Church and Ecumenism
Description: Parish of St. James the Great
Image copyright: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/stjamesthegreat/interesting/
Diocese of Paranaque
Parish Priest: Fr. Msgr. Alberto Venus
Why he became priest: \"To serve God and to serve the people as well.\"
On April 30, 1990, His Eminence Jaime Cardinal L. Sin, Archbishop of Manila issued a Decree of Establishment of the Parish of St. James the Great. with the territorial boundaries of Ayala Alabang Village, Muntinlupa, Metro-Manila. The Patron of the Parish is St. James the Great.Prior to this designation, the area was part of St. Jerome Emiliani Parish, run by the Somascan priests from Italy.
Msgr, Nicanor Bautista was then appointed the first Parish Priest and commissioned on June 1, 1990. Through the generosity of the Del La Salle-Zobel school director, Bro. Felix Masson, F.S.C., one o the school rooms was offered as the living quarters, the school Chapel for daily masses and the gym for Sunday masses.
In December 1990, Rev. Fr. Jerome Cruz was appointed Assistant Parish Priest. Together, the two priests slowly started organizing the Parish. A tent to serve as the meeting place was set up in a lot located in Acacia St. owned by the Madrigal Family. The tent was likened to the biblical tent of tabernacles \"where God and His people met\". Leaders in the community were invited to dialogue and discuss plans for the Prish. Of highest priority was the construction of the church.
Ayala Land, Inc., developer of the Ayala Alabang Village donated 7,555 sq meters of land on the corners of Cuenca, Ibaan and Malvar Streets and sum of P5 million to jump start the construction. The architectures of the church would be of \"old world church\" of the Spanish missionaries. The formal ground-breaking ceremony was held on the Feast Day of St. James the Great on July 25, 1991. On February 4, 1995, the church of St. James the Great was inaugurated by His Eminence Jaime Cardinal L. Sin. On April 23, 1996, the first computer-controlled 23-bell carillon was installed and signified the full completion of the construction of the church.
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VISION-MISSION:
Vision.
We envision the Parish of St. James the Great as a community of Christ-centered families living together in the tru spirit of Christ teachings.
Mission.
To achieve this Vision, we shall...
Develop a deeper experience in our SPIRITUALITY,
Create a greater sense of COMMUNITY, and
Commit ourselves to the CHURCH OF THE POOR.
CORE VALUES:
- Personal and Family Renewal
- Community Life
- Responsible Stewardship
- Social Transformation
Reflection of:
Celina Marie Y. Limcaco
BSBAMM - 1A
1. An objection assessment of his/her parish experience ( How did he/she find his/her parish experience? Were there any difficulties he/she faced? What were his/her feelings and personal realization upon rendering service to his/her parish?)
> Having the experience of serving and knowing our parish for more than just a building or for more than just a place for worship etc. It has been a great experience. On the first day, they gave us a brief introduction on what they do there and how important the office part of the parish is as well. As being part of that office and doing what they do on a regular basis. On the first day, my classmate, Jerome and I had 2 hours of using the photocopy machine and let me say it was very simple. But for the fact that we made hundreds of copies and couldn\'t make a mistake was pressuring. The second day, we got the chance to help serve in the First Communion of Woodrose students. We didn\'t do much as we were just in the back waiting for their commands to be told. For the third and fourth day, I did clerical work as for answering the phone, etc. and it is very pleasing knowing that the phone is off the hook every second.
2. An objective and critical assessment of the parish (criticacl here does not mean finding criticism in the parish, rather assess both the positive and negative aspects of the parish and find out the reason s why this is so.) \"Does your parish community exemplify what it means to be a Church? Why do you say so?\"
> First of all, the parish both had positive and negative aspects. For the positive, the employees and priests are very welcoming there. They made us feel as if we were there for a long time already. They ask us if we would like to take our break with them etc. As for the negative, they were low in technology, some employees come in late and some do not come in at all. But other than that, I would say it is a very nice and friendly environment
3. Suggestions and comments on what the student can do (realistically and pragmatically) improve his/her as a community of believers.
> I think that what students can do to improve the believers in any community is that they could help out in the services more. This way, it could become the \"in thing\" among students and people could follow. My comments on this is that people that come in and out of the office and church were very heart warming, they would greet us whether they were an employee or not. It was a great experience that was also very enjoyable.
Reflection of:
Jerome Go
BSBAMM - 1A
On my community service at our parish, St. James the Great was an awesome experience. I was able to do a lot of office works. Despite the hardships of the workloads I was also able to have a stronger bond with my classmate, Celina. We were only given two hours every Saturday to comply with our community service. On our first day in the office, we were tasked to photo copy the rules and regulations of the parish. The experience of handling a photocopy machine, and photocopy a whole bunch of paper was the easiest among all the work I have done. On the second day of our work, we were tasked to help on the first communion, which was held in the main church, we really didn’t do that much because there were a lot of servers in which they are really part of the organization. I could remember the days wherein I had had my first communion while watching the little kids walk in the center isle to receive the first body of Christ in their life. On the third day of our community service, I was assigned to do mass cards, in which I find the most difficult. I had to commit no errors in typing the mass cards and put them in the folder which I also sorted one by one. I also needed to insert pictures in the folder one by one. And I had to type using a typewriter. On the forth day, I was assigned to sort the receipts of loans, SSS, and phil. Health, in which I didn’t have a difficult time because there were only only few receipts. For the last two hours, I wasn’t able to go to the interview and it was only Celina who went since, my niece is going to be Baptist on that day.
The negative part of the parish office was that they lack in technology machines. They didn’t have the latest machines and their computers weren’t that updated. First of all, the photocopy machine has a crack which made it more fragile. It also can photocopy only a maximum of ninety-nine papers. The one who was in charge on us even said, that the photocopy machine was even older than us. Another thing that wasn’t updated was the typewriter, nowadays people would use Microsoft word to print everything. Third, they didn’t have signal inside the parish office. Lastly, their service was slow due to lack of employees, not that they were only a little, but some of the empolyees would come late. On the other hand the positives of the parish office was that, the employees were all kind, in which they treated us like a family of their own. They would ask us to have a break and eat snacks, like sandwiches. They were also able to make us feel welcome on their office.
My suggestions on our parish is that, they should have more employees to do jobs on time. They should also have updated their softwares and go with the flow on the latest technology. They should get signal for all the cellphone networks incase of emergency purposes, like when their phones are shut down or broken. Other comments is that they were able to do a job well done to welcome us, because I can see it that they needed help from community servicers like us.