Sermon: “God’s home is with us”
An inaugural address as new President of Union Theological Seminary, Philippines
18 July 2023
Scripture Text: Revelation 21:1-3
21Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them
1. Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat, Anhyeong haseyo! Chalchenneseyo? (Translation: Magandang araw po, Kumusta po kayo?) Members of the Board of Trustees, Leaders from the UCCP and UMC, our school administrators from PCU, and Church Educational Institutions, esteemed colleagues and guests and my dear fellow learners in UTS, I greet you all in God’s shalom!
2. Today is a milestone in the life of Union Theological Seminary for the changing of leaders in the institution, but the traditions and heritage of faith and history remains intact, but the future direction of leaderships and strategies to achieve the common goals and objectives can either be sharpened or dulled.
3. The information that the UCCP search committee for the new UTS President called my attention that I was shortlisted and was one of the top three nominees for the presidency, I was bit elated and amused, because I was busy figuring out how to go about revitalizing UCCP’s Church Educational Institutions (CEIs) which were the subjects of my dissertation writing program for the Doctor Education degree at PCU.
4. Then the day came when I was the one selected and recommended to be the next UTS President and I was really wondering why should this happen to my career life. But, of course I accepted the challenge of becoming the new UTS President, which can be daunting, however relieved with the assurance that I’m not doing this alone, but supported with good intentioned people who have the genuine concern for relevant, responsive and progressive theological education.
4. The national leadership of both churches, the UCCP and UMC have been confronted with many issues and concerns in the operation and management of their Ministerial Formation Centers (MFCs) which had been impacted by the economy of the Church, the nation and the international community. The effect of global economic crisis on the national economy impacts the amount of financial outlay the Church puts into theological education scholarship, faculty resource development, salaries social benefits and educational resource facilities.
5. Financial viability and stability of the MFCs have been dependent on tuition fees either paid by parents or by scholarship guarantors or a combination of both and other sources. The UCCP had a moratorium on theological education funding in the past few quadrennia. That was a sad situation that happened when the church coffer was on the red or running on deficits due to various constraints and difficulties. That period in Church history impacted the recruitment of seminary students as a large number of those who decided to study to become pastors came from low- income families and the Conferences that sent them to the seminaries were also on the dire economic straits.
6. On the other hand, when the Church is financially viable wherein the Church is able to generate adequate financial resources from major and additional sources, such as the Wider Mission Support (WMS), Property Development Revenues, Program grants from overseas partners and others, it can sufficiently support ministerial formation program carried out by the MFCs.
7. In the recent developments in terms of financial and fiscal policy formulation of the UCCP, it has been planned that theological scholarship funding should increase from30 to 50 percent every two to four years to ease the burden of students’ families, local church and Conference in supporting their students in the seminaries. Also, seminaries like UTS that have started to generate financial resource through property development have provided scholarships to students.
8. Partnership between MFCs, the Local Churches, Conferences, institutions, ecumenical organizations can be strengthened by:
a) Impressing perceptual re-understanding of theological education or ministerial formation as the responsibility of the entire Church. When this sink-in among members’ consciousness will enable them to heighten their commitment and increase their participation in the work of the MFCs such as the UTS. This will result in mutuality of goals and objectives in ministerial formation program, they will collaborate in new and evolving strategies in managing MFCs, and in designing new modes of teaching and learning processes that adapt to the changing local, national and global situations.
b) Renewing and revitalizing communication processes between local churches, Conferences, national offices and the MFCs. Financially stable local churches should be convinced of their role as stakeholders in the ministerial formation program carried out by the MFCs. They should increase their level of financial support to MFCs through scholarship fund either directly remitted to the MFCs for scholarship or by constantly increasing and committed share to the Wider Mission Support (WMS).
c) Diversifying fund raising campaign for scholarship, faculty development, salaries and benefits for MFCs teachers and staff, and infrastructure development. Diversifying means overcoming dependency on donations but also in developing properties that are assigned to the MFCs and inviting humanitarian and philanthropic organization to partnership projects such as social and ethical policy research, humanitarian response to injustice and peace issues, and other kinds of projects that can enhance the impact of the seminary to the immediate and larger context.
d) Initiating strengthened and streamlined property development by the seminaries and supported by the General Assembly to ease financial difficulties and sustain the economy of the Church for the next 50 years and specifically to support theological education or ministerial formation, leadership development and raising the basic and advance competencies of church workers in performance of their pastoral duties and functions.
e) Co-operationalizing Continuing Theological Education (CTE) program between the MFCs, the Office of the Church Workers Ministry, the Conferences. MFCs should provide the physical space and make the faculty resource to actively take responsibilities in the planning, implementation and evaluation of the required CTE program and assist in the development of training programs that will enhance the teaching-learning strategies for church workers on the field.
Finally, the UTS vision, mission and goals which are best articulated in the core values will continue to guide the ministerial formation program of the Churches. The core values which are:
1. Christ-like faithfulness
2. Ecumenical Openness
3. Prophetic boldness
4. Contextual timeliness and
5. Compassionate witness
will continue to provide direction, flesh and bones to the theological formation processes of students, faculty, the Board of Trustees and the ecumenical community.
We pray that God’s abiding and sustaining love will continue to unite us and enable us to do greater things in the work for the kingdom of God. Mabuhay ang UTS! God bless us all!+++End
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References:
1. Greg Carey http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2682
2. Barbara Rossing, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1696
