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DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN
PHILIPPINES
“Working together in faith to serve
and preserve God’s Creation.”
(Ex. 17:8-13; I Cor.12:12-27; Lk. 16:1-13; Mt. 25:14-30)
Greetings of peace and love to one and all! We
are blessed to be here and thank God for this
opportunity as we come together and join with our
brothers and sisters from all part of the Diocese for our
41th. Diocesan annual Convention. Indeed it is a great
joy to see you all and together thanked the Lord for
his tremendous love poured upon His Church in this
Diocese and upon His people. It is therefore my great
privilege and honor to welcome all of you, the members
of convention, our official and reporting delegates,
retirees, guests and observers to this convention.
As you may know, this 41st. Diocesan
Convention is very special and significant to all of us,
as this marks our last convention together of the one
undivided Diocese of Southern Philippines. Certainly,
there is a mix feeling of sadness and joy. Sadness
because separation or parting is not always a happy
occasion for acquaintances, much so for those of us
who have shared the joys of working together and
friendship. On the other hand, there is that feeling of
excitement of facing new challenges and opportunities
especially as we think of expansion and reaching out to
more people for the Lord. Such thought always brings
happiness and inspiration to all of us. May we all be
blessed this convention.
The Convention Theme:“Working together in faith to
serve and preserve God’s Creation.”
This 41st Diocesan convention will go down in
our journal history of convention as the last convention
of our undivided Diocese. As such this is significant
and memorable for all of us.
After years of planning and preparation, synod
finally gave its consent last May 2011. Most of us
can probably remember that we have been talking of
dividing the Diocese as early as the 1990’s. In fact I
was one of those few who believe on the need of the
division, for purposes of mission strategy. The Deanery
of Southwestern Mindanao was then targeted as the
area of the new jurisdiction. This did not push through
due to some canonical requirements that need to be
fulfilled. However, our endeavor was not a total failure
because while we failed in the creation of the new
Diocese then, but the idea lives on, that eventually
led to the creation of the new jurisdiction composed
of the Deaneries of Northeastern Mindanao and the
Visayas and South Central Mindanao. Looking back,
I realized how we really worked hard for this, yes, we
spent time, effort and money for this and oftentimes
we got frustrated when we do not get the result of the
things we wanted. This experience will remind us again
that it is “In God’s Time” that things are done not ours.
We praise Him for patiently leading us through those
years of planning and preparation. We praise and
thank Him for making available P3.7 million (from St.
Agnes building fund) for the Diocesan center and P600
thousand for additional endowment fund for the new
Diocese (from the budget surplus of the Synod last
May 2011). Indeed, there is no better time than “In His
Time.
In the midst of this joyous celebration, we
meet in this Convention filled with many challenges,
apprehensions and uncertainties. The past year our
Diocese was not spared with various political, economic
and social issues and concerns that affected us in our
delivery of services to our people. We continue to
feel the ill effect of the internal squabbles among our
politicians as they try to project themselves and their
political agenda, forgetting their primary responsibility
as an elected official. The ongoing impeachment case
against the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court with
all its merits cannot be said in all honesty that it is free
from political vendetta. No wonder, a new firework code
name “goodbye Philippines” came out in the market last
December. We do hope however, this is not a sign of our
peoples’ desperations and hopelessness in the leaders
of our nation. On the other hand the continuing unrest
in the Middle East together with the financial crisis that
affected Europe and the volatile economic condition
of the U.S. remain to be the culprit of the unrelenting
increase of oil products in the world market that makes
life of our people more miserable. But this is not all
my brothers and sisters, more devastating, damaging
and destructive are the natural calamities that visited
us in recent months particular here in Mindanao. The
flash floods, landslides and earthquakes are but good
reminders of our greediness and our failure in taking
care of our environment. We need not be reminded
of the fact that our environment is a special gift to
us by God and is intended for us to enjoy and not to
abuse. Amidst this gloomy and somehow discouraging
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The Philippine EPISCOPALIAN 19