN EDUCATION: CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES

INTRODUCTION:

Although I am a Kapampangan by ethnic

stock, let me greet you with the warmest greet-ings coming from our aggregate membership of 60,986 souls from our nine conferences compris-ing 432 local churches, worshipping congrega-tions and outreaches in the stretch of North Lu-zon Jurisdictional Area all the way from Sison, Pangasinan to Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte, the entire Cordilleras and the whole of Cagayan Valley. This area commonly known as the

of the gentle people called Ilocanos is a haven of great leaders both in politics and in the church. In fact, our very own general secretary of the UCCP, Bishop Reuel Norman O. Marigza origi-nated from this area.

Though I’m deeply honored today, I am

most apprehensive of facing you for the very first time because I was told that I will deliver the keynote address in this national gathering of church workers of our dear UCCP. I must admit that when Drs. Jeaneth Faller and Lope Robin sent me the invitation, I experienced haunting moments on how to prepare this piece consider-ing that my line of interest in the church is in his-tory and administration. I must however admit that it gave me stimulus, since the invitation challenged me to plunge deeper in the field of ecclesiology and Christian education.

I am wary though that the confidence re-posed in me might not be adequate to meet your deepest expectations. However, I am self-assured that by the leading of the Holy Spirit, I may be able to share what is expected of me in this gath-ering. I enjoin you therefore to please, pray with me at this interval to realize this goal.

Let us pray…..

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

We all know that the Christian church is founded by Jesus Christ himself upon which not even the gates of hell prevail over it. It is a movement touching the lives of people as an or-ganism pulsating for the mission of Christ mani-fested in the lives of believers. The Christian Church should be a vehicle on how people live a responsive life of God’s deed in Christ and how God continues to act in the world. (Galatians 5:22-24)

As a theologian puts it, “Christianity is

not a package of ideas and beliefs that once as-cended from the clouds. Nor is it a philosophy


Bishop Elorde Mendoza Sambat is the Bishop assigned to the North Luzon Jurisdic-tion of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines. He obtained his Bachelor of Ministry from Union Theological Seminary through its Extension Program, and his Mas-ter of Ministry from the same seminary in Dasmariñas, Cavite. He holds a Master’s de-gree in Education, and is currently working on his doctoral degree in Missiology. He has served as administrative pastor of the local churches in North Luzon, and as conference minister of Manila North Conference. He has also served as member and Chairperson of several church-related schools and colleges in Northern Luzon area.

that any intelligent individual might think for himself/herself.” Its basic aims are the healing, preaching, teaching and reconciling mission to which the community is called.

Christianity as a religion is committed to education. In the task of remembering and cele-brating the deeds of God in Christ, education has played a major role from the inception of Chris-tianity for the sake of handing over the tradition of Christian faith. At the very start of her begin-ning, she ensures that education is part and par-cel of her ministries so that the basic tenets by which she stands for will last forever from one generation down to the succeeding ones. (Acts 20:28) This is one of the reasons why the Scrip-tures became and still remains the basic guide and philosophy of the Christian faith. The UCCP as an integral part of the uni-versal church, unequivocally affirms the reality and significance of the church, and asserts it to be a fundamental part of its article of faith in terms of four basic principles, namely, the Church as the Body of Christ, the Church as community, the Church as the community of the reconciled, and the Church as the “Trustee” of Jesus’ own ministry. The church’s ultimate goal is to increase among persons the love of God and neighbor. In doing this, the church should always direct her actions on the welfare of the “neighbor” irrespective of his creed, race, status and gender . The church must defy all adversar-ies inimical to the total well-being of persons. Any given force that hinders the total liberation and transformation of people should be opposed therefore the educational programs of the church should always be directed to this goal.

Dorothy Mcrae-McMahon in an article

entitled “The Formation of the Laos” claims, “In every moment in our life there will be need for a deep understanding and enabling of transforma-tion. The church as the body of Christ partici-pates with God in the transformation of the world. This is primarily about change. There-fore, all of us will need to have a deep under-standing of change processes, both personal, cor-

porate and systemic, and will invite the laos into that understanding and process.”

THE REFORMATION TRADITION

(SUPREMACY OF THE SCRIPTURES) The Scriptures contained the teachings of

the church and the message of God carried through His chosen people and through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Therefore it is im-portant that these Scriptures be taught to believ-ers so that their rudimentary teachings will form part of the character of a Christian. (II Timothy 3:16). On this aspect, the role of Christian educa-tion is very important in the life and ministry of the church.

All proponents of the Reformation move-

ment beginning with the progenitors, Martin Lu-ther and his contemporaries affirmed that the scriptures are the only source of reference on the word of God. (sola scriptura). Ulrich Zwingli’s elaboration on this proposition, are presaged in his second and fifth statements in his sixty-seven articles to wit:

2. The sum of the Gospel is, that our

Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has made known to us the will of his heavenly Father, and redeemed us by his innocence from eternal death, and reconciled us to God.

5. Therefore all those who liken any other doctrines to or judge them higher than the Gospel, err, and know not what the Gospel is.

Our own UCCP Statement of Faith in-

cluded in her articles a place for the Bible. The Statement of Faith affirms,

We believe that the Holy Bible is a faith-ful and inspired witness to God’s revela-tion in Jesus Christ and in history to illu-mine, guide, correct and edify believers in their faith and witness.

The centrality of the Scriptures in our

faith and witness as offspring of the Reformation is dominant even in our worship service. The preaching of the Gospel is the central motif of


our worship. It serves as our “spiritual food” that nourishes our spiritual bodies to witness to peo-ple as ministers/priests in our own right.

Accordingly, the UCCP Statement on

Evangelism stated,

The Bible is recognized as the incompa-rable treasure of God’s Word which is power for the salvation of the world. There is no part in the church which does not acknowledge that it needs the Scriptures for its very life, and there is no part of the church which disowns the obligation to pay its part in bringing to all men the knowledge of Him of whom the Scriptures speak.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN GENERAL

Christian education is the systematic,

definite teaching ministry of the Christian com-munity, which helps its members in their faith formation so that they would become the agents of transformation in and outside the community. This is how influential and forceful Christian education is in the life of the church and her members.

Thomas Groome's definition suffice this

understanding:

Christian education is a political activity with pilgrims in time that deliberately and inten-tionally attends with them to the activity of God in our present, to the story of the Christian faith community, and to the vision of God's kingdom, the seeds of which are already among us.

Christian education in most Christian tra-ditions is the general umbrella term which refers to every aspect of education which contributes to the nurture or sustenance of individuals and groups in their being or becoming Christian. As C. S. Lewis remarked,

One of the reasons why it needs no spe-cial education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself.

That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan was able to write a book that has astonished the world.

In his book, Will Children Have Faith

(1976), John Westerhoff III presents the case for a broader emphasis in faith building dynamics within the local church. He articulates, “No one has faith who has not been in part educated to it by others…That was done in the context of par-ticipation in a local church.”

Christian Education ministry involves the administration and coordination of programs or strategies to facilitate the spiritual growth or dis-cipleship of believers into Christ-likeness. Edu-cation of members of a congregation is a vital ministry of the church to empower them towards this goal. Their empowerment however lies in the hands of their leaders, /preachers, and /teachers trained in order to be set apart in the awesome ministry of shepherding the believers. However, the equipping of these leaders is not the only focus of theological education but also the education of the general membership of the church in order to become ministers and/priests in their own right.

According to the Edinburgh 2010 Inter-

national Study on Theological Education, “Theological education in a broader understand-ing however, is not the prerogative only of those becoming ordained ministers and priest but a fundamental right of every Christian adult. Theo-logical education in this broad understanding aims at developing reflective Christian identity and practice, an informed and spiritually en-riched access to Biblical tradition, and empower-ing people for participating in the mission of God in this world. It enables people to reflect criti-cally on the relation between their own Christian identity, their church tradition and other Chris-tian traditions, their relation to the world, and the tasks of God’s mission today.”

The same paper proposed the following

aspects: - The concern for the promotion of theological


education has been and should remain a priority area of joint witness and cooperation.

While several indigenous models of theo-

logical education were initiated in the 19th and 20th centuries, western patterns, methodologies, and frameworks were exported throughout the world. It is only in 1970s and 1980s that western dominance has begun (gradually and partially) to be challenged by contextualized patterns of theo-logical education.

- The Protestant missionary movement indirectly (but powerfully) promoted the English language and English forms of teaching and learning as the dominant educational model. In much of world Christianity there is still an urgent need for culturally and linguistically diverse education programs and resources.

- There is widespread consensus that every

member of the people of God has the right to understand Christian faith and tradition in their fullness and should have access to basic educa-tion, faith nurture, and empowerment for mis-sion.

OUR UCCP CONTEXT IN REGARDS TO CHRISTIAN EDUCATION PROGRAM AND THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION:

The methods by which our Christian edu-

cation programs in the church beginning with our missionaries are carried out in our country for more than a century. This cycle proved to be effective over the years and, in most cases until today, is still utilized by the churches. However, the rapid growth of electronic age worn out or outmoded these methods. Sunday schools, bible study groups, vacation bible schools, prayer meetings, church fora, in-service trainings and the like are seemingly no longer appealing to the church people.

Take the example of our Sunday school

programs in the UCCP. We produced heavily, well-meaning materials written in deep concep-tualization. Yet as a bishop for more than two years now, I have found out in my visita-

tions to local churches that hardly 10% of our church members attend Sunday school classes. Those who are attending are either late comers or left earlier than expected. Only a handful of them participate in the discussion and reflection. Very rare among the participants is having a Bible as textbook. In many instances I experienced, only the lay leaders, the church workers and a handful of ordinary members especially those catego-r i z e d i n t h e c o m m u n i t y a s the intelligentsia participate in the discussion. No critical analysis of the church and society that bore healthy discussion on the text and the issues confronting it are visible in the activity.

Moreover, our materials though well-prepared and elegantly written do not reach the end consumers of our churches effectively. Prob-lems in terms of distribution, dissemination and information exist among our churches aside from the fact that the continuity of their production is not properly ensured.

The absence of a sound, relevant and

workable Christian education system in our local churches resulted in the dwindling of our mem-bership because many of our members tend to remain passive in participating to church activi-ties especially pertaining education. Over time, members no longer nurtured their faith and veered away from the church and its activities.

In a book entitled Transforming the

World, speaking explicitly about members who are deviating away from the church, Vincent Cosmao said, On the one hand even Christians no longer look to the church to tell them how they should manage their personal lives, inter-personal relationships and family or professional responsibilities. But on the other hand even those who do not frequent the church are inclined to think that it may be qualified and somehow obli-gated to share the task of grasping or guiding the required transformations of the global system affecting all. The fact remains, however, that the church is expected to take an active part in re-ducing inequality, poverty and injustice and in exploring steps toward a more satisfactory or-ganization of societal life.


The many profanities of our teachings and follies of our beliefs sometimes hinder our relevance to the transfusing realities in our church and our society. Most of the time, we mesmerize ourselves with things that are incon-gruous to the existing situation of our people. Emblazoned by the marvels of technological age and developments, our programs are pre-occupied with things that enhance these amazing developments instead of pointing to the basic issue we must address in our existence and being as a church. I remember a story I heard from an old preacher regarding the fate of the lions capti-vated in a place of high walls separating them from the outside world. The story tells that old lions are engaged in nitty-gritty talks of reviving their old glories, young male lions are engaged in competitions enhancing their prowess, lady-lions on the other hand, are busy attending to social clubs where they can display their acces-sories and whims. Young lions are occupied with adventurous activities exploring their fullest po-tentials. One time, a young and inquisitive lion asked an old lion who shy away from all the ac-tivities mentioned. The young lion asked the old one while he was on a pensive mood, “Why are you not joining any of them? The old lion said, “Do not associate with any of them in their re-spective groups. They are all silly mending with nonsense activities. They are engulfed with ir-relevant activities concerning our real and main goal of tearing down the walls in order for us to be liberated from our captivity. None of them is working on that.”

Most of the time my friends, we are busy

attending with nonsense and irrelevant teachings that do not stimulate our imaginations and draw us to compelling action dealing with our main goal of tearing down the walls of our captivity that will finally lead us to liberation.

CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES

Our challenge is to carry out Christian educa-tion program that is transformative and liberat-

ing vis-à-vis the Philippine scenario. It should empower our people towards transformation. It shall be germane in such a way it responds to the realities of our situation amidst the struggles we are in. It must go beyond our traditional bounds of church activities within the four walls of the sanctuary and must seep into the lifestyle of people in every facet of living.

One document postulated, If we want to transform the dimension of mission towards the relational model in contrary to "one against the other", there should be a shift in the Christian education. This shift may have to take seriously the experiences of the people of other faiths, the openness to learn from other scriptures, and to learn to live with people of other faith in toler-ance. Our early teaching had only stressed the weak points in other faiths and put Christianity on a pedestal. This cannot happen today.

Another basic reason why mainline Protestant churches shrink in their membership is lack of connectedness to educate their mem-bers in terms of basic doctrinal teachings. In con-trast to the materials produced by fundamentalist groups which seems to be appealing to our church members, our Christian education materi-als are formulated with highly verbalized words that are hardly understandable by our members. Their contents are written in parlance that is vague to the understanding of the common tao.

Our mere grasp of the materials written in our own dialect is not sufficient to enlighten our vision of realizing an empowered, self-reliant and caring community of believers com-mitted to the pursuit of a transformed church and society towards an abundant and meaningful life for all. Our understanding should be translated into active role on how we can help transform our people towards liberation.

We must ensure that the content of our materials should direct the issues we confront as a third world nation suffering the pangs of impe-rialism, US expansionism, economic crisis due to policies that favors foreign capitalist, political instability, moral degradation, religious plural-


ity and continuing struggle towards self-realization and identity. The hottest item among these issues today is the large scale mining that bore heavy militarization in the mining areas, human rights violation, extra judicial killings in the tapestry of impunity and environmental ruin caused by the tailings of mining activity. How then do we educate our church members on these issues confronting the church and society? In the recently concluded UCCP Na-tional Secretariat Assessment and Planning last July 18-21, 2012 at the UCCP National Office, the Workshop Cluster assigned to CEN and ECD presented observations and recommendations on the state of Christian education programs of the UCCP in her various judicatories. The group said in part, “No substantial CEN materials of wide circulation are accessed by the local churches in order to carry out the programs of the church. The need to substantiate this need must be addressed by the church in her next pro-gramming to reach out not only to her members but for non-members.” I was expecting in the recommendations that an appropriate staff of the CEN should be hired considering that the work of Christian education among our members is a vital need of our local churches.

Our UCCP Calendar Planner 2010-2012 stressed, The UCCP is perpetually engaged in the task of educating its constituents about faith in Jesus Christ. It is a continuing process of ena-bling Christians, individually and in community, to know God’s love, to worship God and to have a basic understanding of commitment to the mis-sion of Jesus in the world and through the Holy Spirit. It is concerned with the wholistic growth and development of each member-the church worker, the lay, the children, youth, young adults and the adults whose process is geared towards inculcating a mature faith, equipped with critical thought, positive attitudes, and promotes a strong value formation that is expressive of our indige-nous culture as Filipinos.

Our church has diverse composition of

varied interests and perspectives. Youth have different needs depending on their age group and

on their different cultural, ethnic and religious contexts. Young people can never be treated as a homogenous group. Theological education of youth cannot disregard these different needs, but it should respond to and satisfy them, using in-terdisciplinary and inter-religious approaches.

Women have issues and concerns that they want to bring to the church programs. Men have their own peculiarities too. While children and young adults need to be attended in our pro-gramming in order to reach out to them. Our Christian education program needs to be lumped into one catering to all sectors of our church. If we say that the local church is the locus of our mission, then by all means, we should start with all sectors from the local church up to the higher judicatories.

My observation is that we fail to reach out to the sectoral needs of our members in the UCCP. Church mandated organizations are left alone to tend their own affair that is why most of the time they swerved from the theme of the church and concentrate their programs within the bounds of their limitations. UCCP needs to evaluate the emphases it gives to Christian edu-cation program in order to reach out to a great extent of her membership in all levels and sec-tors. Also, there seems to be a one-sided empha-sis on the great commission. That is of baptizing alone. According to the words of Jesus, the com-mission also includes the role of "teaching" which the Church has taken for granted as preaching. The etymology of the word "teach" offers a significant clue to the nature of the activ-ity itself. The English word comes from the Latin ducare meaning "to lead" and the prefix e, meaning "out". At its root meaning then, edu-cation is an activity of "leading out".

According to Thomas Groome, three di-mensions of emphasis can be discerned in "leading out". These are: 1) a point from which, 2) a present process, and 3) a future toward which the leading out is done. In this sense, edu-cation has an "already", a "being" realized, and a "not yet" dimension to it. These three emphases


discernible in the word education have not been taken seriously in the present teaching ministry of the Church. Often in the present Christian education, as well as mission model, there is no place to hear the already experience of the learner. Nor is there any possibility of helping the learner to discover the truth. Since the educa-tional agenda is designed by the teaching minis-try of the Church as "the ultimate", the dimen-sion of "not yetness" toward which the leading out is done, is designed by the Church. In the pedagogical terms of Paulo Freire, this attitude is called "domestication". It is a fact that in most of the Christian education content, songs and sto-ries still continue to stress the religious superior-ity complex and arrogance, perpetuate religious fundamentalism and reduce the vision inherent in the gospel to a narrow parochialism.

CONCLUDING PART: The arena of our Christian education pro-grams are the prevalent issues of society where we should apply in practice the faith that we are professing considering the context of our time. Let us discern what God truly wants us to do and obey in these critical times.

In furtherance of this dream, let us work

hand in hand with one another forsaking differ-ences in interpretations of beliefs that always divide us instead of uniting us. Following Charles H. Kraft’s recommendation in his book, ‘Appropriate Christianity’ saying in part, “Our practice should be interpreted in their proper cultural contexts, however, not as a denial of scripturally revealed supra-cultural ethical standards, but as the first step toward advocating change in that direction. We must see the gospel effectively and deeply communicated around the world.” As a church and as individual members, we are always on vanguard for the work of building a society that is just and humane to-gether with the community and the people thereat. As one preacher noted, and I concur:

A church needs to develop a sound philosophy for Christian education based on the Word of God. A sound

philosophical statement is not enough, however, to experience the transformation of lives. What is on paper must be put into practice for it to make a difference. Too often, an incongruent situation exists between what is on paper and the actual opera-tive philosophy of the church's leader-ship.

The observation goes on, “In situa-tions where accountability, transparency, and patterns of governance in church leadership are low, questions are raised about the way theological education may have contributed to these problems. While not all failures in the performance of church leaders can be at-tributed to the shortcomings in theological education, a valid question is raised: what emphasis should be given to character and spiritual formation, good governance and management principles, and appropriate codes of conduct for Church leadership in theological education curricula?

Our education should be an education for all. As expressed by the global conference on Theological Education enabled by WCC/ETE in Oslo in 1996,

There is consensus among us on the holis-tic character of theological education and ministerial formation, which is grounded in worship, and combines and inter-relates spirituality, academic excellence, mission and evangelism, justice and peace, pastoral sensitivity and competence, and the forma-tion of character.

For it brings together education of: the ear to hear God’s word and the cry of

God’s people; the heart to heed and respond to the suffer-

ing; the tongue to speak to both the weary and

the arrogant; the hands to work with the lowly; the mind to reflect on the good news of the

gospel; 51st Church Workers Convocation The Church and Christian Education: Challenges and Perspectives 11

the will to respond to God’s call; the spirit to wait on God in prayer, to

struggle and wrestle with God, to be silent

in penitence and humility and to intercede for the church and the world;

the body to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. Candidly, a glance into our UCCP con-

text in terms of Christian education has been dis-closed to you through this modest proposition. May we be guided in our programming with the realities of our context in order to propagate the basic teachings of the church in their pristine or-thodoxy? Empowering our people towards trans-formation will liberate us from the bondages en-slaving us for a long time. Only in serious educa-tion can we empower our members in order to live and act out their faith so that our beloved UCCP will not lose her exuberance today and in the years to come until His kin-dom reigns. Amen.

(Keynote Address delivered by North-

ern Luzon Jurisdiction (NLJ) Bishop Elorde Mendoza Sambat to the UCCP Church Workers’ Convocation, Silliman University-Divinity School, Dumaguete City on August 28, 2012)


Introduction

Mission and Education The CWC Theme for three years (starting in 2012) is “Empowering the Church for Mis-sion” and this year’s focus is “The Church and Christian Education: Challenges and Perspec-tives.” What is the relationship between church mission and Christian Education?

Education was a big part of Jesus’ mis-sion – he was addressed as Rabbi (Teacher), Rabboni (My Teacher) and he taught in various kinds of setting. Education was consequently a big part of the disciples’ mission – after disciples have learned from their teacher, they are ex-pected to teach others. In both cases, the educa-tion that they did was not labeled Christian Edu-cation. Perhaps it could be called Education on “The Way” – i.e. the way of Jesus or of the Jesus movement. Then many years later, as missionary ef-forts spread to various parts of the world, educa-tion was a big part of mission. Education was definitely Christian Education – it was not only Catechism or Sunday School as we tend to un-derstand CE; it referred to the education that was offered at schools set up by Christian missionar-ies – including the various skills such as reading, writing, arithmetic and Christian character for-mation. As agents of European denominations, the early missionaries constructed schools in their countries’ colonies. Schools were deemed necessary to help spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and for the “infant church” to grow.

Another example of how education is related to mission is through the story of the first Protestant missionary to northern Thailand, Daniel McGilvary. Set on pioneering mission in Chiang Mai, he focused on medicine and educa-tion, because the Prince of Chiang Mai did not allow evangelism. In fact, education and medi-cine did address the needs of the people. It is

said that the Northern Thais were tolerant enough to listen to some indirect “ C h r i s t i a n preaching” as they received medication and education. In Africa, recent studies showed that schools were “inducements to lure Africans into the missionary orbit.” These schools did not enable them to challenge colonial rule. As Fr. Joseph Shanahan, head of the Holy Ghost Fa-thers in Eastern Nigeria said, “Those who hold the school hold the country, hold its religion, hold its future.” So, is this the way to go with Christian Education – especially in our contemporary situation?

Since CE is closely linked to mission, let us revisit Matthew 28:19-20, which is the usual basis or mandate of church mission. Let us do multiple readings of the text – (1) most common or traditional reading; (2) post-colonial reading; (3) feminist reading; (4) intertextual reading; and (5) educational perspective. I will also add an evangelical critique of the traditional reading. Matthew 28:19-20

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all na-tions, baptizing them in the name of the Fa-ther and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,


Bible Study 1: Christian Education - An Arm of Mission?

Doing Multiple Readings of the Great Commission

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always.” Most Common (Traditional) Reading

The most common or traditional reading

of this passage is that this is the “Great Commis-sion”, which provides the clear mandate for all followers of Jesus, then and now. According to this traditional reading, this commissioning statement sets the method of mission: the send-ing of the 11 disciples and all of us [who are to-day’s disciples] to proclaim the good news [evangelism], with the goal of converting or sav-ing people everywhere and baptizing them. Many Asian Christians today literally follow this commission – so they do mission training, in-cluding language training, and send out people to other countries. Even though the Philippines is 90% Christian, many Asian missionaries still come to our country as they try to obey this com-mission. For these ardent missionaries, baptism

and church growth, i.e. numerical growth are signs of success in mission.

A Post-Colonial Reading

One of the more recent developments in biblical scholarship is post-colonial reading. This means critiquing colonialist ideology; re-penting of one’s complicity with colonialists and their ideology; lifting up the voices, laments and aspirations of the conquered or colonized people. Post-colonial readers would readily recall that early Christian mission generally came on the wings of colonialism – thus, it carried a colonial ideology: “Conquer the world for Christ!” The early missionaries also generally imposed and universalized their own standards – i.e. to “civilize the pagans / heathen / barbarians.” It also carried a sense of superiority: “bringing Christ to the nations” as if Christ was never in the colonized countries before their mission work. Is our God too small that we can carry God in our pockets or suitcases when we go on mission? Furthermore, the early missionaries gen-erally did not see ‘the other’ as an equal subject. In the words of George Soares-Prabhu, an Indian theologian, the early missionaries sought to anni-hilate “people’s belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities, and ultimately in themselves…” This imperialist / colonialist ideology, which came with Christian-ity, is still remembered and felt by many Asian people. This is partly the reason why Christian-ity is still viewed as a foreign religion: that even if it was born in Asia, Christianity came back to Asia through colonialism. Therefore, for post colonial readers, the traditional reading of the so-called Great Commission is imperialist / coloni-alist!

A Feminist Reading

Feminist readers would also bring their question to the text: What happened to the women? They who were the first to be at the tomb at dawn; they who witnessed the violent


Dr. Hope S. Antone is a native of Dumaguete. She earned her Bachelor of Mass Communication and Master of Divinity from Silliman University. She received a masters’ degree in New Testament studies from Presbyterian Theological College and Seminary in Korea and her Doctor of Educa-tion major in Religious Education from Presbyte-rian School of Christian Education and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A. in 2001. She has served as Joint Executive Secretary for Faith, Mission and Unity of the Christian Conference of Asia, and continues to be the publication secretary of Asian Women’s Re-source Center’ In God’s Image. She now works with Payap University as Asian Accompanier, teaching at McGilvary College of Divinity and helping with the internalization of PYU. Hope is a feminist and an advocate for interreligious un-derstanding. In spite of her being a prolific writer, an editor and a renowned lecturer, Hope remains simple and humble: an embodiment of the essence of Christian Religious Education.

earthquake and the rolling back of the stone; they who were commissioned by the angel to “go quickly and tell his disciples… (that) he has risen from the dead…”; they who were first to meet Jesus, who then commissioned them to be evangelists: “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee – there they will see me.” So, why are women not counted as disci-ples in this passage? Is the so-called “Great Commission” placed here to reinforce patriarchal mission? So feminists have raised the need to critically read this passage in view of the whole chapter of Matthew 28. They try to remind read-ers of scripture of the egalitarian community that Jesus tried to create – where women and men are regarded and treated as equally created in the image of God.

Intertextual Reading:

Mahavaga 1:10-11 with Matthew 28:16-20 George Soares-Prabhu who is very involved in intertextual reading of scriptures, particularly Christian and Buddhist scriptures, narrates a commissioning passage from the Buddhist Ma-havaga:

(1.10) At that time there were sixty-one Arahats in the world. (1.11) The Lord said to the Bhikkus, “I am delivered, O Bhikkus, from all fetters, human and divine. (cf. Mt 28:18) You, O Bhikkus, are also delivered from all fetters, hu-man and divine. Go now, O Bhikkus, and wander for the profit of many, for the happiness of many, and out of com-passion for the world, for the good, profit, and happiness of gods and human beings. (cf. Mt 28:19) Let not two of you go the same way. Preach, O Bhik-kus, the dhamma, which is good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, in the spirit and in the letter. Proclaim a consummate, perfect and pure life of holiness. (cf. Matt 28:20a)

And I will go also, O Bhikkus, to Uruvela, Senanigama, in order to preach the dhamma. (cf. Mt 28:20b)

Reading the passages from Buddhist and Christian scriptures, he shares some insights. Ac-cording to both readings from the Buddhist and Matthean traditions, there is a common expected disposition of missionaries – that missionaries are those with prior “enlightenment” after having been discipled by their Teacher; with that prior enlightenment, they do not simply follow a mili-tary-like command – they freely take on the command as their response. In terms of the goalof mission – the two are concerned about the welfare of the people being made disciples –while this is implied in the Christian passage, it is clearly mentioned in the Buddhist passage. In terms of the content of teaching: Jesus com-manded, “teach them to obey all that I have com-manded, e.g. “Be perfect as God is perfect”; while the Buddha stated, “teach the dhamma or perfect and pure life of happiness.”

An intertextual reading of religious texts in our local community would hopefully inspire us to take a more dialogical rather than an ag-gressive or adversarial attitude toward people of other faiths.

An Educational Perspective

According to the rules of grammar (sentence construction and parts of speech), the main verb and imperative in this commissioning passage is “make disciples ( The phrases “baptizing them” and “teaching them” are participial phrases which are parts of depend-ent clauses. They therefore serve as modifiers of “make disciples”. So the key idea of the passage is “make disciples”. From an educational perspective educa-tion involves teaching and learning. Now “teaching” applies to the imparting of informa-tion or skill so others may learn. “Learning” has a three-fold object: to gain knowledge (informational learning); to gain understanding


(hermeneutical learning); and to gain skill (pragmatic learning). But teaching and learning do not simply take place as a one-way process (like transferring knowledge from the teacher to the learner). According to Paulo Freire, educa-tion is transformation and it involves teacher and learner who are equal subjects in a mutual rela-tionship. Education is not just one-way but dia-logical. So reading the commissioning passage with an educational perspective would lead us to question: Is discipling only one-way? Is there room for Christians to be discipled by other faith travelers or pilgrims?

Evangelical Critique of Mission as Conversion

I came across a critique of mission as conversion from the statement of the 1st Interna-tional Consultation on Discipleship (1999, Eng-land). In that consultation, John R. W. Stott commented about the “strange and disturbing paradox” of contemporary Christianity is that while there is enormous statistical growth, it is without corresponding growth in discipleship. "God is not pleased with superficial disciple-ship,” warned Stott.

The consultation materials also quoted Tokunboh Adeyemo, an African theologian who commented on the phenomenal numerical growth of Christianity as matched only by the mind-boggling butchery of Christians engaged in the horrors of ethnic cleansing. "The church in Africa is one mile long, but only one inch deep," said Adeyemo.

What about the church in the Philip-pines? Do we also have the length of our faith but not the depth of our faith?

In that consultation, about 450 partici-pants representing 70 organizations from 50 countries of the world affirmed that the so-called Great Commission is not about conversion but about disciple-making or discipling. They wrote in a common statement that disciple-making is not about replicable, transferable methods [marketeering of Christianity] but about the mys-tery of two walking together. Methods treat dis-

cipleship as a problem to be solved. Mentoring treats discipleship as a relationship to be lived. They defined discipleship as ‘a process that takes place within accountable relationships over a period of time for the purpose of bringing believ-ers to spiritual maturity in Christ.’

The consultation statement includes a de-scription of the marks of spiritual maturity which discipling should aspire to:

It was he who gave some to be apos-tles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants,

tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and crafti-ness of people in their deceitful schem-ing. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. [Ephesians 4:11-16]

If Ephesians 4:11-16 (marks of spiritual matur-ity) should be read alongside Matthew 28:19-20(call for discipling rather than conversion), then we need to find the implications for our ministry of Christian Education. Let us think of these together by asking ourselves the following questions: How is our church, through Christian Edu-cation, preparing God’s people (or equip-ping the saints) for works of service – i.e.


where our congregation members grow by serving according to the gifts God has given them? Works of service here do not only mean the traditional activities we do in the church (which would only be self-serving) – but the services that members do in the wider community. For example, keeping the Sab-bath has implications not only on how we spend Sunday (e.g. rest and worship). It also means ensuring justice, peace and integrity of all creation. It also means consciously doing ethical practices in the work places and in the community regardless of what our fields or careers might be.

How is our church, through Christian Educa-tion, building up the body of Christ to reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the

Son of God?

We know that while we have this heritage of being the United Church of Christ in the Phil-ippines, we continue to be very divided – due to theological, ideological and other differ-ences. How are we equipping ourselves to be agents of reconciliation? How can we con-cretely live out the biblical affirmation that through Christ Jesus we have been reconciled to God and are now given the ministry of rec-onciliation? Similarly, having received God’s lavish hospitality (of acceptance and forgive-ness in spite of who we are), how are we at giving hospitality to others in spite of who they are?

How is our church, through Christian Education, helping our members to be-come mature, the measure being the full-ness of Christ? In this digital age, the means of communica-tion has been so accessible and portable that it has greatly changed our mode of communi-cation. The social media connects us with many people, even those we hardly know. We are also exposed to an overload of infor-mation all the time. Included in the informa-tion overload are offers of cheap grace and

false promises of prosperity – the cross-less faith! How are we preparing our congrega-tion, especially the younger people, so they will not be tossed to and fro by such waves of teaching? Are we utilizing these media by disseminating sound or wholesome teach-ings? Despite the ease in communication through the social media, we still need to equip our congregations with good personal communication skills – especially speaking the truth in love. Many times we do not know how to speak the truth in love – so we’d rather hide our problems or issues under the carpet or inside the closet. Many times we do not even communicate anymore with each other – because we would rather com-municate through the social media. Finally, the measure of our growth into maturity is the fullness of Christ – how are we in our growth into Christ-likeness?

Small Group Discussion In small groups, reflect on these three questions and share how your church or con-gregation is doing in terms of Christian Educa-tion and Mission that are focused on discipling(disciple-making), using the marks of spiritual maturity as your benchmarks of success.


Bible Study 2: Education Behind, At and Beyond the Wall

Excerpts from 2 Kings 18-19

Hezekiah was 25 years old when he be-came king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years… He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. (18: 2-3)

In the 14th year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the for-tified cities of Judah and captured them. King Hezekiah sent this message to the king of As-syria: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The king of Assyria exacted from Hezekiah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. (18: 13-14)

The king of Assyria sent his supreme commander, chief officer and field commander with a large army to King Hezekiah at Jerusa-lem… “Tell Hezekiah: This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: On what are you basing this confidence of yours? ... On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?” (18:17, 19, 20)

Then Eliakim…, Shebna and Joah, repre-sentatives of King Hezekiah, said to the field commander, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people on the wall.” But the commander replied, “Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the men sitting on the wall – who, like you, will have to eat their own filth and drink their own urine?” (18:26)

“This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern, until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death!” (18: 31-32)

When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord. He sent his officials to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz… Hezekiah prayed: “O Lord, our God, deliver us from (Sennacherib’s) hand so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.” (19:1, 5-7, 19)

[Isaiah’s prophecy was]: ‘This is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city or shot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way he came he will return; he will not enter this city,’ declares the Lord. …That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. (19:35) … One day, while he was wor-shipping in the temple of his god, his sons… cut Sennacherib down with the sword… (19:32-37)

What does this text have to do with Christian

Education?

2 Kings 18-19 describes a dramatic en-counter in 701 BCE between an imperial power (Assyria) and a tiny kingdom (Judah). The ac-count is depicted in two parts. The first part is the conversation at the wall of the city (ch. 18), where imperial negotiators stand, shouting terms of surrender, taunting and mocking not only King Hezekiah of Judah, but also Yahweh. The second part is the conversation behind the wallor inside the city (ch. 19), where a different peo-ple share a different language (Hebrew), a differ-ent vision (Yahweh’s will for them), and a dif-ferent agenda (trust only in the power of the liv-ing God). But as the story shows, the dominant imperial power also uses the communal language (Hebrew) instead of the international language (Aramaic).



Walter Brueggemann: Behind the Wall, At the Wall

In his reading of 2 Kings 18-19, Walter Brueggemann, a noted Old Testament scholar, concluded that people of faith must be bilin-gual. Brueggemann’s use of the word “bilingual” is more than just knowing two literal languages (e.g. in this story, Hebrew and Aramic). He was referring instead to the theo-logical literacy of the people of faith. He says that being bilingual means that people of faith must have a public language for negotiation at the wall and a communal language for use be-hind the wall. The communal conversation be-hind the wall is very decisive in their relating with the dominant imperial (threatening) power. Judah, a tiny kingdom without visible resources, was surrounded by the Assyrian army. Yet, the people of Judah, under the leadership of King Hezekiah, remained firm, calm and fearless. Not visible to the imperial power was the grief work of King Hezekiah: he calls upon Yahweh, the living God, and asks for the prophecy of Isaiah. So while public language is for negotiating at the wall, communal language is for processing what to do, by talking to each other and to God behind the wall, within the community. For Brueggemann, the tradition of suspi-cion in the communal conversation behind the wall is the best critical vantage point from which to assess the dominant discourse and its claims of absolute ideology. Being against the domi-nant imperial discourse, the tradition of suspi-cion is the source of vitality and passion of a faith community; even of compassion and hu-manness, especially for those who are disem-powered. However, Brueggeman cautions against the possibility of absolutizing the communal conversation. He said the conversation behind the wall should not ignore other conversations or imagine itself to be the only conversation. When it does, it also becomes ideological and idola-trous. So there should also be a critique of the conversation behind the wall – i. e. through

awareness of other conversations which must be taken seriously on their own terms. So both con-versations – at the wall and behind the wall – are important. So Christians must be taught to be bilingual.

Some Personal Examples of Bilingual Profi-ciency

My husband and I agreed that we would teach our children our Asian languages in addi-tion to English. He would teach the children Chinese and Malay, while I would teach them Cebuano. We tried to do this when we lived in Hong Kong. When we moved to the US for my doctoral studies, we tried to continue this prac-tice. But one day, my son said, “Mom, Dad, I don’t want to speak Chinese or Cebuano any-more because no one else understands and the children are already laughing at me because I look different and my hair is different.” I com-forted him by saying that when the African American children wanted to touch his hair, it was because they found his thick straight hair very different from their short curly hair. In this matter of bilingual/trilingual proficiency in Asian languages, I admit that my husband and I failed as parents. But my family has another experience of bilingual proficiency, similar to what Bruegge-mann was talking about. When we returned to Hong Kong after my doctoral studies, we en-rolled our children in a private Christian school. This school was quite open about their mission to convert the non-Christian students and their families. Fortunately, our children always shared something with us that they heard in school. One day, my son, 9 years old then came home and asked, “Daddy, is it true that you are missing one rib because God used it to make mom and so I have to look for the girl who has my missing rib?” Another day, my daughter, 8 years old then came home saying, “Our teacher said that we should not marry a Buddhist per-son.” Another time, one of them said, “Our teacher said it is a sin to be gay.” While my hus-band and I felt angry at how our children were

being misled by such distorted teachings, we de-cided to tell our children that our family had a se-cret: that no matter what their teacher or principal told them, they must remember that our family might hold a different view. So we encouraged them to tell us whatever they were told. We told them that our family believes that everyone is a child of God, whether one is gay or Buddhist or what not. We also told them that our family’s way of reading the Bible is to find the hidden or deeper meaning rather than what the words simply say. So the deeper meaning of woman being made from man’s rib is that man and woman, boy and girl, too are made equal by God. I think our family discussions gave the children a good foun-dation and prepared them for their later exposures – e.g. to a more liberal Christian school in Chiang Mai and then to very liberal universities in New Zealand and Australia. So equipping our children for the conversation at the wall can be done through our constant conversation behind the wall.

But what if my family held the conserva-tive point of view and the school the liberal view? There is also the danger that either one of the con-versations would get absolutized. To guard against this, the two conversations must be cri-tiqued so that neither becomes absolutized. To imagine the uncritiqued faith conversation (behind the wall) to be the only real or true one, and to claim that all must join it, would be just as dan-gerous as the dominant conversation (at the wall) which claims to be the absolute one.

Tabita Kartika Christiani: Behind the Wall, At the Wall, Beyond the Wall

Indonesian Christian educator Tabita Kar-

tika Christiani has expanded Brueggemann’s idea of bilingual conversations. In her doctoral disser-tation on Christian Education for peacebuilding in pluralistic Indonesia, she proposed that Christian Education should aim for conversations behind, atand beyond the wall:

CE behind the wall – this is teaching Christians the language used within the faith community, including its symbols, images, teachings, values.

More than merely transmitting and repeating the formulated church doctrines and dogmas, this involves learning, living and growing within the faith community where Christians share their theological reflections on their life experiences. This includes learning how to read the Bible, study Christian tradition, and do contextual theologizing. CE at the wall – this is enabling Christians to actively learn about and appreciate other relig-ions and to be ready for interreligious dia-logue. This interreligious dialogue includes consciously living together in the neighbor-hood, intentionally caring for and helping each other – rather than simply tolerating each other but without anything to do with each other.

CE beyond the wall – this is equipping Chris-tians to cross boundaries and borders, to go beyond the walls of their churches, and to work together with people of other faiths for peace and justice. When they have done some actions together, they can also enter into dia-logue to reflect on the religious implications of what they did together.

Christiani has focused on interreligious issues because of her pluralistic context in In-donesia. But her framework could also work for other contexts. The framework could work in the context of dictatorial or repressive states where there is no freedom of religion; or in very liberal states where the sacred and the secular (religion and politics) have been clearly separated; or in states where ethnic minorities and the majority population are in conflict; or in today’s postmodern world of conflicting val-ues, collapsing foundations, and de-absolutized (or relativized) claims. The story of 2 Kings 18-19 is about remembering who and whose we are in the face of dominant and threatening power. It challenges us to prepare and equip our congregations – to be well rooted / grounded in our own faith community but also to reach out to the wider community.


Small Group Discussion (or turn to your

neighbors) What are the faces/images of the dominant/imperial/ threatening power that affect our com-munities of faith in the Philippines today? How are we preparing and equipping our congre-gations through Christian Education to deal with such threatening power? Which of the three types of CE have we tried, would like to try, or needs to be improved: CE behind the wall which is more than merely transmitting traditions and practices; it includes learning to critically study the Bible and our tra-ditions (e.g. by using multiple readings than just the traditional reading), and doing contextual theologizing.

CE at the wall which is more than learning to be tolerant; it is equipping Christians for dialogue, starting with appreciating the other. Who is the other at the wall in the context of your congrega-tion? CE beyond the wall which is more than just hav-ing an exposure to a different place or commu-nity; it means intentionally crossing borders, boundaries and barriers to reach out to and work with those who may be other or different.


II. The Partnership of the Church and

Christian Education:

As we entered the new millennium, we are faced with its many unknowns. Christian education is facing all the challenges of the un-known. Christian education and the church must be partners in facing this unknown. We need to empower the church with resources that match the needs of growing Christians as well as those outside of the faith. Christian education is at the very heart of the life of the church. Christian Education is vital for the future of the church. Hence, those who love the church ought to love also Christian education.

Christian Education is a church ministry

and it supports and undergirds all other minis-try. As a ministry it engages people in the under-standing of Jesus’ commandments to love God and to love neighbor. It is an activity that has the goal of edifying the church but at the same time helps persons to experience life in Christ so that the persons will become witnesses of God’s love for the world. Christian education encounters people of all ages so that they are nurtured in faith, grow in knowledge and experience, and inspired and empowered to live as disciples of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, Christian education helps church members in the formation of their faith so that these members will not only grow in their faith but that they also become instruments of God’s will; that they become instruments of change inside and outside of the faith commu-nity. Christian Education promotes the healing, preaching, teaching and reconciling mission to which the faith community is called. It is the ministry of the church to introduce persons into the life and mission of the community of Chris-tian faith.

From the early period of the church edu-

cation, CE has already served the mission of the church and in a way it resulted to healthy growth. Of course there was a time when Chris-

I. Introduction

We have all kinds of issues in CE and we are concerned because we know that Christian Education (CE) is the lifeblood of our church. So it is really a challenge to me to decide which issues should be included today. We think of what bible content to teach, what models and methodologies to use, who are our learners and who are qualified to teach, where is the best place to teach, and so on and so forth. There are many Christian Education issues worth discuss-ing especially that since the start of the SUDS church workers convocation we have never fo-cused on Christian Education.

Paul Lauby Lecture

The Church and Christian Education: Challenges and Perspectives


Jeaneth Harris Faller earned her Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Divinity from Silli-man University Divinity School. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts from Divine Word College in Legazpi City. Her Master of Theol-ogy under the Southeast Asia Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST) of the Association of Theological Schools in Southeast Asia (ATESEA). She began teaching at the Divin-ity School in 1999 and left in 2007 for her Doctor of Theology program at Lutheran Theological Seminary in Hongkong in 2010.

meet these challenges. Publishing houses part-nered with local churches, Bible colleges, liberal colleges and evangelical seminaries in the pro-duction of materials. As a result Christian Edu-cation expanded its vision to the whole of human growth and development. The church developed Creative Christian Education for adolescents and young adults. By the 1970’s the church Sunday school was revitalized, and strategies to nurture the family to match the human stage of develop-ment were developed. Thus, Christian Education today remains one of the most important minis-tries of the church. The church will be crippled without it.

III. Understanding Christian Education

What is Christian Education? Well it is eve-rything! A committee; an educational program; a ministry; to some students a subject na madali (an easy subject) some male pastors believe that they are not cut for it, “that is a work that is tai-lored made for women”. To some of our mem-bers it is either Bible study or Sunday school. Indeed, there are many different understandings, definitions and even misconceptions on Christian Education. This is maybe because its nature is multidisciplinary. Its foundation is biblical stud-ies and theology but Christian education seeks to integrate them with knowledge that is gleaned from the social sciences, education, sociology, and psychology. So, Christian Education is what happens in the classroom of the seminary, in church on Sunday mornings, during worship time, in the church mandated organizations, dur-ing VCS time and many others. Let me share some definitions and facts about Christian Edu-cation.

1.The word “education” is initially derived from the Latin word educare, meaning “to educate” “to train”. This Latin word is derived from two other Latin words, e and duco. Which means: “I lead out of.”Education”, therefore, means “leading out” - leading something out of a person. So church education for this reason becomes the process of encouraging the devel-opment of God-given inherent gifts and the

tian education was limited to theological dis-course rather than a ministry of the church. The Christian communities because of the persecu-tion did not have time to participate in this theo-logical discourse. So this discourse was left to the great thinkers of the predominant Roman and Greek culture at the time. This culture greatly influenced also the educational system which provided fertile intellectual ground for the early leaders of Christian communities to draw from and refine Christian teaching. Later, monasteries were established .These monasteries were the first centers of Christian learning. At first this Christian learning were initially for adult con-verts but later, they catered to children and fo-cused on matters of orthodox faith. The curricu-lums centered on teaching the philosophical foundations of Greek and Roman society as a way to understand the theology and history of the Church. The by product of this teaching was that during the dark ages much of the important teachings of classical cultures was preserved.

Even in times of persecution the early Church fathers had views on what constituted a good Christian education. However, at the close of the 18th century the church started to claim the nature of Christian Education as a ministry. There led to the emergence of Sunday School movement. The first Sunday School was pur-posely done to attend to the children of the In-dustrial Revolution, but later it gave attention to the growing needs of children inside the church. In the 19th century when the culture was chang-ing this was responded to by the American Sun-day School Union. At this period Christian edu-cators prove to be valuable resources both to the church and public schools. In the latter part of the 1800 when the period of liberal theology and the questioning of biblical authority arose, the need to strengthen not only the churches but also the church leadership began to be felt. So, the churches established Bible Institutes. Literature that focused on sound spiritual formation and discipleship for both church leadership and pro-fessors for Bible colleges were published. In the 20th century many changes especially in societal values began to emerge. The church developed new resources for children and young people to 51st Church Workers Convocation The Church and Christian Education: Challenges and Perspectives 23

instruments in proclaiming God’s love in the world so that the abundant life promised by God to all will be realized. Christian Education is a process by which those who have experienced a personal spiritual rebirth in their relationship with God, grow in the image of Christ and be-come instruments in bringing the love of God to all people. 3. Christian Education includes helping peo-ple to be biblically informed. Christian educa-tors need to appropriate the Bible in such a way that it comes alive in the contemporary settings of our learner’s lives. Christian Education needs to have a sound Biblical foundation. As Robert W. Pazmino puts it “The Scripture is the essen-tial source for understanding distinctively Chris-tian elements in education. Therefore, it is cru-cial that the Christian educator’s thoughts and practices be guided by God’s revealed truths as he or she seeks to be obedient to Christ in the task of education”. We all accept that the Bible should remain to be the primary textbook of Christian Education. For the Bible both supplies the content of Christian instruction and provides the direction, the models of education, the meth-odology, and the rationale for Christian Educa-tion. The Bible is the primary lens through which the Christian educator perceives and prescribes the character of education in the church. So, it is not only necessary to affirm the important place of the Bible in Christian education but also to discover the use of it in Christian Education. Our strength as an evangelical is the high regard we are giving to the Scripture. We have taught it as truth, tried to understand it and faithfully convey its meaning. We believe that the scripture is the word of God and we have to use it to reprove and correct the learners’ daily living, to train, nurture, discipline in holiness, in order that the learners may become at each stage of his/her de-velopment, expressing the Christ-life in the world. The Bible should be used to transform life instead of just throwing Bible words at them and asking them to toss them back to us. We should not use the Bible just to have our learners repeat the words. We should lead them to live out what they profess. In Christian education the Bible helps us to connect doctrine with practice. The

knowledge which the Lord has given to each person, and especially to each learner. However, the word “education” is also often used today not only to lead out/draw out of someone but to put into someone something. This process is called “inducation” or induction, or indoctrina-tion. So education becomes now both that which leads out from someone which God had previ-ously put into them -- as well as that which we implant from God’s world into someone (something which was not in them before). So both the words education (the teaching process which is the harnessing of the gifts given to every learner) and “inducation” – (the teaching process of encouraging the development of knowledge and virtues in a human being, by in-corporating them into his personality from the outside-inwards). Education then is the process of drawing things out of the learners and im-planting things into the learners as whole per-sons. Christian Education can now be defined as that humanitarian discipline which educts or extracts and develops those individual gifts given by God to each person; and which inducts or inculcates and develops those special graces, general virtues and general items of knowledge in accordance with Jesus Christ as the incarnate Word of God and in consonance with Scripture. 2. One of the understandings on Christian Education that was imprinted in my mind is that which Dr. Hope Antone shared in one of her classes. She defines Christian education as “ all efforts of the whole church to make known the love of God in Christ Jesus so that people of all ages will respond in faith, grow as children of God sustain a meaningful relationship within the community of believers,(UCCP and other believ-ers) and live out God’s will (fullness of life) in the world. ” Indeed Christian Education is the responsibility of all Christians. We are all tasked to be involved in this ministry of the church. It is our responsibility to educate and nurture the peo-ple from all ages, gender and status and that they may use God’s given abilities and gifts to make known the love of God. We have to help our people grow in faith as an individual and as a community. We have to lead them to become


Ecology.” And in order for Christian education to be an education for the whole person, it must be an education that is informed by different foundations (Biblical, Theological, Philosophi-cal, historical and sociological, psychological, curricular), by different Educational Principles and Educational Practices. Yes, the church Christian Education is an encompassing activity, which attempts to spiritually uplift the members of the congregation but it also aims to make them part of the ministry of the church to the world. Christian Education involves events that form and transform. In the church the primary Christian education tool is the church school or Sunday school. However, Christian education expands to include all activities and events that call together communities for the purpose of strengthening the church through the strengthen-ing of individuals and groups spiritually and in their daily walk with Christ in the world. As a whole the Christian Education that glorifies God is God –centered. It views every learner as a whole person; it views the Scripture as its main content and relating it with realities. God is indeed the center and object of our ap-proach to education. However, Christian Educa-tion that glorifies God is one that transforms in-dividuals into mature followers of Jesus Christ. Let me make it clear Christian education is not simply about content, teaching methods, audio-visual technology, or facilities. It is about peo-ple. It’s prime objective is to see the members of the body both on the individual and corporate levels to become mature in their relationship with God and with others.

IV. The Challenges to Christian Education

How best can we educate or nurture our generation of today in the midst of so many chal-lenges that Christian Education is encountering? Different churches and Christian institutions based on their educational settings, locations, levels of economic and educational status have their own respective challenges. I cannot men-tion all these challenges but let me try to mention some of them. I am hoping that later we can have

learners must be led to search the Scriptures to see the difference it will make in their lives. The learners must be guided in finding personal spiri-tual nourishment that is more vitalizing than physical food and drink. All truth is God’s truth wherever it may be found. This is particularly appropriate of the social sciences, which enrich our understanding of Christian Education. In es-sence, we examine the findings presented to us from the social sciences through the primary lens of Scripture. 4. Christian Education requires a lifelong learning and is best accomplished in the context of a caring community that meets periodically in both small and large assembly. Hence, it is the done in the church, the Christian home, Christian school, and Christians in whatever societal set-ting they find themselves. All these settings are viewed as the agencies of Christian Education, or as the companion agencies. And in these set-tings Christian Education involves helping peo-ple to participate in the life of the Christian com-munity as informed worshipping and caring Dis-ciples of Christ. It always involves equipping people for living responsibly in the world. It in-volves under girding other ministries of the church by equipping people of the church for effective leadership. It is enabling persons to grow as maturing Christians in the journey of faith. It is also a political activity with pilgrims in time that deliberately and intentionally attends with them to the activity of God in our present, to the story of the Christian faith community, and to the vision of God's kingdom. Hence, Christian education needs more trained clergy and lay leaders. 5. Christian Education must address the whole human being. For Christian education to be truly educative it should involve the forma-tion of heart, soul and might. It should involve the whole person. It should involve learners how to relate to God, neighbor and all of God’s crea-tion. It recognizes that spiritual development is related to physical, intellectual, emotional, social and moral developments. This is what Wilhoit and Dettoni called “The Theory of Spiritual


the scripture the content of Christian education must include various burning issues of the times with which we are struggling from. It is a chal-lenge not to ignore our contextual issues like the study of the environment, religious plurality, widespread poverty, the impact of the national economic policy, globalization, media explosion, cultures, festivals, deepening fundamentalism, increasing tendency to violence and widening social imbalances and so on so forth. The chal-lenge is how to use the Bible as the beginning point and a reliable way to interpret the meaning of God's liberative activity in all these issues in human experience. It is also a challenge on how the Christian community will be helped to look at the Bible critically and see what it has to teach. So that it will enable them to encounter the Christian faith, to find meaning for their own lives, and to commit themselves to discipleship.

Challenge 2: The Teacher Issues on teachers vary from the qualified and unqualified. First, some churches think that the most qualified to teach is the pastor because for them he/she is the one who is theologically trained. The challenge is that the church fails to develop among themselves one who will do the task because the church has become dependent on the pastor. Another challenge is when the pas-tor does not want to teach or has no time to teach because he/she has many other things to attend to. What happens is that the church or the pastor assigns/forces anybody in the church to do the work even those without training or theological background (basta meron lang). There are also many times when laypeople especially teachers by profession are assigned to teach even without orientation and training on how to be Sunday School teachers or Bible Study facilitators. On the other hand, there are also those who are highly skilled but cannot commit to teach. An-other challenge of course is finding person to teach; one who has the necessary skills and abili-ties and willingness to teach. So in the church the greatest need we have is to find teachers who are devoted, creative, knowledgeable, com-petent, Spirit filled, sincere in the teaching min-istry. However, until now our greatest challenge

more time sharing the challenges you yourselves have encountered or are encountering in your respective local churches, institutions and work-ing areas. Let me start from the first challenge.

V. Challenge1. The Materials and the Con-

tents of Christian Education

The challenges on the materials of/ Christian Education are of different kinds. It starts from the limitations of funds down to scar-city of materials being produced. From time to time materials are being produced in the national or conference levels but oftentimes it does not reach many local churches. Sustaining the pro-duction of these materials is also a problem, not only because of financial reason but also because not many writers commit themselves to write. The result is that materials are not produced on a regular basis. So some churches use materials produced by other denominations whose doc-trines and theologies are undeniably different from us. There are also times when materials produced in the national level are not used by conferences and local churches for many differ-ent reasons. Some conferences and local churches who can afford to finance their own materials produced their own.

As to the content, I have started with the affirmation that the bible remains to be the content of our teaching ministry. I still af-firm the use of Bible as the main source for our teaching and it is very important to be Bible-centered. But the greatest challenge is the use of the Bible simply to impart its content. The church school stops often at merely giving infor-mation about the Bible. Quite often Christian education is understood as imparting biblical content, stories and creeds. It is used as a process of conditioning the mind, body and spirit of learners according to the popularly accepted norms and beliefs of the Church and society. But in Christian Education the emphasis is not know-ing but becoming. The challenge is how Chris-tian Education can become a process in which learners are facilitated to look at themselves in relation to scripture, the traditions of the Church as well to their life situations. Hence, apart from


thing to learn. Our learners challenged us to rec-ognize them as persons with multiple intelligen-ces and exposed to a multidisciplinary environ-ment. Hence we can no longer dichotomize them. Learners of today are well informed, ag-gressive and more exposed to new knowledge than those of the past generation. Knowledge acquisition of learners today is relatively easy. In the 19th century, learners are in one-room school-houses given a tablet of paper and notebook, pencils/pens. Lessons were limited from the lec-tures of the teachers and in the books. Learners of today’s generation have a whole range of technologies at their disposal. Our learners live in an era where dissemination of knowledge and information can be done with relative ease.

Challenge 4: Methodologies

At present there are already different models, approaches and methodologies in Chris-tian Education. On the other hand, since, we are now living within a modern, secular and plural-istic society we are now confronted with the challenges in its method of teaching. The method commonly used in many church related schools and churches is the “lecture, group discussion the questions and answer methods” yet these are now being challenged. According to Paulo Freire, lecture is the method of a banking system wherein the teacher is expected to impart all the information he/she knows or the teacher deposit and later will withdraw the knowledge. In this method, the teacher is expected to be more knowledgeable than the learner and this knowl-edge must be imparted to the “ignorant” student. The banking concept of education does not give any opportunity for the learner to engage in dia-logue. This is very much against the gospel val-ues of freedom and human dignity. So the chal-lenge is to discover new methodologies to bring about teaching that is holistic. Above all, we are challenged to discover the variety of teaching and learning methods that will be appropriate for our particular learner or group of learners and to our specific curriculum content.

is to have more trained Christian Education per-son. And because there has been or no qualified Christian educators in our church, even churches who can afford to call for a trained Christian educator are not able to have teachers. On top of these challenges of course, is our understanding of what a teacher is. Teachers are usually seen as having sole authority in the teaching process. The model of teaching which is used is the teacher-centered model. So his/her main role is to transfer the content of the Bible to the mem-bers so that persons are brought into direct, per-sonal contact with the Living God.

Challenge 3: The Learner

Learners of all ages have the capacity to learn and this capacity is affected by various social, economic and physical conditions and situations. Learners have a variety of learning needs related to their personal interests, their families, their communities and their work. These needs in-clude personal development, social and civic re-sponsibility, cultural enjoyment, and continuing learning related to work and careers. Learners learn at different rates and in different styles, in different situations and at different times. Now, are our today’s church learners different? What should our learners know? How should we teach them? Is technology development a help or a curse? Our learners pose the biggest challenge to our Christian education. First, each learner brings to the educational process a personality with a set of needs, wants, and goals. Each learner is looking for fulfillment and growth in his/her own personal and spiritual life. Since every learner starts with his own basic needs, the educator must seek to motivate the learner to dis-cover and apply God's provisions to his/her life. Learners of today challenge us that in order for true learning to come to them they must experi-ence the wonder of God's truth applied to their lives. They must be considered as an individual, a person of worth, as God sees them. Their per-sonal experiences and knowledge have value. They are responsible members of a learning group, having something to contribute and some-51st Church Workers Convocation The Church and Christian Education: Challenges and Perspectives 27

order to proactively make moral and ethical deci-sions?

V. The Perspectives:

Where is Christian Education going? The answer depends largely on our orientation whether mainline Protestant, Evangelical, or Ro-man Catholic. We can propose different perspec-tives depending on who we are as educators, on who our learners are, on the settings where we are or the methodologies we love to use. But whatever is this perspective, it should be some-thing relevant and responsive to today’s needs of the learners, church, church members and soci-ety. It can be Biblical, theological, developmen-tal, pedagogical and many other perspectives. Let me share one pedagogical perspective which encompasses the different elements in Christian education. This pedagogical perspective is the model of the “Heart, Soul and Might” as a peda-gogical model developed from Deuteronomy 6:4-9. This pedagogical model is a holistic model. “A Christian education model for wholeness”. In Deuteronomy 6:4-9 we read about God com-manding the Israelites to love God with all their “Heart, Soul and Might.” It sounds a command which is promoting loving God in a compart-mentalized manner. However, a thorough exami-nation of the text shows that the words “Heart, Soul and Might” connote wholeness. Heart here is referred to not as the seat of emotion but rather the seat of intellect, will and intention. In the He-brew perspective, the heart is where the human being thinks. It is the main organ that shapes a human being’s character, choices and decisions. The word “soul” speaks of the living being, life, self, personal desire. From the Genesis perspec-tive, it is that, which breathes, or the breathing substance or being. However the soul could also stand for the human being herself or himself. The word “might” stands for the words “very or exceedingly” or in an early Jewish version, “your substance or your possession” hence, to love your God with all your might means to love your God with the whole of you. To “love your God” is to commit oneself to God. It is “the su-perlative degree of total commitment to God” The whole statement then, to “Love your God

Challenge 5: The CE Programs

Another greatest challenge that we have to face is the kind of Christian Education pro-grams we are doing. The question actually is: What are we trying to do? What is the church trying to accomplish? What are the goals of the church? Is Christian education connecting with the church mission? Is our Christian education program relevant: Do our programs responsive to the needs of people of all ages? So we hear members asking, what does this program has to do with me? When the expectation of entertain-ment is not met, the comment would be “Nothing is interesting, I'm bored”! Another question of course is that, do our programs cater only to personal, family and “churchy” issues? How about programs dealing with different is-sues like globalization, diversity, time, violence, and change? On globalization, the challenge is to invite our people to bring their entire world, with all the inherent economic and political problems into the religious education arena. On diversity, the challenge is to provide teaching programs or curricula to our churches so that our people will learn to live with people of other faiths or that they will learn to deal with our differences. On time the challenge is to provide a space for our members who are complaining about their “feeling stressed out due to time pressure”. How do we respond, do we schedule more committee meetings, more classes and activities that com-pete with their free time? So, they feel that there seems to be competing commitments or that our people participate in other activities on Sunday morning instead of coming to Sunday school, or the class members are not there every week(Erratic attendance). On violence, the challenge is to help our learners to deal with differences which usually causes to violence. Do we teach “war no more” or do we creatively teach alterna-tives on violence. How about the barraged of combative language we are exposed every day, how do we handle it? On change, the challenge is to teach our learners to choose on how to fol-low, utilize and react to technological, medical, scientific, economic and political change. It is also a challenge to help our people to be securely grounded in the knowledge and love of God in 51st Church Workers Convocation The Church and Christian Education: Challenges and Perspectives 28

promotes holistic learning commits to integrate both the sacred and profane concerns, to integrate the decisions of the educator and the learners. Also it is an education that commits to holistic and dynamic methods in BS and SS.

A Christian Education that promotes an edu-cation for Freedom. It is an education that is lib-erating and transforming. It nurtures the learners to develop a sense of freedom in order for them to claim their place in the society. It leads to the hu-manization of the learners rather than to dehu-manizing them. An education for freedom nur-tures the freedom of every learner to take part in creating human history. It is an education that learner is an actor who has responsibility to change not only her/himself but also and above all the environment to which she/he belongs.

Education for freedom liberates and trans-forms the learners. It does not domesticate them. Domesticating education makes the learners sim-ply subservient, meek and passive. However, edu-cation for freedom makes them critical, caring not only for their individual concerns but also for their society and environment. It nurtures the learners to change or transform any system that controls and thwarts their growth as whole human beings. It nurtures in them a spirit of unity and oneness with other individuals in the community. Education for freedom challenges the learners not only to care for the earth but to transform all un-just systems.

IV. Conclusion

The church by nature is a teaching body and institution. From the beginning it has realized its responsibility to its member to instruct and educate them in the Scripture in relation to their life’s situation. Christians are not alone in realiz-ing their teaching responsibilities. Hindus, Mus-lims, Buddhists, and Jews also regard instructions in their religious tenets to the adherents to their faith as one of their teaching responsibilities. However, as Christians we have especial mandate from the great teacher himself. Jesus mandated us to teach so that our learners will obey everything

with all your heart, soul and might”, means, “Loving God with all your commitment (heart), with your total self (soul), to total excess (might). As a whole this means that to love God is to com-mit one’s whole being to God. This text then em-phasizes “wholeness or holism”. It does not com-partmentalize the person but emphasizes that when you serve God you have to give the whole of you. Hence, this pedagogical model of the “Heart, Soul and Might,” is an education for holism or whole-ness. It is a pedagogical model that negates the worldview and educational system which empha-size separation, mechanistic, materialism, reduc-tionism, positivism. This is a worldview which has undeniably influenced greatly the educational ap-proach (including Christian Education) in the church and in the society making education, con-tent, teacher and cognitive centered. This peda-gogical model of the heart, soul and might which I am proposing is a Christian education model.

A Christian Education model for wholeness.What do we mean by a Christian education peda-gogical model for wholeness? It is a Christian education that affirms that learners are a “whole person”, that learners are interconnected be-ings,that learners are connected to other learners/communities and that learners are connected to creationA Christian education model for holistic learning. An education for holistic learning pro-motes a holistic learning, holistic educator, dy-namic teaching and an education for change. A Christian Education that promotes a holistic educator. A holistic educator is one who works as partner in the learning process. As a partner his/her orientation is toward interdependence. He/she is a co- learner, he/she shares power and authority with the learners. And he/she recognizes the diver-sity of learners and the diversity of learning. He/she believes in the importance of materials, meth-ods and techniques. And above all a holistic edu-cator promotes dynamic methods. A Christian education model that promotes a holistic program, is an education that commits to understand the learners first (the learners’ needs interests and talents, developmental stages and their values). A Christian education model that


Christ has commanded. This mandate remains a call and a challenge for the church, especially for the UCCP churches, for all of us church workers, clergy and lay, ordained and non-ordained, offi-cers and ordinary members. We are all chal-lenged once more to take a serious and critical re-evaluation of our Christian Education ministry. We are challenged to take a Christian Education in our respective churches, conferences and ju-risdictions which is of holistic in its pedagogical model. We have to breathe new life in what we teach, how we teach, who are going to teach, and who are we going to teach. In light of the grow-ing need and the intensifying crisis in our time, we have to provide variety, new opportunities, dynamic and a more relevant Christian Educa-tion program in the church. To teach the faith, nurture and empower people for mission is at the very heart of the life and future of our church. May the Lord who gave us the Great Commis-sion find us faithful in carrying out this very sa-cred mandate.


THE ROLE OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL IN EXPANDING CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Introduction One reason a man or a woman wants to remarry is that he/she wants to make up for the failure of his or her previous marriage. I think the reason of the Divinity School in requesting me to speak before this august body for the sec-ond year in a row is that it wants to give me a

chance to make up for the lousy speech that I gave last year. I am certainly grateful for this chance to redeem myself. But if I torture you again with another lousy speech and you fall asleep, you only have to blame Drs. Lope Robin and Jeaneth Harris Faller for saving me by grace at your expense.

What follows is not a sophisticated schol-arly paper on Christian education. It is not a fruit of library research. Rather, following Dr. Noriel Capulong’s advice, it is a simple, but hopefully not simplistic, reflection on some grassroots is-sues related to the topic assigned to me – “The Role of the Divinity School in Expanding Chris-tian Education.” In the first part we will try to describe the study programs of the Divinity School aimed at equipping future church work-ers for their role as Christian educators of local churches. In the second part, we will take a look at what has been done to respond to the need of churches for adequate and relevant reading mate-rials for their Christian Education activities. In the third part, we will spell out a reason for com-municating the full, not a partial, gospel. Towards A Definition of Christian Education. Who is a Christian? According to Rodney McKean, in the Middle Eastern culture, a per-son’s name is related to his ancestry and charac-ter. For instance, in Hebrew, the word "Ben" means a "son of." Hence, "Ben-hadad" means son of Hadad (Wikipedia). A patronymic family name (a name derived from the name of a father or an ancestor) is common in Sweden. For in-stance, the family name Johansson means a son of Johan (Wikipedia). Similarly, as McKenan says, “the name ‘Christ-ian’ will mean ‘son of Christ’ and so will have the character of Christ.1 What is education? “Education means a learning process is taking place. Learning leads to growth and liberation as learners take owner-ship of what they are learning, develop co-explorer relationships with each other, and de-velop problem solving skills in their daily life.”2 Such a process could take place in a formal or informal type of education.3 The terms Christian

Dr. Lourdino A. Yuzon received his B.Th. in 1956 and Master of Divinity in 1968 from Silli-man University Divinity School. He served as pastor of a small church in Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental. After some years, in the parish, the call for further studies beck-oned him. Heeding the call, he left for Boston, U.S.A. to earn his Doctor of Philosophy in Social Ethics. He re-turned to the Divinity School to teach and later serve as Dean of the Divinity School. Later, the Christian Confer-ence of Asia, then based in Singapore, called him to be-come Secretary of Mission and Evangelism. After his stint with CCA, he came back to Dumaguete to teach, and later served as acting president of Silliman University from 1989 to 1990. Then, he went back to the U.S. to serve as pastor of Cosmopolitan United Church of Christ, a Filipino-American community in North Dallas, Texas. From there, he moved to New Zealand to pastor a church, and later became Joint Secretary for Council for Mission and Ecu-menical Cooperation based in Christchurch, Aotearoa. Presently, he shuttles with his wife Mercia between New Zealand and Dumaguete to be with their children and


and education so understood, we may, in a pro-visional sense, define Christian education as a life-long formal or informal teaching/learning process that enables a person to grow in Christ-likeness, reflecting in his knowledge, disposition, attitude, values and deeds the mind and spirit of Christ.

Part I Equipping Christian Educators

To be able to do its work well, an educa-tional institution must have three interrelated components: well qualified teachers, students who are eager to learn and adequate facilities such as a well equipped library. In regard to the first component, the Christian education program of the Divinity School is in the very able hands of Dr. Jeaneth Harris Faller. I should know be-cause when I was an absent-minded professor, I was her mentor, and she was my tormentor. A holder of doctoral degree in Christian education from the Southeast Asia Graduate School of Theology, Jeaneth is a first-rate scholar and ef-fective teacher. She has earned the right to be included in the pantheon of outstanding profes-sors of Christian education who graced the lec-ture halls of the then College of Theology and Divinity School: Dr. Divina del Carmen Tapaya, Dr. Alexander Grant, Dr. Elena G. Maquiso and Professor Lydia Niguidula, among others.

Under Dr. Harris-Faller’s leadership,

Christian education is gradually earning its right-ful place in the total curricular program of the Divinity School as well as the respect it de-serves. It may be noted that since those years (1951-1956) when I was a student at the then College of Theology, some seminary students and probably some professors have looked at Christian education as a discipline that does not compare in importance with those in the fields of systematic theology, biblical studies, clinical pastoral education, guidance and counselling, church history, etc. It has been stereotyped as something that is mainly practical in nature, not conceptual. Critics say that Christian educators discuss boring, “how to” issues whereas theolo-

gians debate without end thought-provoking, life-and-death questions such as the number of an-gels who can dance on a head of a pin. But noth-ing could be further from the truth. The reality, however, is that a Christian educator should have a fair command not only of teaching/learning methods but also of knowledge and insights gained in such content courses as systematic the-ology, biblical studies, and the like.

We cannot overemphasize the importance for students to have a healthy respect for Chris-tian education subjects in the light of my per-sonal struggles in this field. Like many of my classmates,4 I had only a token or casual interest in Christian education. My mantra was: “Practical ra man na kaayo!” I went through the motions of attending classes, barely earning sat-isfactory grades in my Christian education courses. I did not see the need to carry out in-depth research into subjects assigned to me. Consequently, I had a very superficial under-standing of the philosophy, theology and meth-odology of Christian education. But things even-tually caught with me not long after I started serving as the minister a small local church which could not afford the services of a special-ist in Christian education. I had no choice but to be the Christian educator, a role for which I did not prepare myself properly while I was in semi-nary.

The Divinity School continues to offer

Bachelor of Theology and non-thesis Master of Divinity degree programs in which each student is required to earn 12 units in Christian educa-tion subjects. A B.Th. and an M. Div. graduate is a generalist. He/she is in a position to provide creative and effective leadership in the various ministries of small UCCP congregations many of which could barely afford the services of one salaried staff. In a small church, he/she is the preacher, counsellor, administrator, theologian, secretary and Christian educator.

Recently, the Divinity School Academic

Council proposed to the Academic Council of Silliman University, a thesis track Master of Di-


vinity degree program with major in Christian education. This is a significant development. A student enrolled in this study program will be required to satisfactorily earn 33 units of Chris-tian education courses prior to writing a thesis. It is hoped that the Academic Council of Silli-man University will approve that proposal this year. Subsequently that could probably be imple-mented at the beginning of school year 2013-2014. A graduate of this degree program could qualify as a specialist in Christian education who could serve as full-time minister of Christian education of big churches like the Silliman Uni-versity Church or Bradford Church in Cebu City, etc. He/she could also qualify to teach values education and bible and/or religion classes in high schools and colleges that are related to the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.

Allow me to reiterate without belabouring

the obvious. If the Divinity School is to have un-qualified success in expanding Christian educa-tion it should, among others, continue to turn out graduates who are competent and dedicated prac-titioners in the ministry of nurturing people in the Christian faith to the end that their parishion-ers will grow into the likeness of the mind and spirit of Christ which, as we said, is the ultimate aim of Christian education. They are the best re-sources for the Christian education ministry of our churches.

Part II Resources: Reading Materials

Lessons for Sunday School Classes and Study Groups5. To be able to build a house, a carpenter needs tools such as hammer and saw. Similarly, to be able to effectively lead a teach-ing/learning process in a formal setting such a Sunday School class or a discussion of a bible study group, a Christian educator needs some tools of his/her trade. One of these is reading materials for Sunday School classes. In response to my queries, some local church leaders told me that their faith communities continue to be in urgent need of biblically based reading materials with sound theological content. A retired minis-ter friend and former classmate of mine at the

College of Theology e-mailed to say that in the district conference to which he now belongs, “Christian education is in disarray.” Local churches “have no Sunday School guides and updated resource books in this very important field.”

The impression I gathered was that noth-

ing much has been done at the national, jurisdic-tional and conference level of the UCCP to ad-dress that need. However, from a reliable source, I learned that indeed the UCCP Faith and Order Commission has been producing Sunday School materials for all age groups following its own version of the lectionary based on the cur-rent quadrennial theme of the General Assembly – “Discerning and Obeying God’s Will in These Critical Times.”

This can augment and/or complement the

Revised Common Lectionary. The production of lessons for the period from Advent 2012 to Pen-tecost 2013 will soon be completed. These mate-rials are written in English. Copies are sent to Jurisdictional offices which are expected to translate and distribute copies of translated ver-sions to conferences which, in turn, are to make copies of it available to local churches. If many local UCCP congregations have not seen such Sunday School materials, let alone use them, it could be because of bottlenecks in the flow of such materials at the Jurisdiction and conference levels.

Some District Conferences of the United

Church of Christ in the Philippines have taken concrete steps in addressing their need for Sun-day School lesson guides. For example, through its Curriculum and Literature Development Committee, the Negros District Conference has published Hugpong, a quarterly newsletter which contains Sunday School materials for adults, youth and children. The lessons are based on the Revised Common Lectionary. These materials are available at the NDC Office for a token fee and for free downloading at http://ndc.uccpchurch.org.

It is worth noting that Hugpong and, to a


certain extent, Christian education materials pro-duced by the UCCP Faith and Order Commis-sion, are based on the lectionary which is “pre-selected collection of scriptural readings from the Bible that can be used for study or other theological uses.6 Lessons focus on events of the liturgical year – advent, Christmas, epiphany, lent, Easter, Pentecost and the long season after Pentecost. Using lectionary-based materials for Sunday School classes and Sunday worship ser-vices has some advantages. Two of them are worth noting.

Dr. Poculo Rodriguez used the image of

sunog bunot to illustrate the powerful impact of a sharply focused sermon. A tender-dry husk of a mature coconut fruit (bunot) is placed under-neath a magnifying glass that catches the rays of the sun and converts them into a hot, single beam which eventually kindles the husk. We called a powerful and effective sermon sunog bunot. Congressman Fariñas delivered the most powerful closing argument at the trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona. He used the word palusot (excuse) as a recurring theme to describe what Corona did with his unexplained riches. So focused was his speech that Sen. Juan Ponce En-rile complimented Farinas for it. A local church can enhance its learning process if lessons dis-cussed at Sunday school classes are reinforced at the worship service where hymns, prayers, cho-ral anthems and sermons will focus on the theme suggested in the same set of scripture lessons consisting of passages from the Old Testament, Epistles and Gospels. For instance, for Sunday, September 2, 2012, the selected lessons in the common lectionary will be Psalm 45:1-9,22-23; James 2:1-10 and Mark 7:24-37.

Another advantage of using the common

lectionary is that it will ensure a balanced read-ing of, and reflection on, the books of the Bible. It is a safeguard against the dubious practice of favouring some passages of Scripture to the ne-glect of others. Also, a lectionary-based preach-ing ministry challenges a minister to preach on a variety of biblical themes and thereby offer to God’s people in the pew a balanced diet of the-

ologies, not just a variation of his/her pet theol-ogy. Basic Christian Beliefs. Philips Brooks once said that ministers should preach as many doc-trines as they can. Similarly, we could say that Christian educators should teach as many doc-trines as they can. The reason for this is that our faith in God is a “faith seeking understand-ing” (St. Anselm) which means “an active love of God seeking a deeper knowledge of God”. Lay people must be equipped with a working knowledge of the theological/doctrinal aspects of the Christian faith. Dr. Paul T. Lauby, in whose honour the Convocation Lauby lectures is named, kept telling his students in his Christian Ethics classes that they should “hammer out their own theologies.” “Doctrines become roots in our lives. They provide us with a strong an-chor. No one wants to be a tree without roots, or a house built on the sand. People, churches, and organizations can drift from the truth.”7 Theolo-gies/doctrines really matter. A logical starting point in the process of enabling parishioners to be conversant about our Evangelical/Reformed faith is a thoughtful study of the Trinitarian Statement of Faith of the United Christ in the Philippines and the two excellent commentaries on it – Like a Mustard Seed, and Unless a Seed Falls and Dies.

It is said that sects and cults have created confusion in the minds of many members of lo-cal UCCP congregations. Their teachings are appealing to some of our people. This is because they reduce the whole truth that is beyond hu-man minds to understand to something that is partially true which, in turn, is claimed to be the whole truth. They claim to be authoritative be-cause everything that they say is supported by passages from the Bible. But what they do is use and sometimes distort carefully chosen passages of the bible to support their preconceived ideas. Instead of letting the Bible speak to them, they speak to the Bible. Or listen to verses in the Bi-ble that they want to hear. We know that to be the dubious practice of proof-texting.


To illustrate, let me cite my recent ex-change of e-mails with a niece of mine who is based in Talisay City, Cebu and who belonged to the Bradford UCCP in Cebu City. She e-mailed to say that she was joining a Pentecostal church because the UCCP order of worship does not include the practice of speaking in tongues. In response I said that speaking in tongues that no-body understands is a serious misunderstanding of the story of the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. As Acts 2:1-13 puts it, what actually happened was that when the apostles spoke in their language (probably Aramaic), everybody who came from all the nations of the ancient Mediterranean world understood them in their own tongues. In effect, I said that the Holy Spirit is a spirit of understanding, not of confu-sion which is what happens in tongue-speaking. I also said that in Paul’s list of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:1-11), speaking in tongues ranks lower than teaching, healing, prophesying, preaching, etc. Moreover, I said that for Paul, the most excellent gift of the Spirit is love (I Cor. 13) such that if one loves God and his neighbour, he is anointed by the Holy Spirit. My niece may have, or may have not, left the UCCP to join a Pentecostal group. In either case, she did not ask further questions about speaking in tongues. My niece’s experience could be multiplied a number of times.

If churches lack the confidence and abil-

ity to refute aggressive peddlers of false teach-ings, they could lose some of their members. To help them meet this need, may I propose a wild approach. Professors of Christian Educa-tion, Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology at the Divinity School could require a select group of students to write papers in simple Eng-lish or Cebuano and in a question-and-answer format analysing and refuting half-truths or per-verted truths of sects and cults. Arguments should be based on appropriate biblical passages that are interpreted in a responsible manner. Such apologetic papers could be prepared on a one-off basis and may count as fulfilment of term paper requirements. The hope is that

churches could use them in their defence of the Trinitarian faith of the UCCP.

Part III Communicating the Full Gospel.

Christian education is not just a matter of eager and able students, trained teachers, adequate fa-cilities and reading materials, effective methods of instruction and efficient organizational set-up. Of equal importance is the content of the mes-sage that we communicate. Our faith nurturing ministry will either flourish or perish at this point. In his slim book, Political Evangelism,Richard M. J. Mouw says that the Gospel must be seen to be comprehensive to encompass all aspects of human life, personal and social. As he puts it,

… the gospel in its fullness must be di-rected to all dimensions of human life. Christ’s atoning work offers liberation for people in their cultural endeavours, in their family lives, in their educational pur-suits, in their quest for sexual fulfilment, in their desire for physical well-being. It also offers liberation in the building of political institutions and the making of public policy8

Pietistic faith is one dominant feature of Protestant Christianity that was introduced to the Philippines. It views sin as a power that enslaves individuals but not their societies, their cultural achievements and institutions. It sees sinful situations solely through the eyes of individuals. If there is injustice, exploitation, poverty, domi-nation of the weak by the powerful, the reason given is that individuals are morally and spiritu-ally depraved. Dealing with the problem of un-regenerate individual persons is the best way to deal with social problems. Since unregenerate individuals create depraved social conditions, the remedy is to change individuals. Pietistic faith maintains that changed individuals change soci-ety. But that does not necessarily follow. For


instance, it is possible that a “born-again” Chris-tian may also be an exploiter, profiteer and abu-sive of delegated and entrusted authority and power and not be conscience stricken.

Privatised faith divorces public morality from personal spirituality. The sacred and the secular (profane or worldly) are kept apart. Wor-ship has no bearing upon day-to-day life. It be-gins and ends in a sanctuary. In the world be-yond places of worship one thinks and acts as if God is absent from the rest of the world. This palpable “disconnect between our public show of religiousness and our real personal integ-rity” (Eusebio Kho) is one cause of corruption that gnaws at the vitals of Philippine society. The findings of an opinion poll involving 1,400 for-eign business executives were published by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy on You Tube on the 12 January 2012. That survey classi-fied the Philippines as the most corrupt country in Asia. This is an irony of ironies. Is it not that the Philippines is the only Christian nation in Asia? A visitor to Manila seeing the pollution of the Pasig River and being told how many have drowned in the river quipped: “If you fall into the Pasig River, you do not drown. You decay.”9 Like the Pasig River, Philippine society has long been in a state of moral decay.

We propose a corrective to privatized faith that affirms that religious experience is per-sonal but not individualistic. It is personal be-cause individual persons interact with a personal God and with other persons. That faith cannot be privatized is rooted in the fact that a person is a social being. “He lives and moves in a world of structured relationships.”10 Sin is at work not only in individuals but also in social, institu-tional and structural realms of life. The Gospel that we communicate in our Christian education program includes “ the announcement of God’s Kingdom and love through Christ, the offer of grace and forgiveness of sins and the summons to fellowship in God’s saving words and deeds” as well as “the summons to participate in the struggle for (social) justice and human whole-ness”11 Our teaching/learning activities should enable believers “to discern what God was doing

in the biblical record and what He is doing today to generate the joy and hope of redemptive lib-eration”12 not only of individuals but also of their social institutions.

It is said that if the rubber of the wheel meets the road, a vehicle can move forward or backward. Similarly, the Good News in its full-ness is the critical meeting point of our ministry to nurture people in the faith. Effective teaching methods will not be a waste of time and effort if we communicate by word and deed the full, not the partial, gospel. We should listen to, and obey, this God-given mission mandate which is also presupposed in the theme of the UCCP Gen-eral Assembly for the current quadrennium: “Discerning and Obeying God’s Will in These Critical Times.” Conclusion. A speaker can bring his address to a close in either of two ways. He can say “In conclu-sion” and really concludes soon thereafter. Or he could say, “Lastly,” and lasts and lasts and lasts. Lastly, or rather, in conclusion, allow me to re-affirm and reinforce the view that an imagi-native and creative Christian education program is of singular importance to the life and mission of a local church. A formal or an informal teach-ing/learning process that is carried out in a dia-logical manner could enable a local church to effectively nurture its people in the faith such that they will come to really know Jesus and grow in Christ-like character.13 We cannot thank the Divinity School enough for taking the lead in expanding Christian education. We hope and pray that from the very modest beginnings that we have laid out, the process of expanding Christian education will grow by leaps and bounds in the years to come at the Divinity School and in our local churches. End Notes 1Cited in Alex Tang, “Random Musings” From a Doc-tor’s Chair. The adjective Christian is not self-explanatory. It means different things to different people. Some see something


as Christian if it is associated with a church which is claimed to be the true church. “I was born and raised a Catholic,” someone testified, “now I am a Christian.” To that person, a Catholic is not Christian whereas a Protes-tant is. An aggressive evangelist once told me to the face that unless I am a born again person (whatever that means), I am not a Christian at all. Others see something as Christian if it is focused on the Bible and has a right system of belief. Still others see something as Christian if it is associated with moralistic values and behaviour. In my younger days, I was told that if I did not smoke, dance, gamble, swear, watch movies in a theatre, I would be a true Christian. But the problem is that anyone, including an atheist, can abstain from such vices. That does make him a Christian. In fact, “much of what passes for Chris-tian education is merely a condensation of classical west-ern thought and institutions with Bible content or orthodox theology which was developed and written with a Western point of view” (Rodney McKean). 2Alex Tang, “Random Musings” From a Doctor’s Chair. 3The term education also means different things to differ-ent people. Robert Pazmino, Valeria Stone Professor of Christian Education at Andover Newton Theological School, identified two contrasting definitions of Christian education. Formal education is “characterised by class-room sessions, learning agendas, teacher directed method-ologies, and required courses of study” to informal educa-tion at the other end where learning focus is “on acquiring skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values growing out of student interactions with experiences or environ-ment.”Informal education occurs in a spontaneous manner in daily living. One learns as he/she gets involved in real-life challenges and daily living. I believe that it was in this sense that the American philosopher John Dewey said that education is not just a preparation for life; it is life itself. Or that education is a process of living, not a preparation for future living. From this point of view, one goes through educational process even if he/she does not undergo formal schooling in an educational institutions4Of our 1956 B.Th. class of 27, only one male student, Agapito Rosendo, chose to concentrate in Christian education, not in pastoral ministry. We had a field day making fun of Agapito, often calling him Sister Rosendo who ended up not as minister of a local church but as a teacher of bible classes at the Dansalan Junior College in Marawi City.A minister friend of mine e-mailed his misgivings about his unpreparedness for his role as Christian educator of the church to which he was assigned. He said, “I agree with you that our B. Th program did not prepare us enough to be intelligent Chris-tian Educators in our local churches where we were as-signed. I assumed that whoever was the Deaconess ( many of them were trained at Ellinwood Bible School) would be my Christian Educator. She was in charge of the Kinder-garten Program, the Sunday School, Bible Study VBS and other related activities, and my roles were simply to give the opening remarks, say prayers, to be some sort of re-source person in Bible Study sessions and distribute cer-tificates to students after the VBS and other series of stud-ies were completed.”5In anticipation of the implementation

of K-12, a group of writers who also teach at Silliman Uni-versity, is involved in the process of writing and publish-ing teaching/learning materials on values education and biblically based lessons which could be used by UCCP-related colleges and academic high schools such as Libera-tion Institute, Jimenez Bethel Institute and Farmers’ Insti-tute in Calamba, Jimenez and Bonifacio, Misamis Occi-dental respectively, and Pilgrim College in Cagayan de Oro City, etc. It may be called to mind that such educa-tional institutions are fertile breeding grounds for candi-dates for full-time ministry. Dr. Noriel Capulong serves as a resource person of that group. A collection of sermons on topics that is as varied as the seasons of the Christian year (Advent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, etc.) could be useful to lay preachers, evangel-ists and many local church ministers including seminary graduates. In the year 2004, I published a book of sermons entitled Bread for the Journey. Copies of it were distrib-uted for free to all who attended the 2004 convocation. From anecdotal evidence in the form of unsolicited feed-back, that book of sermons has met a felt need of some preachers. Unfortunately, I could not follow up on that for financial reasons. Perhaps the Divinity School could col-lect from some UCCP ministers sermons in both English and Cebuano and, with their permission, print copies of a volume of such sermons to be made available at next years’ convocation for a token price of P100.00 per copy. For those who have computers and are able to use them, those sermons could be “burned” or copied into compact discs which could be made available to convocation par-ticipants also for a token price of P100 per CD. If a local church minister does not have access to a personal com-puter, he/she could download and print copies of chosen sermons at internet cafes. If a minister does not know how to use his/her own computer, he/she could seek the help of his/her grandchildren. An item may have to be included in next year’s convocation budget to cover the cost of that project. 6“What is the Lectionary?” Disciples of Christ-Canada and U.S.A.). 7 James J. Poitras, “The Christian and Bible Doctrines.”I remember the late Rev. Marcelo Sumabong whom some of you may have known personally. He was once the min-ister of the then Evangelical Church in Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental and was the prince of preachers in the Cebuano language. It was partly due to his influence that I decided to become a minister of the gospel. When he preached, everybody prayed; nobody slept. He attracted my atten-tion not only because of his rhetorical and oratorical skills but also because he had something significant to say to his listeners. Then Dr. Proculo Rodriguez decided to send him to the College of Theology for upgrading purposes. That backfired. He was then in his fifties. As was our ex-perience, he had to undergo a two-step process in formu-lating his theological/doctrinal stand. The first step was the deconstruction of the pet theologies that he brought to seminary. That was a traumatic experience for him. Imag-ine being told in his class on historical/critical approach to


the bible that not every word, every sentence and every line in the Bible came from God! He was shocked to hear his pro-fessor in Old Testament studies say that writers belonging to J,E,D,P schools rather Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Unfortu-nately, he did not get to the second stage of constructing his own theology. He quit his formal theological studies after his second year in the College of Theology. To our surprise and disappointment, he became more comfortable in saying what the bible does not say rather than in what the bible says. When he preached not long after he returned to Bonifacio, he lec-tured in a rather boring and tentative manner. With a heavy heart, the chief elder of his church commented, “Kini si Eloy bantogang bantogang mowali sa wala pa siya moadto sa Silliman University. Karon dili na siya makapaniguro kon unsay iyang isulti.” (Eloy was an outstanding preacher before he went to Silliman University. Now he is unsure about what he really wants to say, and why.) Like Jeremiah who was called “to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10. NRSV) seminary students, ministers and Christian educators should complete the proc-ess of deconstructing and constructing their theologies. 8Richard M. J. Mouw, Political Evangelism, pp. 14-15. 9Eliezer Mapanao, “Change and Decay: The Either/Or of Christian Education,” Christian Education and Nurture: A Man-ual (Malate, Manila: Ellinwood Malate Church, 1997), p. 52. 10Orlando Costas, The Church and its Mission, p. 307. 11Bolivian Manifesto. 12Eliezer Mapanao, op. cit. p. 49.


“Challenges in Christian Education in Sunday School and Bible Study Pro-grams of the Church”

Outline

I. A collective act of defining for the purpose of understanding some terms: A leveling off process aron magkatukma atong mga hunahuna ug tinan-awan alang sa usa ka hapsay nga pagto-on. As a new or veteran church worker, what is Christian Education to you?

Unsay papel sa Christian Education sa kinabuhi sa iglesiya? Is Christian Education important? Without doing any thought processing, unsa alang kanimo ang Sunday School, ang Bible Study? II. A joint walk through the challenges/weaknesses and threats faced by local churches in relation to Christian Education program/ministry: An honest-to-goodness and no holds-barred sharing of problems aron makita ang tinud-anay nga mga suliran nga gisagubang partikular sa inyong Sunday School ug Bible Study nga mga kalihokan. Unsa ang mga suliran nga inyong gisagubang o gi-atubang? Sa imong matinuoron nga pagtan-aw, nganong nahimo man kini silang mga suliran? III. A collective effort at knowing the strengths and opportunities that could be availed of to over-come the Christian Education concerns that have been bugging your local church all these years: Pagtan-aw sa mga sulbad sa atong mga suliran nga usahay atong nakalimtan.


Abstract In this workshop, the facilitator will ad-dress several of the key components that make for effective pastoring of a church: Dynamic Spirit Filled, Spirit Led Worship; scripturally and spiri-tually based strong preaching; the creation and implementation of meaningful Christian Educa-tion programs for the church; visitation of the sick; Youth Ministries; Mission; Evangelism; Stewardship; Fellowship; Social Action; Attempt-ing to minister to the various needs of each inter-est group that comprises a congregation. This workshop will focus on different models for pas-toral ministry – from the single pastor of a small congregation to the pastor of a multi-staff congre-gation. The second phase of this workshop is on the subject of “Care for the Pastor.” This segment will cover the following topics: Pastoral Self Care and techniques to keep the ministry fresh and ex-citing; Congregational Care for the Pastor and Care of the larger church for the pastor.

The Effective pastor and Care for the Pastor

Dr. Hood is a pastor and senior minister of Plymouth United Church of Christ in De-troit, Michigan.


This interest group will engage the par-ticipants in exploring the teachings of the church on Islam. In this way, pastors and church leaders will have some handles on the subject matter in helping the church members understand Islam. The group will discuss the meaning of Islam and basic beliefs and practices of Islam. It is notable that the term Islam is derived from Arabic language. The root letters of the word are SLM, which are present in the words such iS-LaM, muSLiM, SaLaaM. Salaam means peace. The term islam has a general reference to peace and submission. Specifically, Islam means sub-mission to the will of God, and a Muslim is one who makes that submission. An adherent of Is-lam is known as a Muslim, meaning “one who submits to God”. Submission to the good will of God, together with obedience to His beneficial Law, i. e, becoming a Muslim, is the best safe-guard for man's peace and harmony. Islam is a religion that traces its roots to Abraham. Beginning as the faith of a small com-munity of believers in Arabia in the seventh cen-tury, Islam rapidly became one of the major world religions. The core of this faith is the belief that Muhammad (c. 570-632), a nephew of a re-spected businessman in Mecca, a commercial and religious

Church Teaching on Islam center in western Arabia, received revelations from God that have been preserved in the Qur'an. The heart of this revealed message is the affirmation that "there is no god but Allah (The God) and Muhammad is the messenger of God." Why teach Islam in Church? The world we live in today is by nature religiously plural-istic. Obtaining accurate knowledge about other religious traditions will help us to reduce prejudices and building bridges instead of walls. As Hans Kung said, “[There is] No peace among the world without peace among the re-ligions, No peace among the religions without dialogue between the religion, and there is no Dialogue between the religions without accurate knowledge of one another”. Christian communi-cation with communities of other faith tradition in the past tended to be seen as one way system, a top-down model that was used primarily for manipulation and persuasive purpose. A new direction on patterns of the Christian communi-cation with other faith tradition is therefore in a great demand for today’s Christian churches. Let us start today and if we had already started lets we continue.

Facilitator:

Rev. Joas Bainomugisha Kahesi is a visit-ing lecturer from Kagera, Tanzania under the auspices of the United Evangelical Mis-sion (UEM). His earned a Master of Arts in Christian-Muslim Relations and a post graduate diploma in Islam Studies. He is pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church Tanzania.


The Philippine Budget: Implications and Challenges to Churches

Leonor Magtolis Briones was a professor at the University of the Philippines and a former Presidential Adviser for Social Development with Cabinet Rank at the Office of the Presi-dent. She has served as National Treasurer of the Philippines from August 1998 to February 2001.

Briones earned her Bachelor in Business Administration, major in Accounting from Silliman University and her Master’s in Public Administration, major in Local Government and Fiscal Administration from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. She got her Post Graduate Diploma in Development Administration from the Harvard Institute for International Development at Harvard University. She has served the public in many ways. She was Lead Convenor of Social Watch Philippines, Inc., Vice-President for Finance at UP, Secretary to the Commission of the Commission on Audit, and Chairperson of Silliman’s Board of Trustees. Briones is an Outstanding Sillimanian Awardee in the field of Fiscal and Public Administration.


Dr. Lucio B. Mutia, is a Spiri-tual Care & Counseling Pro-fessor at the Silliman Divinity School . He spent 25 years as Pastor in a small rural church, in a medium-size congrega-tion, and then, in a big urban church.. He taught in the aca-deme for 32 years. In the U.S., he was a professor in Spiritual/Pastoral Care at Vir-ginia Commonwealth Univer-sity.. He also served as chap-lain at the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals. He earned his supervisory education un-der the ACPE, Inc. and granted Certified Supervisor status of ACPE, Inc. in 1993. He served as an Accreditation Member of ACPE in Mid-Atlantic Region. He founded an Asian-American UCC in Richmond, VA. As member of UCC-USA, he served as Executive Director of the East-ern Region of the Pacific Asian American Ministries for one term. He earned his D.Th. from South East Asia Graduate School of Theology. Currently, Dr. Mutia is the Director of the CPE Program under the Philip-pine Association for Clinical Pastoral Education and Prac-tice, Inc. (PACPEP) based in Dumaguete City and Coordi-nating the CPE Program of Silliman Divinity School. He is continuously “on fire” in the area of CPE and Clinical Spiri-tual Care journey .

Sarah Buttler, Caring Ministry, New York: Continuum, 2003.Ibid., pp. 73-74


Spiritual Care & Counselling: A Journey Towards a Peaceful Soul

In a world of high-technology, cell phones, iPods, high stress jobs, and high stress traffics, one of the best gifts we can offer each other is a lis-tening presence. In this way, those who suffer will take courage not only to endure the suffering, but to take it as a challenge. This experience occurs when there is a listening presence, one that evokes the gut of a healing phe-nomenon. Listening presence heals because it respects, it affirms, and it be-lieves.

Steps for Being a Healing Presence The following are “Steps For Being A Healing Presence” by James E. Miller and Susan C. Cutshall:1. Open yourself. Begin with yourself, and be present to yourself with hon-

esty, insight, and acceptance. Open to your uniqueness, humanness, prejudice, brokenness, and wholeness. Own your life story.

2. Intend to be a healing presence. Be a presence with one another. Intend to promote healing in many ways.

3. Prepare a space for healing presence to take place. Create a space where you can interact with to others in an atmosphere of calm and privacy. Put away your personal expectations from the other.

4. Honor the one in your care. Approach those you accompany with dignity and worth. Honor their individuality, equality, humanness, separate-ness, and sacredness.

5. Offer what you have to give. Freely and simply offer what you can give, with the consciousness that the other has the freedom to accept or reject your gift. Offer loving acceptance, empathy, dependability, an unselfish focus on them , your firm belief in them, your willingness to follow their lead and as much as anything, hope.

6. Receive the gifts that come. Accept with a grateful heart what is yours to receive. This may include living your life fully as a result of this practice. It may mean uncovering your genuine self, enjoying won-derful relationships, finding personal satisfaction, realizing you have made a difference, receiving your own healing, and exploring some of life’s most valuable lessons.

7. Live a life of wholeness & balance. Live your days fully caring for your own needs, setting appropriate boundaries, encouraging your own growth, and nurturing a loving attitude toward life including the sa-cred dimension. Affirm and live out the truth of the transforming potential of healing presence. Be grateful for the possibili-ties.”

Prayerfully, along the way, you may find deep peace as you, in humility, practice listening pres-ence with one another. Ultimately, what is meaningful is not in the arrival; it is in the process of the journey.

The environmental crisis now encom-passes the entire world. Although the de-struction of the sacred quality of nature has been caused by human behaviour governed by a secularist perspective, the vast majority of the human species still lives within a worldview dominated by religion. The role of religion in the solution of this crisis is therefore crucial. Traditionally, religion has played a role in linking people to the natural world and infusing people with the knowledge and values that make caring for it a priority. The moral imperative and value system of relig-ion are indispensible in mobilizing the sensi-bilities of people towards preserving the en-vironment for future generations. Ministers of religion can shape how the members of their congregations view the environment. The promotion of good envi-ronmental behaviour coming from people of religious belief can go a long way towards healing our ailing planet. This workshop will focus on the rela-tionship between religion and the environ-ment. We will also examine the issue to waste management in the Philippines and propose ways that churches can offer leader-ship by modelling sustainable behaviour.

The Role of Christian Education in Promoting Earth Rights


David Dranchuk is a retired church worker from Vancouver, British Columbia and a descendant of immigrants from Ukraine and Poland. He opted to retire early and live permanently in Dumaguete City. He earned a degree in Home Economics and Social Work from the University of Manitoba. He has worked with the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster in various capacities: as Coordinator of Societal Ministry, as youth worker especially with street youth who survived through prostitution and drug dealing and as provider of palliative care for elderly people who do not want to die in a per-sonal care facility. As an advocate for social justice and environmental stewardship, he has also worked on environmental issues for the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster. He is part of the Kairos net-work. David believes that a profound change in spirit is necessary if we are to deal with the envi-ronmental crisis that threatens our planet. At pre-sent, he is offering his time as a volunteer at Justice and Peace Center.

Christian Education as Soul Craft: Conflict Sensitivity and Principles of Non-Violent Communication

No one can deny that the world has become more violent. A psychologist says that this is an in-dication that “contemporary has lost touch with the soul” and consequently missed the path to “psychological and spiritual maturity.” In this inter-est group, the contention to be put forward is that Christian education, like peace education, takes the burden of soul craft. Christian education is the nurturance of hu-man beings to be in touch with their souls so that they will be able to attain peace with the self and oth-ers. The self is about one’s character, individuality and identity. The health of the soul defines the self. As such, Christian education must face the challenge of doing soul craft. To Bill Plotkin, a deep psychol-ogy practitioner, soulcraft is an “approach to the psy-che and the world that embraces both wild nature and the depths of our souls.” It is also called “eco-depth psychology” because Plotkin employs “synergistic set of nature-based practices designed to evoke the life-shifting experience of soul encounter.” Soul craft, in Christian tradition, is the an-cient practice of shaping an authentic self. Applying the principle to Christian education and Peace educa-tion, soul craft is the intentional shaping of one’s val-ues, perspectives and development of character and identity. In the first draft of WCC’s statement pre-pared for the International Ecumenical Peace Convo-cation, soul craft is about the molding of convictions, morality and greatness of the heart befitting peace-makers as the blessed children of God. It is one prayer at a time, an offering of hospitality at a time, of planting and watering at a time, of sitting beside a child at a time. One aspect of soulcraft is cultivating mindful-ness and conflict sensitivity. One step towards this goal is to practice nonviolent communication. The NVC principles offered by Marshall B. Rosenberg challenges us to recognize the roles of our observa-tions, feelings, needs, and the ability to make or not-to-make a request in enriching or impoverishing our lives. The participants of the interest group will go through some exercises on these principles.

Muriel Orevillo-Montenegro teaches theology and religions. She first joined the DS faculty as instructor in Christian Education and Liturgy. Before coming to the academia, she was direc-tor of an NGO in the depressed areas of Duma-guete. She has served as youth worker and lay pastor of the UCCP, and helped revive the As-sociation of Women in Theology (AWIT) in Dumaguete. She served as the first woman Dean of the Divinity School, and is presently the Director of Justice and Peace Center. She got her degrees in Agriculture, Theological Education (Christian Education), and M. Div. (biblical studies) from Silliman University. Her S.T.M., M.Phil., and Ph.D. were earned from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She is currently working on a Master’s degree in the area of conflict and peace studies at the University of St. La Salle. She published articles here and abroad. Her book entitled The Jesus of Asian Women was published by Orbis Books in New York.


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Rev. Joel Camba has been in active and continuous service to both the church and the larger so-ciety for more than three decades since 1977 . He has assumed numerous positions of leadership and responsibility in the church in its various programs and wider judicatories along with those in the community. He has served as local church pastor since 1977. For more than twenty years, he served as director of the UCCP-owned school in Albay, the United Institute. He is among the pio-neers and founding members of the Church Related Educational Action Towards Empowerment (CREATE), an organization of UCCP owned and related schools where he held various leadership positions such as, secretary, treasurer, secretary, vice chairperson, and chairperson. In his own conference, the South Bicol Conference, he had served as its vice chair and as conference modera-tor. Moreover, he had chaired various important committees in that conference such as the Judicial committee, the conference partnership committee with the Munster church district of the Evangeli-cal Church of the Rhineland in Germany, and had been elected as conference representative to the UCCP National Council. In the wider community, he has also taken on the role of a community or-ganizer, vice chairman of the board of Bicol Ecumenical Council, chair of the board of Bicol Ecumenical Fellowship for Development, and a national board member of the Ecumenical Center for Development. He has been involved in other non-government organizations, as chairperson of the ANDUROG-NCCP Relief and Rehabilitation Program for Bicol dedicated to respond to the needs of victims of calamities in the Bicol region area among many others. Indeed, through his untiring and selfless efforts to serve the church, our people and God, Joel Camba has demonstrated well a kind of ministry that epitomizes the noblest and the highest ideals of a Divinity School graduate worthy of the name.

For more than four decades since 1969, Rev. Bilaoen has served as a pioneer-ing pastor in several places in Agusan del Sur, such as, in Del Monte, Talacogon, Tagbongabong, RTR, Baylo, San Luis, and Trento. He served also as Moderator of the Agusan District Conference in 1983-1986. It was during his leadership of the conference that the partnership of the Agusan District Conference with the Koblenz Synod of the Rhineland in Germany was established and formalized. He has repre-sented the UCCP in a partnership program with the Uniting Churches of Australia. He also served as chair of the Agusan District Conference in 1987-89 and also as president of the Church Workers Association of the Agusan District Conference. He was elected president of the Solemnizing Officers Association of Caraga Region and Agusan del Sur and as chair of the Conference Conflict Resolution Committee. He has been involved in various community programs and projects. He provided leader-ship in cooperatives in Agusan del Sur and in Region X. He was convener of the Agusan del Sur peace process of the NUC, and was a representative to the Provin-cial Peace and Order Council. He chaired the Agusan del Sur forest protection pro-gram for ten years , and was chair of the provincial Red Cross. He was also elected president of the Agusan del Sur network of NGOs and peoples’ organizations, and served as regional deputy chief of REACT of Caraga. Truly, his untiring work and selfless dedication in the service of the Lord and his people demonstrate a model of ministry worthy of emulation and a source of in-spiration for the younger generation of those called to serve God’s people.

For half a century already, Mila De Jesus has been unwavering in her service to the church and to society especially in the area of education, specifically, that of teaching the young children of the church and of the community. She had served and still serves the church as pastor, such as in Mahaplag UCCP, Leyte, and presently, in UCCP, Ayungon, Negros Oriental. However, her greater gift that she has unselfishly shared is in the area of teaching and super-vising the schools in the church and in the community. As such, she has served as kindergarten teacher and bible teacher, initially at the Tacloban UCCP and then at the Cebu Christian School. She then became deaconess of the Cebu Christian Center Church. Her gifts in this field of edu-cation became widely recognized in due time. She thus became Vice President of the Negros District Conference Christian Women’s Association, and then as president of the North Negros Conference Protestant Teachers League. She was also elected president of the Ayungon UCCP-CWA, president of the UCCP Visayas Jurisdiction Early Childhood Educators’ Association, lay woman representative of the North Negros Conference, and was appointed principal of the Ayungon Early Childhood Learning Center. Her other leadership involvements in the commu-nity includedserving as chairperson of the Barangay Agrarian Reform Council, member of the Police Law Enforcement Board, chair of the board of the Ayungon Water District, secretary of the board of trustees of the Korean Faithful Christian Pilgrim Incorporated, supervising princi-pal of the Korean Faithful Christian Pilgrim College in Candabong, Manjuyod, Negros Oriental and as member of the Camp Farthest Out White Sandbar Chapter. Indeed, she has manifested a model of dedicated and selfless practice of ministry especially in a distinct field that is worthy of emulation and providing an inspiration to all the younger gen-eration of aspiring workers in the ministry of our Lord.

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A Synopsis The students are reclaiming the tradition of making a cultural presentation

at Luce Auditorium during the annual church workers convocation. This year, the presentation is entitled “Lente”. Lente is a fictional three-act comedy play written by a senior B.Th. student, Manuel Jarabe Jr. It portrays three different characters in various church settings that depict issues and problems related to Christian Education and Nurture.

The first act is a story about Rev. Pilo Juaquin who is known in their conference as Super Pastor be-cause of his big accomplishments in the churches where he was assigned. But he became so caught up with his prestige and his projects that he no longer engages in the relational dimension of the church ministry.

The second act is about Jessica Vergara, a CYF president who is not satisfied with how the church treats the young people. She thinks that they are misunderstood and are being treated indifferently. She longs for a church that will understand their needs.

The 3rd act is about Martha Sta. Ana, a Board of Christian Education and Nurture chair who is caught up with all the problems she encountered in carrying out her responsibility.

Saw a lot of problems and deficiencies in CRO programs, Sunday School materials and teachers, and got discouraging response from a budget-oriented church council, among others. The play is a fun and satirical portrayal of how local churches neglect the importance of CEN, and challenges the audience to reflect on these realities. The play is interspersed with music and songs that are original compositions for the play by Manuel ‘Manman’ Jarabe Jr. and Jerilde Flor. A pastor’s kid, Hope Ernest Tinambacan serves as the stage manager. The choreography is created by Nikki Cimafranca, who, like Hope, is a veteran of YATTA, an alternative theat-rical group composed mostly of Silliman students.

Introducing Master in Peace Studies

The Master in Peace Studies (MPS) is one of the new course offerings of Silliman University Divinity School approved by the Board of Trustees in March 2012. It is a welcome addition to the various courses aimed at developing a wholesome person that will then be an agent of change and shalom. The Master in Peace Studies addresses the following: The commitment of Silliman University to justice, peace, humane and sustainable develop-ment Leverage Silliman University’s profile among the ranks of growing number of academic insti-tutions around the world that have responded to the call of peacebuilding in scaling up peace efforts through education, peace skills enabling, research and extension. In addition, Silliman will advance its profile as the Master in Peace program, through its activities, provides a platform in which local and international peace workers, scholars, and activists can meet and share experiences. CHED’s push for incorporation of peace education in educational institutions particularly those offering teacher education as outlined in Executive Order 570 dated September 2006 by work-ing with the College of Education and help train education students to teach peace. MPS is intended to be open to anybody with an undergraduate degree from any field of study. It is learner-centered, which means that the program is designed to respond to the professional needs/interests/ advancement of the students. In this light, an array of course concentrations along the lines of (a) Peace Education and Culture of Peace, (b) Conflict Transformation, and (c) Managing Development and Peacebuilding Programs will be offered to students as choices or course concentra-tions. The course is designed so that students of each of these tracks will be equipped with relevant core knowledge and skills that they can apply to their field of profession or work. The MPS also of-fers a Certificate Program. Summary of Course Units: Thesis Non-Thesis

Core subjects - 15 12 Major subjects - 15 15 Elective - 3 9 Thesis writing (thesis) or - 6Internship (non-thesis) - ______ 6 Total = 39 units 42 units

Note: For students opting for the Certificate Program, they are required to take 18 units of subjects in line with a particular professional track. Contact Person: Dr. Myraluz Vivares-WaddingtonCoordinator, Master in Peace Studies

Email address:[email protected] Contact #: 63-35-422-6002 local 353

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Challenges in Doing Christian Education

Psalm 84; John 6: 56 – 69

My task as closing worship speaker is to send off participants in this convocation with hopes that when they are back in their local church assignments they will be challenged as Pastors in Local Churches to give importance to the ministry of educating and nurturing people in the faith. I hope I can give justice to the task. When I sat down to write this meditation reflecting on the theme “The Church and Chris-tian Education: Challenges and Perspective”, I immediately noticed that the statement of the theme has a message to us. It is as if the Church and Christian Education are not part of each other. Reflecting on how the theme is stated I asked myself these questions in my mind. Sup-pose a church were to give up all its teaching work – Sunday church school, vacation church school, Bible study, confirmation class, and eve-rything else, what would happen to it in fifty years? What would happen to the children and young people? Would most of them become faithful church members? Would their lives be as fulfilling or as useful as they would have been if the teaching ministry had been kept? For the last two days we have heard our resource persons give their perspectives and

challenges in doing Christian Education. I know you have your say on the theme. You may also have your own reflective questions on the state of the Christian Education in your own local Churches. And you will agree with me that it is about time we need to give importance to this ministry.

For our meditation I will be using the lec-tionary texts last Sunday, August 26. Psalm 84 or I Kings 8 (selected verses) and John 6: 56 – 69. Part of my Christian education now is that I found it very useful the use of lectionary texts and that using the same would in a way unite me with fellow Christians.

Psalm 84, which is one of our lectionary readings last Sunday is a joyful song of praise for the temple, although not the temple as a structure but a temple where God dwells and where people commune and seek God’s pres-ence. The Psalmist introduces the idea of a sanc-tuary, a safe haven for weary and burdened peo-ple, for people who need answers in life, for peo-ple who struggled to understand life’s challenges and for people who are threatened and is in need of security. Relating this to our theme brings to us a challenge, and this is for us to make our churches God’s dwelling place and people’s sanctuary, a place where people can express their deep yearnings and commune with the presence of God. This temple provides the space and an occasion for every person to join with other members of the community to praise and thank God. People come to this space to open their lives and pour out their sinfulness to God and be assured of God’s bountiful grace for their sinful lives and above all to open their hearts to the leading of the Holy Spirit in understanding God’s message.

I believe one of the challenges for Chris-tian education in our local churches is to provide in our liturgies an opening for people to com-mune with their God and express their inner


yearnings to God. Let us therefore examine our congregation’s worship life. Have we provided for our members opportunities in any part of our liturgies an opportunity for them to express their deep yearning and an opportunity commune with God? Or, are we just doing conventional worship like copy-paste our liturgy and experiences in worship? In the Old Testament times, temple rituals and home rituals are venues for educating the members of the community of faith. It is therefore important for us today to organize our order of worship so that every part of the wor-ship can be a chance to be a highway to God. Use symbols to enhance the delivery of the mes-sage.

The Psalmist talks about the birds nesting in the temple of God. In the Psalmist words:

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O God of hosts, my Ruler and my God. (Psalm 84: 3)

It is interesting to note that the nests are found near the altars of sacrifice in the Old Tes-tament temple. The altar is the place where one offers their burnt offerings. The image of a nest beside or atop an altar burning with sacrifice is also an image for us for safety even in the midst of fire. The image of nest suggests an image of safe home and in the nest the mother bird can nurture their chicks. Are our local churches a place where the young can be safe as in the nest and are nurtured in faith and in life?

I believe another challenge in doing Christian education in our local churches is to make our churches like that of a nest where every child is safe and every parent can nourish their children. A place where life is nurtured and making each member of the community live life amidst a violent and unjust world. Remember those family devotions and prayers done together as a family together as practiced by our forepar-ents of the faith.

Our lectionary Gospel reading for four weeks now tells of Jesus’ discourses on feeding and bread. While reading these texts we will no-tice that John was trying to introduce the Holy Communion. In short, Jesus wants to feed his listeners and all of us today. But unlike the syn-optic Gospels, John did not have the institution of the Holy communion in his Gospel. Instead he introduced the story of the washing of the Apos-tles feet. I believe therefore that John was trying encouraged his readers to participate in the min-istry, passion and death of Jesus, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them.” (John 6:56) However the disciples re-action was negative, "This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?" Let us remember that it is not the Jews that are complaining but the disci-ples themselves. The complain of the disciples is reminiscent of the Israelites complaining to Moses in the wilderness journey. They were un-happy because the journey was hard. Faithful discipleship is seldom easy. The Gospel is hard because our ways are not God’s ways. In the end we compromise the Gospel and tailor it to what message we want to hear or said. I believe this is another challenge in do-ing Christian education in our local churches to-day. The content of the Gospel should not be compromised. The challenge of discipleship is costly. When Christ calls us to eat his flesh and drink his blood, he invites us to participate in his death. The Christians who first read of this Gos-pel experienced persecution. They knew mem-bers of their community of faith who were mar-tyred because of their faith and they knew also of Christians who compromised their faith just to avoid persecution. Our Christian education should help members of the community to be steadfast in their faith and not compromise the values of the Gospel to the values of the world. According to John, “Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you wish also to go away?’ Simon Peter an-swered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:66 – 67)


This portion reminds us of Jesus as a good shep-herd. The good shepherd feeds the sheep with all necessary food for growth for he has the words of eternal life. This is very important in our ministry in our local churches. We often skirt around the ministry of education and nurture because we complain that we lacked materials and if there are materials these are not suitable for our mem-bers. We must remember that we are Pastors and teachers altogether. The good shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures and lead us beside still waters. Let me therefore challenge all of us to be like that of a good shepherd always pas-sionate to lead our people so that they can lie down in green pastures and still waters. I am raising this to us because we have made our min-istry a matter of convenience. We are only doing the routinary activities in our local churches for-getting that we are also tasked to be trailblazing to bring the sheepfold to green pasturelands and still waters. In trailblazing, therefore, we need to be risk takers. Today as we close this convocation may we go back to our local churches more commit-ted to the task of educating and nurturing our sheepfold. The task before us is so great that in time we may grow weary and inutile for the task and content ourselves with the conventional min-istries in our local churches. But let us be in-spired by the story of the Cheap Crosses as told by the Rev. Katherine Fagerburg in her entitled : “Difficult Decisions”. The story goes this way: “A missionary in Brazil visited a market town on a religious holiday, and saw a sale sign in a store’s window advertising ‘Cheap crosses for sell .’” We may look for cheap crosses – no sac-rifice, no commitment, no cost, no pain – but there is no such thing. Jesus’ disciples have to follow the way of the cross. Bishop Melzar D. LabuntogNorth West Mindanao Jurisdiction


Interest Groups Photos


TALAMDAN SA PAGSIMBA ALANG SA DOMINGO SA KALINAW

PAMALANDONG: “Ang kalinaw ibilin ko kaninyo. Ang akong kalinaw nga dili sama sa ikahatag sa kalibotan ihatag ko kaninyo.” (Juan 14:27)

MGA AWIT SA PAGDAYEG, PAGHIMAMAT UG MGA PAGTAGAD SA IGLESIA

PAGSULOD SA MGA PANGULO

TAWAG SA PAGSIMBA Pangulo: Ang kalibutan iya sa Dios: ang yuta ug ang tanan nga nagpuyo niini. Katawhan: Pagkaayo ug pagkaanindot gayod kon ang tanan magpuyo sa panaghiusa. Pangulo: Gugma ug pagtuo magkahugpong. Kon ang mga tinun-an sa Dios maghilom... Katawhan: …kining mga bato mosinggit. Pangulo: O Dios ablihi and among mga ngabil ug ang among baba mopatagbaw sa pagdayeg kanimo.

**AWIT SA PAGDAYEG: “Sa Manunubos Moduol Ta” APP 382 (Pulong: Roy Mark B. Berame, Jr., 2002; adapt.; Huni: Geo F. Root)

Sa Manunubos moduol ta, kini mao ang pulong niya.Malomong tingog nagatawag, “Duol Kamo Karon.”

Koro: Malipayon ang pagtigom ta, kon maputli gikan sa sala. Ug didto magatigom kita sa Iyang puloy-an.

Ang Iyang pulong matngonan ta, sa malipayon sundon siya; Siya gayud ang pinili ta, “Duol kamo karon.” (Koro)

Nia uban sya nato karon. Sugo ni Cristo tumanon ta,Malomong tingog nagatawag, “Duol kamo karon.” (Koro)

**PAG-AMPO (Pangulo)

PAGSUGID SA SALA Pangulo: Isugid ta sa Dios ang atong mga kalapasan.Tanan: O Dios kaloy-i kami tungod sa gugma mong walay paglubad. Papasa ang among mga sala tungod sa

dako mong kaluoy! Hugasi kami tungod sa tanan namong pagkadautan ug hinloi kami sa among mga sala. Giila namo ang among mga kalapasan. Nakasala kami kanimo lamang ug nabuhat ang giisip mong dautan. Ayaw kami isalikway, ibalik kanamo ang kalipay tungod sa pagluwas Mo kanamo, ug lig-ona kami gikan sa espiritung masinugtanon. Mao kini ang among pangaliya kanimo diha sa ngalan ni Jesus. Amen.

TUBAG-AWIT: “O Ginoo Susiha Ko Karon” (unang estropa lamang) APP 216 (Pulong: J. Edwin Orr; alt.; Huni: Maori melody, arr.)

O Ginoo, susiha ko karon, hibaloi ang hunahuna ko, Kon daotan ang pamaagi ko, hinloi sa tanang kasal-anan.

PASALIG SA PASAYLO Pastor: Dawaton ta ang grasya nga gihatag kanato sa Dios, “Kay pinaagi sa pagtuo naluwas kamo tungod sa grasya

sa Dios.” Ato kining tuohan ug atong hinomdoman nga kita gipasaylo na. Salamat sa Dios!

TUBAG-AWIT: “Thank You Lord for Saving My Soul” Thank you Lord, for saving my soul Thank you Lord for making me whole Thank you Lord for giving to me Your great salvation so rich and free. Amen. MGA KAHANGAWA SA IGLESIA

PAG-AMPO SA IGLESIA TUBAG-AWIT: “Matinumanon Ka” (Koro lamang) APP 49 (Pulong: Thomas O. Chrisholm, 1923, alt.; Huni: William M. Runya, 1923) Matinumanon ka! Mantinumanon ka! Bag-o kanunay ang kaluoy mo ; Gihatag mong tanang gikinahanglan, Matinumanon ka, O among Dios.


**PAGBASA SA BALAANG KASULATAN

MENSAHE SA AWIT PINAAGI SA KORO

PAMALANDONG

ANG PAGTUGYAN SA KINABUHI UG KINITAAN Pangulo: Ang atong mga halad simbolo sa atong kinabuhi nga gihalad ngadto sa Dios. Sa atong paghatag niini

karon, atong hinomdoman nga ang usag-usa kanato, kabahin sa Iyang lawas nga nahiusa alang sa buluhaton sa pagpahiuli sa nagkabulag nga katawhan ug tibuok kabuhatan.

PAGDALA SA HALAD

HALAD SA TALENTO

**TUBAG-AWIT: “Panalangini Ang Among Halad” APP 97 (Pulong ug Huni: Elena G. Maquiso, 1961)

Panalangini ang among halad, nga gidala na diha kanimo, Ang grasya mo unta ang maangkon, O among Dios. Amen.

**PAG-AMPO SA PASALAMAT (Pangulo)

**AWIT SA PAGPANGALAGAD: “Atong Nasud Nagkinahanglan” APP 377 (Pulong ug Huni: Elena G. Maquiso, 1972)

Atong nasod nagkinahanglan sa katawhan nga moalagad, Magatugyan sa kinabuhi, alang sa kalipay sa uban.

Koro: Atong buligan ang pagkab-ot sa gitinguha Sa katilingban kay kabubut-on sa Dios Amahan.

Ang pangandoy sa katilingban, ang kalinaw ug ang kahusay, Ang katul-id sa kinabuhi, ug pagkamatarong pagpuyo. (Koro)

Ang mga pangulo mobati unta sa pangandoy, paghandum, Sa katawhan nga nag-paabot, nga unta ma-ilang kabuhong. (Koro)

O mga igsoon tabunon, hiusahon ang panglimbasog Nga maangkon ang kaluwasan, gikan sa kapit-os, kakabos. (Koro)

Kinahanglan atong tabangan pagpauswag sa kahimtangan, Ang dinaog-daog sa nasod matagamtan nilang kasayon. (Koro) **PAG-AMPO/PANALANGIN

TUBAG-AWIT: “Let There Be Peace On Earth” Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth the peace that was meant to be. With God our Creator, neighbors all are we. Let us walk with each other in perfect harmony. Let peace begin with me let this be the moment now. With every step I take, let this be my solemn vow. To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. HUNI SA PAGPANGALAGAD

SUDS Update!

Societal Involvement

The Silliman University Divinity School in different ways has been affected by the natural disasters that hit certain parts of the country at the close of 2011 and in the first quarter of this year. Some of our students and their families were directly affected by the ill effects of human irresponsi-ble actions toward the natural world. Nevertheless, the seminary through its students and faculty has also been a channel of hope and inspiration to the victims of natural disasters by facilitating relief operations and other forms of assistance to the devastated areas in Central Mindanao and Negros Ori-ental. Our Justice and Peace Center (JPC) looked for resources to assist partner communities in Negros Oriental rehabilitate houses damaged by typhoon Sendong, and provide psychosocial sup-port for those traumatized by the earthquake.

To keep abreast with the call of the time, JPC has also been involved in environmental cam-paign and advocacy. In cooperation with different like-minded people, institutions and organizations in Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental, it has sponsored two fora held in the campus on Faith/Religion and Environment. It also organized at least two fora on the Peace Process between the GPH and NDFP, both were attended by the official representatives of the government and the NDF panels.

International Connections

Divinity School continues to strengthen its link with the international bodies. Early this year, the DS hosted three international gatherings. The first one was the two-week International Diaconic Management study workshop in January 2012, a second-liner program for leadership in Church Re-lated Institutions that was sponsored by the United Evangelical Mission. This was attended by church professionals coming from the UEM member churches in Asia and Africa. . The second gathering also in Januaryfollowed. It was a consultation on Deliverance Ministry also sponsored by UEM. Theologians and church leaders of UEM member churches in Asia dealt with the issue of exorcism and witch craft. The third was a convention of Asian Theological Librarians held in April of this year.

The exchange program with Japan Biblical Theological Seminary (JBTS) resumed on August 1-10, 2012. This program was suspended for about three years after Japan was hit by a devastating earthquake and tsunami that caused the explosion of a nuclear power plant. The Japanese delegation was composed of one faculty, one staff and four students who visited our campus, Mabinay, Valencia and Dauin. In May, a Divinity School group will be sent to JBTS for learning and integration with the seminary students, church people and some Japanese communities.

A Harvest of Excellence

In March 2012, the Divinity School graduated twelve students:four Bachelor of Theology, two Master of Divinity (non-thesis), two M. Div. (thesis track), one M. Th. under the Mission Stud-ies Program, and an M. Th. in consortium with the Southeast Asia Graduate School of Theology. Un-precedented in DS history, all the B. Th. graduates garnered honors: Zenaida Calo, Zandy Casia and Nilda Saa, Cum Laude, and. Maria Sharona Romero, Magna Cum Laude.


Scholarship Fund The challenge of raising scholarship was picked up by some classes and individuals. New accounts were opened for additional Scholarship Funds, namely:

Class ’64 PhP 4,594.13Class ’68 PhP 12,948.55Class 2006 PhP 8,677.79Class ’86 PhP 2,726.90Class ’91 PhP 8,180.69 Mr. & Mrs. Deborah M. Marco (nee: Deborah S. Tamayo) Fund PhP

100,000.00

Per policy, the principal will be allowed to reach PhP 100,000.00, and scholarships will only be taken from the interest income. In order that the fund to grow, the remaining 20% of the interest income will be ploughed back to the principal. Scholarships will be given to deserving and qualified students. Continuing Theological Education Our continuing theological education pro-gram has been enhanced in the recent years with the generous support of the Filipino-American congreta-tion of the United Church of Christ in New York through the initiative of our university president, Dr. Ben S. Malayang III. In the last two to three year, there were six conferences in the Visayas and Min-danao that benefited this our program. This year, the same local Church has given another financial sup-port. With this fund, two or three conferences can avail of this program. SUDS can send two of its fac-ulty whose travel and honoraria will be covered by this fund. On a case-to-case basis, a certain amount maybe allotted for materials or meal subsidy of the participants. However, we encourage that meals of the participants will be borne by the local churches so that more conferences can benefit of our continu-ing theological education program. A Conference interested to avail of this program is encouraged to write the office of the dean.


Dr. Lope B. Robin received both this B.Th. and M.Div. from Silliman University Di-vinity School. He served as OIC Dean be-fore he went on leave to pursue his doctor of theology with Southeast Asia Graduate School of Theology (SEAGST) of the As-sociation of Theological Education in Southeast Asia (ATESEA). Right after fin-ishing his D.Th., he was appointed Dean to finish the second term of Dr. Muriel Ore-villo-Montenegro until May 2013.

In 1997, the Board of Trustees of Silliman University decided to put up a “Center for Con-ciliation and Peace and Conflict Resolution” lodged in the Divinity School. Peace Resource Center (PRC) was born and offered introductory trainings in conflict transformation and mediation at cost. In 2006, then newly installed University president, Dr. Ben S. Malayang III, changed the name into Jus-tice and Peace Center to streamline its programs, and to broaden its scope and direction. Since then, JPC embarked in efforts organize communities of peace, held skills trainings on peace education, conflict analysis and transformation, and advocacy on peace issues. Among its advocacies is building awareness among the people and the ecumenical church on the peace process and peace talks espe-cially between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and National Democratic Front of the Phil-ippines (NDFP).

The work of JPC is anchored on the biblico-theological concept of shalom, and holds that apart from justice, there is no peace. It is guided by a vision towards “a peaceful society where rela-tionships among earthlings and the Earth communities are transformed towards the flourishing of life.” Moreover, it holds on to these principles: that peace is God’s gift, but earthlings have the re-sponsibility of making it a reality; and that a transformed and peaceful society is one that is life-giving, life-affirming and life-sustaining.

Consequently it launches into projects of peacebuilding with partner communities as it also seeks collaboration with potential funding partners, LGUs and other institutions to concretize the vi-sion. JPC is currently involved in “Bangon Negros Oriental” project that seeks to support the partner communities affected by Typhoon Sendong and by the earthquake through rehabilitation program and psycho-social support.

JPC saw the challenge of equipping church workers, basic education teachers and other ser-vice-oriented professionals to deliver enhanced services in a context that is getting more and more pluralistic. Consequently, it submitted a proposal to promote the values of peacebuilding through in-terreligious understanding enjoys the support of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA). In this project, the Coordinating Team will engage people to formulate and design a modular and ladderized degree program on interreligious understanding. This degree program is envisioned to be jointly offered by the College of Education and the Divinity School.

Traditionally, JPC spearheads the celebration of Peace Week in September and Human Rights Week in December. Activities for Women’s month in March are usually held in the partner commu-nities. JPC continues to envision peace-based projects and seeks collaboration with friends and insti-tutions that have similar visions. It also promotes recycling, produce and sell items from recycled materials to support its work. At present, JPC is staffed by volunteers.

Justice and Peace Center (JPC)


INDIGENOUS HEALTHCARE AND NATURAL AGRICULTURE (IHNA)

“Holistic Health” and “Integrity of Creation” are two of the major social concerns of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP). Conscious of these areas of ministry the Religious Studies Program (RSP) of the Divinity School, conceptualized the Indigenous Healthcare and Natural Agriculture (IHNA) as its humble offering to serve the needs and problems of the poor masses in our country, and as a Service-Learning initiative to enrich the faith of students. This Community Extension Project got funding from the United Board for Chris-tian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA) beginning July 2012 to June 2013.

On the one hand, healthcare in the Philippines is basically hospital based and is largely situated in the cities and town centers. It is highly commercialized and, to a certain extent, discriminating and unaffordable to the majority who are poor. It is drug-dependent and almost solely in the hands of the medical professionals, rather than in the hands of the community people.

Those with financial resources have direct and easy access to health services and the requirements to attain and sustain good health. The vast majority in the country sides and urban poor communities are, however, de-prived of this basic social service. Such a situation is detrimental to human survival and calls for a more deter-mined collective efforts to transform the situation.

On the other hand, agriculture in the Philippines, as the primary source of food to sustain good health is basically petro-chemical based. This means that agricultural foodstuffs are heavily dosed with chemical fertiliz-ers and pesticides that are damaging to health, soil, air, water, and to the whole environment.

In this context there is a need to promote a system of healthcare that is affordable, accessible, safe, gender sensitive, sustainable, development-oriented, community-managed; and, focused in the production of agricul-tural foodstuffs that are naturally grown, chemical-free, organic, and ecologically friendly. This development endeavor is based at Marina Mission Clinic, a community health extension outfit of Silliman University estab-lished in a 1.5 hectares of land located in Dauin, about 17 kilometers south of Dumaguete City.

Religious Studies Program of the Divinity School is the implementing unit of this project. It will maxi-mize the participation of the organized health extension clinics and poor farmers in the eight (8) villages of Dauin to attain the set goals. It will ensure that this initiative in indigenous healthcare and natural farming tech-nology system will contribute “to total human development for the well-being of society and the environ-ment” (Silliman University’s Vision).

Within July 2012 to June 2013, the Indigenous Healthcare and Natural Agriculture (IHNA) shall have attained the following goals or purposes of the program: 1. Promoted the use and development of the Indigenous Healthcare and Natural Agriculture at Marina Mis-

sion Clinic in Masaplod Norte, Dauin, Negros Oriental, Philippines. 2. Initiated the integration of Indigenous Healthcare with the Western Medical modalities of health services

at Marina Mission Clinic in Masaplod Norte, Dauin, Negros Oriental, Philippines. 3. Supported Marina Mission Clinic in enhancing Community-Based and Community-Managed Healthcare

programs and Natural Agriculture, as means to ensure health in the hands of the people and communitydevelopment in the municipality and, to a certain extent, the province of Negros Oriental, Philippines.

The program components are the following: 1. Indigenous Health Education and Skills Training. 2. Community-Managed and Health Organizing for Development. 3. Herbal Medicine and Organic Food Supplement Production 4. Indigenous Healthcare Services. 5. Research, Documentation, and Advocacy.


Rev. Solomon C. Apla-on, Ph. D. in OD & P IHNA Project Coordinator

Theme: 111th Silliman University Founder’s Day

“Empower Me—Spirit of the Living God” 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

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Silliman and UCCP

For DiscussionJuly 28, 2012

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Two Purposes• To present a perspective of the Silliman-UCCP

relationship from the views of:

– History– Law– Ecclesiastical Relations

• To present this perspective for wider discussions within and across the constituencies of Silliman and the UCCP

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Silliman: A “Trilogical” InstitutionTeaching

Preaching Healing

Silliman: It has classrooms, labs, courts, a church for a place to worship, & a hospital

(Much like Princeton, Yale, Harvard, U Chicago)

3

Landscape of Relations

HISTORICALUNFOLDINGS

INSTITUTIONALSTANDING

LEGALPERSONA

ORGANIZATIONALOBLIGATIONS

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2

1900-1913

PCUSA

Dumaguete Mission Station

PCUSA BFMSilliman’s Trilogy

Mission (Teaching,Healing, Preaching)

Sil limanChurch -Planting

LOOKING BACK…

Manila/Other Phil Presbyteries

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1913

• The Manila and other PCUSA Presbyteries in the Philippines were granted independent status by PCUSA; they became an independent “Filipino Presbyterian Church”; it became known as the “Evangelical Church of the Philippines (Independent Presbyterian)”

• The independent Filipino Presbyterian Church became separate from and autonomous of PCUSA

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1913-1948

PCUSA

Dumaguete Presbytery

PCUSA BFMSilliman’s Trilogy


Sil limanContinuing Covenantal

Support for local Presbyter ian Churches

Sil liman Student Church established in 1916(but seeds planted in 1901)

Bible School established 1921

Continuing mutual support & relations


Evangelical Church of the Phil (Independent Presbyterian); in 1927 became part of ECP

LOOKING BACK…

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1948• UCCP Formed by Covenant Union

• The Evangelical Churches of the Philippines (which included the Phil independent Presbyterians), joined the Union

• Neither PCUSA nor BFM (which by then continued to own Silliman) joined the Union; thus, Silliman was not an organic part of the Union

• Sometime 1932, Silliman became a legally constituted Philippine Corporation under both US (and later Commonwealth) laws

• After its union, UCCP became a Philippine Corporation in itself8

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1948-1960

UCCP

Dumaguete District Conference

BFMSilliman’s Trilogy


Sil limanContinuing Covenantal Support for local UCCP

Churches

Sil liman University Church (after WWII)

College of Theology (for UCCP ministerial formation)


LOOKING BACK…

PCUSA• Mainly in the US• But also in the Phil by way of BFM

(under Laurel-Langley Agreement)

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1960• The PCUSA Board of Foreign Mission, which up to

this time had “held in trust” (for their US donors) all assets of Silliman, turned over these assets “in further trust” to the Board of Trustees of Silliman University (in anticipation of the coming end of the Laurel-Langley Agreement)

• NOTE: Trusteeship is not ownership (as against being a “Board of Directors”; latter represents and act for owners [stockholders] of a corporation)

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After 1960

UCCP

Negros Dis trict ConferenceSILLIMAN UNIVERSITY

Trilogy Mission (Teaching,Healing, Preaching)

Sil limanContinuing Covenantal Support for local UCCP Churches through NDC

Sil liman University Church

College of Theology (for UCCP ministerial formation)

SU-UCCP Covenantal Links

SILLIMAN UNIVERSITY CORPORATION

UCCP CORPORATION

Continuing PCUSASupport for UCCP

LOOKING BACK… PCUSANo properties in Phil

Through UBCHEA

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LEGALPERSONA


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PCUSA(BFM Phil)

Manila/Cebu Presbyteries

1898-1913

1913: Phil Presbyteries becameIndependent of PCUSA

LocalChurches

PCUSA(BFM Phil)

Silliman

1928: Phil Presbyteries joined others to form United EvangelicalChurches of the Philipp ines

Phil Independent Presbyterians

United Evangelical Churches of the Phil

1948: UECP joins others to form UCCP; UCCP incorporated as UCCP Corp in 1949

1932: PCUSA BFM incorporates Si lliman Corp

1922: Si ll iman establishes a B ib le School (wi th Congregationalists)

UCCP

1960: PCUSA BFM turns over “ in further trust” to the Silliman Corp its trust ho ldings in S illiman

Silliman

S

HC

LocalChurches

LocalChurches

LocalChurches

Silliman

S

HC

Silliman

S

HC

ONE IN THE SAM E FAITH, FAITH TRADITION, AND PROCLAM ATION

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LEGALPERSONA


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Two Corporations• Silliman Corporation: since 1932 to now

– Governed by its own legal provisions (Articles of Incorporation) & its own Board constituted by 3 institutional constituencies (Alumni, Donors, Church)

– Alumni (SAAI); Donors (SUFI); Church (PCUSA-BFM before, but now UCCP)– Board is a “Board of Trustees” – it is to keep intact (be a steward over) the

assets & legacies of Silliman; it does not own the assets– Maintains fraternal & ecclesiastical relations with – and regularly provides

in its programs & budget support to – the UCCP

• UCCP Corporation: since 1949 to now– Governed by its own Articles of Incorporation, Constitution, & Board– Board represents “owners” of all properties of the UCCP Corporation– One constituency: all UCCP churches & UCCP institutions in the Philippines– No budgetary support commitments for Silliman

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UCCPCORPORATION

SILLIMANCORPORATION

• School (Teaching)• Hospital (Healing)• University Church (Preaching & Chaplaincyfor ALL in Silliman))

• General Assembly• Jurisdictions• NDC & Other Conferences• Local Churches• Church-Related Institutions• Wider Church Relationships

. . WEDDED INTO A UNITY OF FAITH & PROCLAMATION UNDER ONE CROSS

LEGALLY & INSTITUTIONALLY SEPARATE & DISTINCT BUT . . .

ONE FAITH; ONE PROCLAMATION

Purpose: To proclaim the CHRIST and so transform the SELF

Purpose: To transform the SELF and so proclaim the CHRIST

A “HYPOSTATIC UNITY” IN ONE FAITH & ONE PROCLAMATIONOF TWO SEPARATE INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL PERSONAS

[From Doctrine of “Hypostatic Union”; see Athanasius; Council of Chalcedon 451AD; Chalcedonian Creed )

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LEGALPERSONA


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UCCPCORPORATION

SILLIMANCORPORATION

Institutional Support & Support for Wider Works & Mission

Institutional Support & Support for Silliman’s Vision & Mission of a “Trilogical Ministry”

• School (Teaching)• Hospital (Healing)• University Church (Preaching & Chaplaincyfor ALL in Silliman))

• General Assembly• Jurisdictions• NDC & Other Conferences• Local Churches• Church-Related Institutions• Wider Church Relationships

HYPOSTATIC UNITY IN FAITH & PROCLAMATION OF TWO MUTUALLY-SUPPORTING INSTITUTIONS…

SU-BOT 1957; 2010

ONE CROSSONE FAITH; ONE PROCLAMATION

Purpose: To proclaim the CHRIST and so transform the SELF, among UCCP in & beyond SU

Purpose: To transform the SELF and so proclaim the CHRIST, among UCCP & non-UCCP in SU

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A Metaphor

• “Moon-in-the-Water” – What Beauty!• But the moon had not become water; nor owned the water• Nor the water become moon; or owned the moon• Moon and water are apart from each other; even a very far

distance from each other

• BUT – TOGETHER – THEY PRODUCE A UNITY OF BEAUTY!

• This is the story of SU and UCCP – a DIFFERENTIATED MINISTRY but creating a beautiful unity of a COMMON EVANGELICAL FAITH & PROCLAMATION!

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SILLIMAN’S COMMITMENTS TO UCCP

• HISTORICAL: Sustain & widen the proclamation & practice of the evangelical faith in the Philippines (as it had done so since 1901), & so be with the UCCP on the same (as the UCCP had been doing so since 1948)

• COVENANTAL: Be with the UCCP on the same “Faith Statement” & traditions, and “wider church works”

• INSTITUTIONAL: Provide program & other assets to support the proclamations & theological education thrusts of UCCP; Silliman will continue to invest on its Divinity School programs as it is able, and do so in support of the UCCP’s theological & divinity education& formation programs

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1

Silliman University Divinity SchoolDumaguete City

51st Church WorkersConvocation

August 27-30, 2012

“The Church and Christian Education:Challenges and Perspectives”

LIST OF REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS

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Abella Sarah M. CCI Retired 373 Bulacan City, Talisay CebuAbella Imie R. CCI UCCP, Daanglungsod Mahawak, Medellin, CebuAbrea Neson E. ADC B. Th. Student-Middler Amigo's Subdivision, Dumaguete CityAbueva Ma. Jocelyn R. UMC 44 Guyabano St., KADAMASVIL, Brgy. Katuparan, Taguig CityAbueva Misael B. UMC AFP Chaplain 44 Guyabano St., KADAMASVIL, Brgy. Katuparan, Taguig CityAbuso Ticboy R. CNAC Tara UCCP Tara, Mabinay, Neg. Or.Academia Erelyn R. Silliman University Divinity School Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityAdalid Inocito Q. NDC UCCP, Bais City UCCP, Roxas St., Bais CityAdlaon Cora U. DCNM UCCP Carmen Carmen, Jimenez, Misamis Occ.Adobas Nonito T. CCI UCCP, Juan Quiniones Mem. Church Badian, CebuAguilan Victor R. STC Silliman University Divinity School Bantyan Park, Dumaguete CityAlay-ay Jonnalyn L. NWLC M. Div. Student - Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityAleria Mark Anthony N. NDDC UCCP, Nabunturan P2, Brgy. Poblacion, Nabunturan, Comval ProvinceAliganza Analisa A. NORWESCON UCCP, Allen San Juan, San Isidro, Northern SamarAllego Ritcha S. NORWESCON UCCP, Lunang II, Almagro, Samar Bgy. Pena Tinambacan Dist., Calbayog CityAlpuerto January B. NDC Master of Divinity - MiddlerAlvarico Ricardo C. CCI UCCP, Mandaue Bradford Omapad St., Mandaue CityAnabeza Lovanesa C. DCNM UCCP Bonifacio D. Fernan, Bonifacio, Misamis Occ.Anas Nathaniel B. SWLC UCCP, Maasin City Maasin City, Southern LeyteAncog Denie Joy F. ADC UCCP, Dulag Dulag, Butuan CityAnfone Ricky C. CNAC Conference Minister Mabinay, Negros OrientalAnota Norelyn Teresita B. CMAC Pilgrim Christian College Tiano- Del Pilar, Cagayan de Oro CityAntone Hope S. NDC Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand Payap University, Chiang Mai, ThailandAplaon Solomon Silliman University DS-RSP Silliman Heights Subdivision, Junob, Dumaguete CityApolinaria Cherry M. ADC UCCP, Las Nieves Las Nieves. Agusan del NorteApura Lily Silliman University DS-RSP Vernon Hall, Silliman University CampusAragones Choanalfe C. NDC Camp Look Out Camp Look Out, Valencia, Negros Or.Aranas Jose A. DCSZ UCCP, Ipil Purok Pines 3, Sanito, Ipil, Zamboanga-SibugayArao Ariel M. WMC (on leave) Mabini St., Molave, Zamboanga del SurArrosas Reynaldo J. Jr. NDDC UCCP, Panabo Prk. 5, Luna, Kapalong, Davao del NorteArzaga Petty F. WVC UCCP Pandaraonan (Asst. Pastor) Pandaraonan, Nva. Valencia, GuimarasAsi Arthur R. STC No.9 Kanluran Road, College, Los Banos, LagunaAsi Amihan L. STC M. Div Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityAsis Judy B. LDC Chaplain UCCP-LDC, Sanoy Iligan CityAstudillo Juvy B. BCI Bohol Conference Program Coordinator 53 C. Gallares St., Tagbilaran CityAtluna Bert P. NHAC UCCP Bularao UCCP Bularao, Tabuk City, KalingaAtuel Efren C. ADC UCCP, Tungao Purok 12, Brgy. Tungao, Butuan CityAugusto Mark B. CCI Silliman University DS-RSP Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityAutor Wilbert T. LDC UCCP, Bacolod UCCP, Bacolod, Prk 2 Poblacion, Lanao del NorteAyta Brendan C. DCNM M. Div. Student - Junior Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityBacarro Samuel A. NDC UCCP, Siit La Sola Dr., EJ Blanco St., Piapi, Dumaguete CityBaconga Libnie Q. BCI UCCP, Villa Alvares & Bongbon Villa Alvares, Poblacion, BoholBaconga Antonino N. CMAC Camiguin Mission Church 470 Baconga St., Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro CityBaconga Camilo N. CMAC UCCP - Alubijid Monay, Alubihid, Mis.Or.Bacquiao Maureen S. CCI ChFC- Calawisan LLC Gun-of, LLCBakian Roceni S. NHAC NHAC (Conference Minister) Magsaysay, Tabuk City, KalingaBalajo Elvie Marie D. NHAC UCCP - Kiangan Kiangan, IfugaoBalderas Errol A. CNACBalderas Sandra B. NNC UCCP, San Carlos City Broce St, Barangay 2, San Carlos CityBangcog Erwin Andres F. CCI UCCP, Oslob Sitio Panas, Daanglungsod, Sta. Lucia,Asturias, CebuBaris Jerome C. SIDC UCCP Balangkayan UCCP, Balangkayan, E. SamarBasalo Norma C. LDC UCCP Balili & Donggoan Balili UCCP, Kapatagan, Lanao del NorteBaslot Rodolfo A. ADC UCCP Noli Bayugan City, Agusan del SurBayon Fernando F. DCNZ Conference Minister UCCP- DCNZ Office, Jagonio Subd., Datu Tangkilan, SindanganBayon Joji L. DCNZ Silliman University High School Lower Lukewright, Tinago, Dumaguete CityBelza Jemuel A. LDC UCCP, Kapatagan Kapatagan, Lanao del NorteBerame Ludy C. NDC Silliman University High School c/o UCCP, Sibulan, Negros OrientalBergado Feliciano D. LDC Retired Zone 7, Del Carmen, Iligan City

51st Church Workers ConvocationAugust 27-30, 2012

REGISTERED PARTICIPANTS

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Bernales Scherlen E. BCI UCCP, Baybayon, Mabini, bohol Basiao, Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, BoholBertoldo Jezer E. CCI UCCP, Rev. Jorge Patalinghug Mem Ch 43 Don Pedro Cris St., San Antonio, Cebu CityBico Reece Ven V. STC M. Div. Student - Junior Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityBilaoen Solomon B. Jr. ADC Retired San Isidro, San Francisco, Agusan del SurBingtan Isaias L. CCI UCCP, Mulao Mulao, Liloan, CebuBingtan Luz B. CCI UCCP, Paril Mulao, Liloan, CebuBomes Alejandro C. DCNM Conference Minister 37 - A Enerio St., Oroquieta CityBomes Adonis M. WMC B. Th. Student - Senior Pinili Appartment, Taclobo, Dumaguete CityBonggoyan Zosimo O. ADC UCCP, Buenavista Buenavista, Agusan Del NorteBonite Edilbert M. CCI TCSRMC - Compostela 85 Osmena blvd. Cebu City, CebuBriones Leonor M.Bugtong Florence M. Highland UCCP Sabkil (Executive Minister) 14 Victoria Village, Baguio CityBurgos Christopher NDC Silliman University DS-RSP Silliman Heights Subdivision, Junob, Dumaguete CityCabada Rufiniano C. CMAC CMAC (Conference Minister) CMAC F. Abellanuer St., CDO CityCabada Evelyn T. CMAC UCCP Balulang UCCP Balulang, CDO CityCabailon Danielito P. CCI Visayas Community Medical Center Cebu CityCabanas Vicky C. ADC UCCP, Magallanes La Fortuna, Veruela, Agusan del SurCabasan Dolores P. NELBICON uccp, Iyusan Iyusan, Almeria, LeyteCabigon Sarah Fe S. LDC UCCP Salvador Salvador, Lanao del NorteCabigon Ruben S. LDC UCCP Maigo Salvador, Lanao del NorteCabio-Yanez Liza UCCP, Cagayan de Oro City Pioneer St., San Pedro, Dumingag, Zamboanga del SurCacaldo Santiago Y. CNAC UCCP Central Church 113 cors. Naranghita & Chico Sts, Mabinay, Negros OrientalCacaldo Rachel R. CNAC Mabinay Central Church 113 cors. Naranghita & Chico Sts, Mabinay, Negros OrientalCadusale Pantaleon B. LDC UCCP Suarez, Iligan CityCadusale Jecholia L. LDC UCCP, Seaman Dale P-1 Caniogan, Tubod, Lanao del NorteCajandab Patricia A. NORWESCON UCCP Allen Allen, Northern SamarCal Jonathan M. LDC UCCP, Iligan City Roxaz Avenue, Iligan CityCalibod Edgar N. DCNZ UCCP, Pinam/ Manukan Dipolog CityCalihog Remedios S. SDC SDC ( Retired Minister ) Purok Perlas, Nevera extension, Surigao CityCalo Zenaida R. CCI UCCP, Macedonian Church Tapal, Guadalupe, Carcar, CebuCalvario Ariane Q. BCI B. Th. Student - Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityCamba Erme R. NDC Silliman University Divinity SchoolCamba Joel R. SBC UCCP, Sto. Domingo Evangelical Church Sto. Domingo, AlbayCamino Ebenezer C. CNAC UCCP, Mabinay Central Church Mabinay, Negros OrientalCañete Joan Mae E. LDC Conference Program Coordinator UCCP, Roxas Avenue, Iligan CityCañete James S. LDC UCCP, Iligan City Tambo, Iligan CityCanonigo Juanito L. CCI Mandaue, Bradford Mandaue City, CebuCantere Gaspar Salaan CMAC Pilgrim Christian College Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro CityCantila Benjamin R. CNAC UCCP, Canggohob, Cantombol Canggohob, Mabinay, Negros OrientalCaperiela Melody Fe B. BAC UCCP, Kisolan Sumilao 10-A North Abellanosa St., Cagayan de oro CityCapongcol Ruth Q. NELBICON Deputy Conference Minister Bethany Hospital Compound, Tacloban CityCapulong Rebecca B. ADC Silliman University DS-RSP Springville Homes, Banilad, Dumaguete CityCapulong Noriel C. NSTC Silliman University Divinity School Springville Homes, Banilad, Dumaguete CityCasia Zandy L. DCNM UCCP, Jimenez Sta. Cruz, Jimenes, Misamis OccidentalCasiano Paquito G. Jr. DCNM CEN Minister Lam - an, Ozamiz CityCasiano Araceli M. NDDC UCCP, Mawab Prk. 3 Nuevo Iloc, Mawab, Comval ProvinceCasiano Andrea G. NORWESCON UCCP, Catarman, Bantian, Hipa Catarman, Northern SamarCasido Priscilla B. NDC UCCP, Polo Polo, Tanjay CityCastillano Jeremias E. CAC 9409 Piki, CotabatoCastillo Leland M. UCCp U.E.P. Local Church University of Eastern Philippines Catarman, Northern SamarCasusi Gedion A. CNAC UCCP, Lamdas, Cantombol II Bagtic, Mabinay, Negros OrientalCatalla Alfredo H. Masbate UCCP Magsaysay Magsaysay, Uson, MasbateCayetano Russell V. NDC UCCP, Sta. Catalina Sta. Catalina, Negros OrientalCayetano Lolie A. NNC UCCP Bala-as Manjuyod Martinez St., Poblacion Ayungon, Negros Or.Cayetano Bonifacio G. NNC UCCP Ayungon Martinez St., Poblacion Ayungon, Negros Or.Cerino Filomeno L. NELBICON UCCP, Carigara 116 Lopez Jaena, Tacloban, LeyteCinco John Gido L. CMAC B. Th. Student - Freshman Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityCofreros Angelico F. NDDC UCCP, Sto Tomas Fd. Rd. # 3 Sto Tomas, Davao Del NorteCorsino Arlene N. NDDC UCCP, Montevista Poblacion, Mawab, Comval ProvinceCuanan-Nalam Jean NDC Silliman University Divinity School Silliman Heights Subdivision, Junob, Dumaguete CityCuerbo Sofonias A. Masbate UCCP, Sitio Banal Placer, MasbateCuran Bernadette S. CMAC Pilgrim Christian College Del Pilar Magsaysay St., Cagayan de Oro CityDaguplo Helen L. BCI UCCP Badbad Oriental, Loon, Bohol UCCP Badbad Oriental, Loon, BoholDamiao Creensanita D. SDC UCCP, Mahayahay-Lingig Dep. Ed. Division Office, Tandag, Surigao del SurDaquio Norma L. CMAC Macabalan, Cagayan City Cagayan de Oro City

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Dayola Charlyn C. CMACde Asis Manuel S. Sr. LDC UCCP Libertad UCCP Libertad, Kauswagan, Lanao del Nortede Asis Freddie F. NDC UCCP, Dumaguete City Silliman Avenue Extension, Dumaguete CityDe Jesus Mila L. NNC Retiree Calagcalag, Ayungon, Negros OrientalDe La Raya Mary Anne G NDC UCCP, Chapel of the Evangel Banilad, Dumaguete Cityde los Reyes Erlinda M. SIDC SIDC (Conference Minister) SIDC Samar Island District ConferenceDegorio Rudie DJ. CNAC UCCP Tara Himocdongon & Tara, MabinayDel Carmen Cirilo V. PC-USA 21-C cor P. Gil & Adriatico Sts., Ermita, ManilaDel Castillo Dizza D. NDDC UCCP, Bethel Mabini St., Tagum CityDel Rosario Gary Micahel D. SMLCDela Cruz Elsie Joy L. CACdela Rama Danny F. NDC NDC (Conference Minister) Ajong, Sibulan, Negros Or.Delvo Eutropio E. SWLC UCCP Hinunangan UCCP Hinunangan, Southern LeyteDizon Angel G. Jr. SMDC UCCP Darong Sta. cruz Landing Darong, Sta. Cruz, Davao del SurDizon Jackelyn P. SMDC M. Div. Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityDolayba Eduardo T. ADC UCCP, Bayugan II Bayugan II, San Francisco, Agusan del SurDomingo Iluminada A. MNC Gugma sa Kabataan Unit 7, Hughes Apt., Magsaysay- Del Pilar, Cagayan de Oro CityDonasco Ruth C. SIDC M. Div. Student - Middler Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityDranchuk David UCCP, Chapel of the Evangel 3 Galilee Homes, Bantayan, Dumaguete CityEcat Nelsa B. BCI UCCP, Cabacnitan, Bilar, Bohol San Miguel, Dagohoy, BoholEdem Roger Y. WMC UCCP, Manga Manga, Pagadian CityElvira Joven R. Master Of Divinity - JuniorEndico JE C. SDC B. Th. Student - Freshman Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityErmac Ronilo A. CCI UCCP, Good Samaritan Church Consolacion, CebuErosido Edena L. DCNZ UCCP Sindangan UCCP Sindangan, Z.N.Espinosa Julito B. ADC UCCP, Libertad Km. 4 Libertad, Butuan CityEsquierdo Sergio C. NDC Dauin UCCP, Neg.Or Motong, Dumaguete CityEsquierdo Neminda E. NDC UCCP Bais, Neg. Or. UCCP Church Bais City, Neg. Or.Esquierdo Angeling B. NDC UCCP Siaton Dumaguete CityEstola Domingo M. Jr. NELBICON UCCP Mahaplag Brgy. Bagacay, Tacloban CityEstrella Roberto D. NELBICON B. Th. Student - Sophomore Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityEvasce Rosilver V, DCNM Pines UCCP Oroquieta Purok 5 Bonadero, OzamizFaller Arnel Zaide STC Silliman University DS-RSP Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityFedelino-Siago Norma NORWESCON UCCP, Allen Allen, Northern SamarFlor Jerilde M. WMC B. Th. Student - Senior Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityFlora Edward B. CCIFlores Artemia M. WMC UCCP Kagawasan UCCP Kagawasan, Dimataling, Zamboanga del SurFlores Lina G. WMC UCCP Kawit UCCP Kawit, Pagadian CityFlorinda Ceasar S. CNAC Baican UCCP Church Tara, Mabinay, Neg. Or.Formanes Charmaign A. SBC B. Th. Student - Sophomore Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityFortugaleza Cliff L. BAC UCCP Valencia City 616 Mabini St., Boyco, Bayawan City, Negros Or.Francisco Marcelina C. NNC UCCP, La Libertad UCCP, South Poblacion, La Libertad, Negros OrientalFuentes Caleb Ernane P. CCI Fuentes del Rosario Memorial ChurchFuentes Deborah O. CCI Jose Diao Memorial Church Salvador, Tangke, Talisay CityGadingan Julita G. Master of Divinity - JuniorGalosmo Wish A. NORWESCON UCCP, Malajog Cag-Olango, Calbayog CityGalve Nigel P. Master of Divinity - Spiritual CareGange June Frances H. WVC UCCP, Mapatag Mapatag, Hamtic, AntiqueGeromo Badon J. WMC UCCP, Sicpao Sicpao, Mahayag, Zamboanga del SurGillo Mag A. SIDC B. Th.Student - Freshman Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityGolosino Edwin A. BCI SU Medical Center Silliman University, Dumaguete cityGolosino Arman T. BCI UCCP, Tagaluahan, Basiao, CPG, Bohol Fatima, Ubay, BoholGolosino Andy Q. BCI UCCP, San Miguel, Dagohoy, Bohol Canlaas, Antequera, BoholGomez Hilario M. Jr. LDC UCCP, Lala Lala, Lanao del NorteGonzales Rosemarie I. NDC UCCP, Sibulan Tabuctubig, Angatan, Dumaguete CityGuazon Emerenciano E. Jr. NDC RSP - Divinity School # 2 Silliman Village, Piapi, Dumaguete CityGubot Michael E. WMC UCCP, SunvilleGuc - ong Juseph P. LDC UCCP Kolamugan, LDN Cabasagan, Lola, Lanao del NorteGuernaldo Sonny M. Masbate Rev. S. Canillas - Rev. R.D. Ybanez Memorial Church, Inc. Matagangtang, Placer, MasbateGutierrez Edna Vita P STC Silliman University High School Woodward Hall, SU CampusHaro Eve GD. WVC UCCP Nagub-an Sta. Teresa UCCP Jordan, GuimarasHaro Levi M. WVC Sta. Teresa UCCP Sta. Teresa UCCP Jordan, GuimarasHarris-Faller Jeaneth SBC Silliman University Divinity School Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityHohmann Christian Germany Special StudentHood Denise P. Plymouth UCC, Detroit, MI, USA Detroit, MI, USA

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Hood Nicholas Plymouth UCC, Detroit, MI, USA Detroit, MI, USAHoye Wella L. BCI UCCP Dr. Graham Memorial Church Gallares St., Tagbilaran CityIbalarrosa Lemuel Q. NELBICON UCCP Tacloban 181 P. Zamora St. Tacloban CityIbaoc Meriam B. DCNZ UCCP Oyon, Dapitan City Purok Orchid, Hamoc Compound, Sicayob, Dipolog CityIbaoc Placido R. DCNZ UCCP Oyon, Dapitan City Purok Orchid, Hamoc Compound, Sicayob, Dipolog CityIbarra-Bertoldo Abigail CCI UCCP - Cendet 85 Osmena Blvd., Cebu CityIdul Socrates G. NDDC NDDC (Confrence Minister) NDDC-Km 55, Docto;ero St., tagum City, Davao del NorteIgdanes Joy T. SBC Barcelona UCCP Aguinaldo St., Poblacion Norte, Barcelona UCCP, SorsogonIgdanes Lemuel S. SBC M. Div. Student - Junior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityIlano Michelle T. SMDC M. Div. Student - Middler Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityInute Presentacion L. NDC Tanchoal, San Jose, Tanjay City, Neg. Or.Iyoy Rizalina B. CCI 395 - E Osmeña Boulevard, Cebu CityJaraba Humphrey B. LDC UCCP Luinab, Iligan/Libertad Purok 11, Tambacan, Iligan CityJarabe Manuel I. Jr. NELBICON B. Th. Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityJuan Rodulfo D. NDC No Assignment yet under process No. 11 Ipil St. Daro, Dumaguete CityJuanerio Miriam G. LCSMC M. Div. Student - Middler Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityJumawan Mediador V. 5247 Iron Ridge Pass, Schertz, Tx 78154Kadile Myrna Mary Ana G. CMAC UCCP, Bonbon Zone 10, Bulua, Cagayan de Oro CityKadusale Leonardo Y. LDC UCCP Darumawang & Taguitic Darumawang, Lala, Lanao del NorteKahesi Joash ELC Silliman University Divinity School UEM Village, Silliman University Campus, Dumaguete CityKapirig Leonida A. WMC UCCP Aurora UCCP Aurora, Cabilao St., San Jose, Aurora, 205Kho Perla Luz G. Master of Divinity - Spiritual CareLabrador Stenio D. SDC Purok 4, San Juan, Surigao City 556 Mupas St., Mainit, Surigao del NorteLabuntog Melzar D. CMAC NWMJ Bishop Cagayan de oro CityLagahit Jerem M. NDC Silliman University Church Silliman University, Dumaguete cityLanggam Adonia S. CMAC UCCP, Villanueva, Misamis Oriental Poblacion, Claveria, Misamis OrientalLasta Ricardo Rex S. LDC UCCP Tubaran Panoloon, Sapu, Lanao del NorteLazaro Rey Alejandro L. CMAC CMAC Coordinator # 40 Ruby St., Gusa, Cagayan de Oro CityLianos Rosana R. NDC UCCP, Milagrosa and Bunsod Milagrosa, Sta. Catalina, Negros OrientalLiwag Elizabeth B. UMC 172-A Ermin Garcia St., Cubao, Quezon CityLlego Matt Anthony D. KTKK B. Th. Student - Sophomore Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityLomocso Jaime I. DCNM UCCP, Oroquieta P. 5 - Canubay, Oroquieta CityLopez Elizabeth S. CCI Molterm, Memorial Church Hagnaya, San Remigio, CebuLozano Joanas A. SBC UCCP Gigmoto Gigmoto, Virac CatanduanesLugo Klariza Grace Q. CMAC UCCP, ClaveriaLumayag Ramonette E. NDC UCCP, Tanjay City Tanjay City, Negros OrientalLungay George A. BCI UCCP, Tagbilaran City Tagbilaran City, BoholMa Eunice Silliman University Elementary SchoolMabanan Pedro P. SIDC B. Th, Student - Sophomore Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityMaglasang Wendell T. ADC UCCP, Carmen Carmen, Poblacion, Agusan del NorteMagno Dan D. SIDC Mastero of Divinity- JuniorMajestrado Amelito C. WMC M. Div. Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityMalahay Farrah C. NNC UCCP, Malaga Malaga, Bindoy, Negros OrientalMalto Josue SBC Virac UCCP Constantino St., Virac, CatanduanesMange Angelito B. ADC UCCP, El Rio El Rio, Sibagat, Agusan del SurManlangit Angelo U. NNC UCP Jimalalud South Poblacion National Highway, Jimalalud, Negros OrientalManzano Riodel Edward T. LDC LDC Conference Minister UCCP - Lanipao, Lala, Lanao del NorteMarigza Reuel Norman O. Highland National Office - UCCP(Gen. Sec.) 877 EDSA, Quezon CityMatta Abner C. NNC UCCP, Daras-an Guihob, La Libertad, Negros OrientalMendoza Rolan C. ADC UCCP, Butuan R. Calo St., butuan CityMendoza Sianne G. ADC UCCP, Butuan R. Calo St., butuan CityMendoza Magnolia Nova V. STC Silliman University Divinity School Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityMendoza Ronan C. ADC UCCP, Nasipit Jose P. Rizal St., Nasipit, Agusan del NorteMillama Ricardo O. SDC UCCP Alegria, Surigao City Nueva Ext., Surigao CityMiot Rio A. CNAC UCCP, Luyang Poblacion, Mabinay, Negros OrientalMiot Sadrac B. CNAC Bethel UCCP Pomelo St., pob. Mabinay, Neg. OrMontenegro Jane Ella P. SDC UCCP, Forest Drive Forest Drive Village, Gate 2, San Roque, Bislig CityMorales Isaias B. DCNZ UCCP Dipolog City Malimono, Surigao del NorteMorales Jhosana S. DCNZ UCCP Dipolog City Malimono, Surigao del NorteMumar Eliseo B. NORWESCON UCCP Calbuyog City Church UCCP Calbuyog City Church. Calbuyog City, Western SamarMunasque Rachel A. DCNM UCCP Lopez jaena UCCP Lopez Jaena, Misamis occ.Murillo Edmund E. NDC UCCP, Cambucad UCCP, Cambucad, Valencia, Negros OrientalMutia Lucio B. DCNMNalam Jerome B. NDC UCCP San Jose UCCP San Jose, Neg.Or.Namocatcat Pell Miland D. NDC M. Div. Student - Senior Woodward Hall, Silliman University

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Narciso Ricky B. CNAC UCCP Paniabonan Paniabonan, Negros OrientalNarciso Flordeliza A. LDC UCCP, Magsaysay, Lanao del Norte Magsaysay, Lanao del NorteNarciso Emelia C. WMC Blk. 13 28 Lita Tierra, Tigumao, Pagadian CityNarciso Fortunato B. WMC Tabak Evangelical B13L8, Alta Home, Tiguma, Pagadian CityNazareno Erlinda L. LDC UCCP, Iligan City Gen. Aguinaldo St., Palao, Iligan CityNejudne Shealtiel Kim P.Ngoho Romeo C. NELBICON PNP Chaplain Evangelical Worship Center, Gate 4, Camp Crame, Quezon CityNicalas Roger V. NHAC Youth Ptr. UCCP Dagupan UCCP Dagupan, Tabuk City, KalingaNicanor Ronnie Flor T. DCSZ M. Div. Student - Middler Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityNiwag Ladora C. BCI UCCP, Poblacion,Sagbayan, Bohol UCCP, Poblacion, Sagbayan, BoholNolval Ritche S. CCI UCCP Church of the Redeemer Tulay, Minglanilla, CebuNoynay Alfonso G. ADC M. Div. Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityNudalo Valentino C. Jr. SWLC UCCP Saint Bernard Saint Bernard, Southern LeyteNuena Reinhard L. DCNM UCCP Clarin Pob. 2 Clarin, Misamis Occ.Nuena Rimnan T. DCNM UCCP Tudela Pob. 2 Clarin, Misamis Occ.Opiala Imelda C. BCI Causwagan Norte, Catigbian Lourdes, Panglao, BoholOpiala Angelito C. BCI UCCP, Trinidad, Bohol San Miguel, BoholOrbiso Dina P. Masbate UCCP, Guinhan-ayan Villa Inocencio, Placer, MasbateOrevillo Ruel P. BCI Deputy Conference Minister Sa Isidro, Talibon, BoholOrevillo-Montenegro Muriel NDC Silliman University Divinity School Silliman University Main Campus, Dumaguete CityOzarraga Heracleo M. Jr. DCNM Brokenshire Hospital Brokenshire Hospital, Davao CtyPacatang Rosario B. DCNZ UCCP Sindangan, Z.N. UCCP Sindangan, Z.N.Pace Bless Johannes F. CCI Church of the Redeemer 2-105 Pagsabungan, Mandaue CityPadilla-Panares Vera CMAC Pilgrim Christian College Villa Candida Subd.,Pagalan Jesse A. ADC Conference Minister Algon Road, Awilla Village, Butuan CityPahayag Arlene P. CMAC (on leave) Salay, Misamis Or.Pajarillo Noel B. WVC UCCP Ilo-ilo City UCCP Dungon B. Jaro, Ilo-Ilo CityPangilinan Erlina D. CCI Bradford UCCP, Cebu 16 Villa Quijano Vill., Forest Hills, Banawa, Cebu CityPaniamogan Juanita D. SDC SDC ( Conference Minister ) UCCP SDC Home, Kalipayan St. Km.1, Surigao CityPaquibot James E. CCI UCCP, Bradford 85 Osmeña Blv., Cebu CityPatadlas Salome P. WMC UCCP Dinas Dinas, Zamboanga del SurPatadlas Alan S. WMC UCCP Tawagan UCCP Tawagan Norte, Zamboanga del SurPatadlas Levi S. WMC (no assignment) UCCPDumingag, Zamboanga del SurPatalinghug Danilo Y. CCI UCCP, Ronda, Cebu UCCP, Ronda, CebuPerez Ephrym R. NORWESCON B. Th.Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityPia Jonathan R. NDC Silliman University Church Silliman University, Dumaguete CityPrimacio Jess B. CCI Cebu Conference Incorporated 2603- Upper Inayayan, City of Naga, CebuProvidencia Elmer Y. CNAC UCCP, Lumbangan Lumbangan, Mabinay, Negros orientalPuguon Ruben B. Highland M. Div. Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityPuracan Joromi D. BCI UCCP, Tagbilaran City 53- C Gallares St., Tagbilaran CityPuracan Rodrigo Silliman Univeristy DS-RSP Dahlia Cottage, Silliman University CampusPurba Deddy Indonesia Doctor of Theology StudentQuezon Michael D. DCNM B. Th. Student - Freshman Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityQuiliope Pablito J. NDC UCCP Amlan Amlan, Negros Or.Ragas Reynold M. CCI Bradford Enayawan Outreach, Pardo Bradford Inayawan Outreach, PardoRambuyon Vida C. Justice and Peace CenterRaydan Geraldine B. CNAC UCCP Dawis Dawis, Bayawan CityReambonanza Trecita S. SDC Silliman University High School Silliman Heights Subd., Junob, Dumaguete CityRegino Nancy G. WVC UCCP Centro Poblacion Centro Poblacion, Culasi, AntiqueRendal Perla E. NDC retiredRendon Benjamin Benrye P. NDC UCCP, Siquijor Poblacion, SiquijorReyes Alicia N. NORWESCON UCCP, San Antonio Alegria, San Isidro, Northern SamarRichardt Sarah J. SDC SDC ( Retired Minister ) Springville Homes, Sto. Nino Rd., Banilad, Dumaguete CityRisma Ireneo Victor F. NDCRoa Joven M. LDC UCCP, Iligan City Gen. Aguinaldo Ext., Palao, Iligan CityRobido Vilma B. NORWESCON UCCP, Cag-Olango Cagnipa, Tinambacan District, Calbayog CityRobin Lope B. BCI Silliman University Divinity School Silliman University Main Campus, Dumaguete CityRobles Gilbert Gerry B. NSTC Pacita Evengelacal Church Los Banos, LagunaRomano Rosito A. CNAC Locay, Bagtic UCCP Caluy-ahan, Cabagahan, Bais CityRomero Napoleon A. Jr. SWLC M. Div. Student - Senior Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityRonolo Godofredo A. CCI UCCP, Oslob Poblacion, Santander, CebuRonquillo-Burgos Ethel NELBICON Silliman University Elementary School Silliman Heights Subd., Junob, Dumaguete CityRosal-Tabada Dominga NDC Silliman University Elementary School Divinity School Village, Silliman University, Dgte CityRosialda Manolito C. NORWESCON M. Div. Student - Junior Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityRubio Michael M. WMC UCCP Maragang Maragang, Tigbao

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Rubio Jobert M. WMC UCCP, Guinicolalay Guinicolalay Pinas, Zamboanga del SurRuiz Alma Silliman Univeristy DS-RSP Villarosa Subd., Sibulan, Negros OrientalSaa Nilda Y. CMAC UCCP, Magsaysay Magsaysay, Misamis OccidentalSaa Elmer L. NDC Silliman University Church Silliman University, Dumaguete citySabrin Wilson A. NNC UCCP, Pawan Pawan, la Libertad, Negros OrientalSaguban Joe Ric I. NDC UCCP Pamplona Lower Jugno, Amlan, Negros OrientalSalig Joven D. DCNM UCCP Pulot Outreach Pulot, Ozamis CitySalig Renerio D. DCNM UCCP Unidos, Plaridel, Mis.,Occ. Sepac, Sapang Dalaga, Mis.,Occ.Saligaw Elizabeth D. CMAC UCCP Lunao Lunao, Gingoog CitySalor Jerby A. NORWESCON NORWESCON (Conference Minister) NORWESCONSalva Joshua Job S. CMACSalvan Mary Joy R. CMACSambat Elorde M. NLJ UCCP Bishop 42 Bokawkan Rd., P. Burgos Brgy., Baguio City 2600San Francisco Jerry J. CMAC UCCP Xavier Heights Block 8 WT 2 Xavier HeightsSan Francisco Ligaya F. CMAC UCCP Gingoog UCCP, Brgy.24, Magallanes St., Gongoog CitySanque Eduardo I. Mindoro A-299 Cardinal Compound, Sampaloc 2, Dasmarinas, CaviteSaplagio Lalen P. NDDC UCCP, MagugpoSaycon Abner V. DCNM UCCP Ozamiz City UCCP, La-am, Ozamiz CitySending Mark C. DCNM UCCP, Jimenez Bonifacio St., Naga, Jiminez, Misamis OccidentalSerino Faith P. CCI RFBMC - UCCP 85 Osmena blvd. Cebu City, CebuSiago Bonifacio S. NORWESCON UCCP, Catarman Allen, Northern SamarSiao Filemon P. Jr. CMAC Salay UCCP Cagayan de Oro CitySimangunsong Maruhum HKBP M. Theol Student-2nd year Kantor Pusat HKBP,Pearaja Tarutung, North Sumatra, IndonesiaSimangunsong Amran HKI M. Theol Student-2nd year HKI Jl. Melanchton Siregar 111Singuaran Ester D. CCI UCCP Bradford 85 Osmena blvd. Cebu City, CebuSojorga Conchita P. LDC Retired Church Worker Liangan East, Purok II, Bacolod, Lanao del NorteSolis-Aguiar Juliet UMC National Program Coordinator UCCP National Office, 877 EDSA, Quezon CitySoriano Lilia G. Pagadian City, Zamboanga del SurSotomayor Tabita Q. CCI UCCP, Juan Quiniones Mem. Church Banhigan, Badian, CebuTabada Callum R. NDC Master of Theology StudentTacaisan Melvin M. WVC B. Th. Student - Middler Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityTagalo-Semacio Jerusa ADC UCCP, Buenavista Purok 4, Hubang, San Francisco, Agusan del SurTaganas Haniel Joses T. CCI UCCP, Bradford 85 Osmeña Blvd., Cebu CityTalaboc Sheba P. CCI B. Th. Student - Senior Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityTamonan Vivian T. WVC B. Th. Student-Sophomore Channon Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityTampus Bensi Alfredo CCI Jansen Memorial Church Punta, Engano, Lapu-lapu CityTampus Jonathan I. LDC UCCP Tubod Capitol Comm. Church mabini St., Poblacion, Tubod, Lanao del NorteTan Gina I. NORWESCON UCCP San Isidro Labangbaybay Tagapul-an Western SamarTaywan Norman G. NHAC North Highland Associate Conference Casigayan, Tabuk City, KalingaTejo Arnie Q. CNAC UCCP, Abis Abis, mabinay, Negros orientalTenchavez Feliciana P. BCI UCCP, Fatima Ubay, BoholTentativa Loida C. NORWESCON UCCP, Catubig Catubig, Northern SamarTentativa Cesar E. NORWESCON Emmanuel Circuit Catubig, Northern SamarTibus Van Cliburn M. CCI UCCP Bradford 85 Osmeña Blvd., Cebu CityTibus Iris H. CCI UCCP Bradford 85 Osmeña Blvd., Cebu CityTilos Yves O. NDCTinagsa Ric M. Masbate UCCP, Pio Corpus… etc.. Panique, Aroroy, MasbateTinambacan Mari Lou L. NDC Doctor of Theology StudentTindoys Wilfredo A. SWLC UCCP, Isabel Isabel, LeyteTorreon Romeo H. CCI UCCP, Good Samaritan Church Pulpugon Phase III, Consolacion, CebuTorres Tessie D. CMAC UCCP Cagayan UCCP Abellanosa St., Cagayan de Oro CityTrupa EricTubo Lorenzo H. Jr. ADC M. Div. Student - Middler Divinity School Village, SU, Dumaguete CityTumandao Cesar C. Jr. NELBICON UCCP, Tacloban City 181, Paterno Zamora, Tacloban CityUcsang Salvador B. SWLC UCCP, Baybay Baybay, LeyteUrsos Juriel BCIUrsula Inot CCI Tabok, Mandaue CityUy Karlo F. NDC B. Th. Student - Sophomore Woodward Hall, SU, Dumaguete CityVallente Avidnigo D. BCI UCCP Sweetland, Buenavista, Bohol Basak, Taloto, Tagbilaran CityVallera Japhet Kenn S. CMACVallespa Cheryll G. NDDCVanguardia Nestor T. KTKK UCCP Binubusan/Hessed Learning Center NCFA San Roque St., Brgy. 4, Nasugbu, BatangasVillarin Nelson B. CMAC UCCP, Macasandig 49 Western Kolambug, Lapasan, Cagayan de oro CityVillarin Eliezer B. CMAC UCCP Opol UCCP Opol, Opol, Misamis OrientalVillarin Roselieto A. CNAC Bugay, Bayawan Dawis, Bayawan City

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Villarmea Saclarita E. DCNM UCCP, Calamba, Misamis Occidental Sta Cruz, Plaridel, Misamis OccidentalVillarmea Karl James E. DCNM Silliman Univeristy DS-RSP Silliman Heights Subdivision, Junob, Dumaguete CityVitorillo Betty V. NDDC UCCP, DAPECOL Dujali, Tanglaw, Davao del NorteWaddington Myra CMAC Silliman University DS-RSP Camp Lookout, Valencia, Negros OrientalYañez Ricardo C. Jr. UCCP - CDO Pioneer St., San Pedro, Dumingag, Zamboanga del SurZambrano Abner P. CMAC UCCP, Lapasan Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro City

LEGEND

ADC Agusan District ConferenceBAC Bukidnon Area ConferenceBCI Bohol Conference IncorporatedCAC Cotabato Annual ConferenceCCI Cebu Conference IncorporatedCMAC Central Mindanao Annual ConferenceCNAC Central Negros Associate ConferenceDCNM District Conference of Northern MindanaoDCNZ District Conference of Northern ZamboangaDCSZ District Conference of Southern ZamboangaELC Evangelical Lutheran Church - TanzaniaHighland Highland ConferenceHKBP Christian Batak Protestant ChurchHKI The Indonesian Christian ChurchKTKK Kumperensya ng Timog-Kanlurang KatagaluganLCSMC Lowland Cavite-South Manila ConferenceLDC Lanao District ConferenceMasbate Masbate ConferenceMindoro Mindoro ConferenceMNC Manila North ConferenceNDC Negros District ConferenceNDDC Northeastern Davao District ConferenceNELBICON North-East Leyte Biliran ConferenceNHAC North Highland Associate ConferenceNLJ North Luzon Jurisdictional AreaNNC North Negros ConferenceNORWESCON Northern-Western Samar ConferenceNSTC Northeast Southern Tagalog ConferenceNWLC Northwest Luzon ConferencePC-USA Presbyterian Church (USA)SBC South Bicol ConferenceSDC Surigao District ConferenceSIDC Samar Island District ConferenceSMDC Southern Mindanao District ConferenceSTC Southern Tagalog ConferenceSWLC Southern-Western Leyte ConferenceUMC United Metropolis ConferenceWMC Western Mindanao ConferenceWVC Western Visayas Conference

Cultural: Jean Cuanan—Nalam, Jerilde Flor, Manuel Jarabe Jr, Ruth Donasco, Gary Michael del Rosario,

Vivan Tamonan (not in photo) Errol Balderas, Cesar Romero

Awards: Miriam Juanerio, Dr. Noriel Capulong, Marilou Tinambacan (not in photo) Dr. Valentino Sitoy, Bp. Erme Camba, Yves Tilos, Christian Hohmann

Transportation & Hospitality: Pastor Ephrym Perez, Amelito Majestrado, Dr. Sol Apla-on, Christopher Bur-gos, Joven Elvira, Prof. Rebecca Capulong

Aesthetics and Physical Arrangement: Ronnie Flor Nicanor, Dan Magno, Neson Abrea, Lorenzo Tubo Jr.

Accommodation: Pell Namocatcat, Brendan Ayta, Ariane Calvario, Pastor Eusabel Lasta, Karlo Uy, John Guido Cinco, Amihan Asi, Joshua Salva

Registration: JE Endico, Pastor Adonis Bomes, Char-maign Formanes, Charlyn Dayola, Melvin Tacaisan, Rev. Arnel Faller, Pastor Lemuel Igdanes, Joy Salvan

Program: Reece Ven Bico, Dr. Victor Aguilan, Ma-ruhum Simangunsong, Napoleon Romero Jr. Julie Gadingan, Marilou Tinambacan, Rev. Jackelyn Dizon

Security: Rev. Alfonso Noy-nay, Edward Flora

Worship: Michael Quezon, Pedro Mabanan Jr., Rev. Magnolia Mendoza, Michelle Ilano (not photo) Sheba Talaboc, Juriel Ursos, Joy dela Cruz, Perla Luz Khu

Food: Jonalyn Alay-ay, Roberto Estrella, Amran Sumangunsong, Erelyn Academia, Manolito Ro-

Documentation: Mag Gillo, Matt Llego, Kim Nejudne, Dr. Muriel Montenegro, January Alpuerto, Rev. Callum Tabada, PK, Bp Benito Dominguez

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SU Church Workers Convocation 2012 Proceedings

Documents