On November 9, 2011, four Trustees and Staff of the Institute for Pastoral Development (IPD) flew to the Visayas Region to begin the Pastoral Partnership Program with the Diocese of Cebu. Key people from the Diocese of Cebu who attended were Msgr Rommel Kintanar (head of the formation for the priests/clergy), Msgr JD Tajanlangit (head of formation for the laity), Fr. Alvin H. Codilla (B.E.C. Lead), Atty Pat Acabolillo (President of the Council of the Laity) among many other key people from the diocese. Archbishop Palma (incoming CBCP President) would have been in attendance too except that he had been called to an emergency meeting in Rome.
The meeting held was the initial engagement between IPD and the Diocese of Cebu to discuss, understand, and plan out the implementation of the Pastoral Partnership Program for the diocese. This program aims to deliver training programs to the Diocese in the areas of Evangelization, Formation, and Parish Management and help enable the Church’s dream of building a Community of Communities. IPD President and Executive Director Randy Feria made the initial presentation of the program. This was followed by a testimony delivered by Fr. Noel Montes, IPD Trustee and currently the Formation Head of the Diocese of Iba where the Pastoral Partnership Program is already in place. Finally, IPD Mission Director Celsa Uy conducted a mini-Training Needs Analysis with all the participants. She was assisted by Sheila Arias, also an IPD Trustee.
There was a lot of excitement and interest in the room after the 2 hour meeting. Immediately, the next engagement was identified as one that, in their words, would help the diocese a) Revisit its Vision and Mission as well as their goals and strategic plans, b) Own it, and c) Measure and Monitor it.
Fr. Codilla lead the final prayer thanking the Lord for this meeting, something that was needed and something that came at the right time. He then prayed for the Lord’s blessing for everyone in the room and for the Pastoral Partnership Program to flourish and meet its goals, and prayed that everything we did would bring glory to our God.
