Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Pains and Gains in Serving the Pastors (C) Ministerial Identity-Vestment

The year 2006 appeared to be the consolidation of assembly action on Ministerial Identity. Aside from the ratification of the Code of Ethics, two related actions were done. A resolution was acted upon which sealed off the perennial debate on pastoral identity which caused irritants and divided the pastors for decades. This was done after the panel discussion on the presentation of Rev Joniel Howard H. Gico, Vice President for Administration of CPU on faces of Pastoral Identity. It was resolved to recognize ministers as “Pastors” whether they work in churches, church related institutions, government, and NGOs. Criteria, categorization and guidelines were also made. Moreover, there was an understanding that the title must be spelled out not abbreviated like PTR, or Pas or Tor because the title carries the function.

It was also the year when the ministerial vestment was implemented. This serves as official uniform of Baptist Pastors under the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches(CPBC). The committee that made the research and design was chaired by Dr. Domingo J. Diel Jr. Members were Pastor Prima Formilleza, Prof. Melanie Catolico, Dr. Armando S. Kole, Rev. Lolita Dais, Prof. Grace Reyes. Symbols and colors have the following meaning: Dove- Holy Spirit; Empty Cross- Christ has risen; Icthus: (fish)- early symbol for Christian religion; Fire- refining fire/ Holy Spirit. Purple stands for Trinity; White for Purity; Blue for Virginity; Red for Love. The embroidered logo represents membership/affiliation, as follows, CBMA, CPBC, National Council of Churches in the Philippine (NCCP).



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