Dr. Malayang Asks UCCP Assembly: ‘Have we failed God?’
Silliman University President Dr. Ben S. Malayang III led some 500 delegates to the 9th Quadrennial General Assembly (GA) of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) into a reflection on the role of the church in these times of crisis.
“Has God failed us?” Dr. Malayang asked during the opening of the GA themed “Discerning and Obeying God’s Will in These Critical Times” held May 25 at the Silliman University Church. He was the keynote speaker.
Silliman is the institutional host of the GA, the highest decision-making body of the UCCP which has the responsibility to reexamine the programs of the UCCP in relation to the current situation, and formulate a plan of action which will serve as UCCP’s guide for the next four years.
Dr. Malayang asked the question after he outlined what he considered is “a world deeply troubled and in turmoil,” describing the change in the global economic landscape, the political infrastructure that is in a crisis of eroded confidence, the threat of global warming, and the crisis of faith institutions.
“It is a world in crisis…Greed and avarice have combined to weaken and destroy economic and social institutions that were once securing and predictable,” he said.
Even the UCCP, which is regarded as one of the largest, most visible and influential evangelical groups in the Philippines with over 500,000 members, he said, has its own share of disunity and crisis.
“But we ask: Is it rather that we have failed God?” Dr. Malayang likened this question to the one the Israelites asked Moses when faced with no water and no food.
He added: “Would it be that we are in crisis because we would rather tell God what we prefer to do, than impose upon us what God tells us to do?”
Dr. Malayang then invited the GA to ponder on the story about the Good Samaritan who, unlike the priest and the Levite, stopped to help the Jew who was mugged by roadside robbers. The act of the Samaritan was contrary to the prevailing characteristics of Samaritans at that time who were perceived to be enemies of the Jews and deemed “in the wrong side of godly righteousness.”
“To Jesus, the Samaritan exemplified the person that God wants us all to be, to be loving and caring to all... He correctly discerned and understood deeply in his soul that what is most fundamental to being a person of God is that we care and love one another, regardless of how others care and love us,” he said.
According to Dr. Malayang, it is crucial in understanding and confronting crises for people to understand God as a loving and caring God.
“We are in these crises because we have failed to appreciate that loving and caring for others is the bedrock of a redemptive justice that creates peace, conciliation and comity, all of which are necessary preconditions to preventing and resolving crises,” he explained.
Towards the end of his keynote address, Dr. Malayang challenged the GA composed of pastors and members of the different Conferences of the UCCP around the Philippines to examine the crises that confront the church and the country. This, he said, has to be done vis-a-vis the extent to which love and care is given to: pastors and church workers, “expecting them to be always there on demand and yet paying them poorly and accepting that they should always be poor that up to this day we have yet to give them a decent retirement plan;” members of the church who “seek refuge and sanctuary,” and “the many people around our churches.”
“Let our church, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, be a church that always searches for the loving and caring God among us, inside us, and among the people around us,” he said. “Doing so, we can yet become a church that truly liberates people – and our world – from crises.”
The GA will be capped with a closing consecration liturgy on May 29. (with information lifted from the UCCP briefer on the 9th Quadrennial General Assembly)
Click here to read the full text of Dr. Malayang's keynote address.
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Biology Graduate Qualifies for TOSP National Search
A fresh Biology graduate of Silliman University is the lone finalist from Dumaguete City in the national search of the Ten Outstanding Students of the Philippines (TOSP).
Nikko Paolo Cablao landed on the shortlist of ten regional finalists, out of a total of 20 from different schools in Central Visayas that included another Silliman student, Harmone Jay Naparota, an Information Technology major.
Cablao graduated magna cum laude in March and was the recipient of the Most Outstanding Student of the Year Award. He was also an active member of the Silliman University Kahayag Dance Troupe.
Awarding of the regional finalists was held late last month at the Cultural and Historical Affairs Commission in Cebu City.
The TOSP was started in 1961 by businessman Jose Concepcion, Jr. of the RFM Corporation. Its theme this year is “Learning, leading and serving for life.”
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Alumna is Lone Filipino in New Jersey’s Best 50 in Business
The president of the Silliman University Alumni Association of New York-New Jersey Chapter is the only Filipino included on list of “Best 50 Women in Business” of New Jersey-based business publication, NJBIZ.
NJBIZ, a publication of the New Jersey Business Industry Association, honors 50 of New Jersey’s most accomplished women who hold significant decision-making influence as owner, partner, or senior executive in a for-profit organization.
Ms Dely Po Go is a graduate of Silliman University with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1978. She finished her Master of Science in Nursing degree, summa cum laude, at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. She is currently pursuing her post-graduate degree in nursing practice at the same university.
An accomplished healthcare professional and businesswoman, Ms Go is the owner and president of Nursing Network, LLC, a healthcare services company, and the CEO of AVTECH Institute and Allied Health, a school for Licensed Practical Nursing. She also sits as trustee of Bridges to Success, a community service for the homeless.
Ms Go has been a recipient of a number of distinctions, including the 2010 Henry Becton Dickinson Scholarship and the Woman of Peace Award in 1999 from the Women Federation for World Peace in celebration for Woman History of the Month. (News adapted from the article of Ms Sevelita Cortes Orendain published on the website of the Silliman University Alumni Council of North America: http://www.suacona.com/3/miscellaneous11.htm)
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History Professor Attends 2 Conferences in US
The United States State Department invited and sponsored the trip of a Silliman history professor to two conferences held late last month in California and Arizona.
Prof. Regan Jomao-as attended the 23rd National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals (NAGAP) Annual Conference in San Francisco, California from April 21 to 24 and the Social Media Seminar from April 24 to 29 in Flagstaff, Arizona.
With participants coming from different parts of the world, the conference and seminar offered opportunities for Professor Jomao-as to network with other academic professionals in the field, learn new approaches to graduate enrollment management, and exchange creative ideas.
Professor Jomao-as is the coordinator of the graduate program in history of the History and Political Science Department. He is concurrently co-adviser at the Philippine-American Educational Foundation/EducationaUSA satellite advising center located at the Robert B. and Metta J. Silliman Library.
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