CSMO to Offer Adult Leaders' Guide on Philippines
Episcopal News Service. May 25, 1989 [89101]
NEW YORK (DPS, May 25) -- The Office of Children's Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center has announced the mid-summer release of Mission and the Philippine Episcopal Church: A Guide for Adult Leaders as a supplement of the Education for Mission and Ministry newsletter, Into the World, which is mailed to every parish. This resource is designed as an educational tool for adults working with children in the 1989-90 Church School Missionary Offering (CSMO) program.
According to the Rev. Howard Williams, coordinator of Children's Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center, Mission and the Philippine Episcopal Church is intended to add a special perspective to the study of the Philippines undertaken by CSMO. Although CSMO is using ecumenical resources offered through Friendship Press for the program, the story of the partnership of the Philippine Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in the United States, a story that is lifted up in Mission and Philippine Episcopal Church, is central to a full participation by Episcopalians in CSMO.
The Friendship Press materials available for 1989-90 include resources for study of the Philippines -- books, a video cassette, an audio tape, an annotated map, and study guides, as well as resources on the "World of Islam" for groups that would either like to supplement their study of the Philippines (there is a significant Islamic minority in the islands) or would like to undertake an additional study of Islam. This kind of study might be appropriate in urban areas with growing Muslim populations.
Mission and the Philippine Episcopal Church offers adults who will work with children in CSMO programs suggestions about selection and use of the Friendship Press materials described in the CSMO folder mailed earlier this spring. It also offers insights into the common Anglican heritage shared by the Philippine Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church in the United States. The Philippine Church will achieve complete autonomy in the worldwide Anglican Communion in 1990. Born in the 1890s at the end of the Pacific nation's colonial period, the Philippine Church has grown and moved toward autonomy in chaotic times in the life of the Philippine nation. Although it still faces many problems, the Philippine Church can well serve as a model of Christian dedication and mission against what seemed, at times, overwhelming odds.
Funds raised in 1989-90 through CSMO by the children and young people of the Episcopal Church in the United States will be used to establish a trust fund, to be administered by the Philippine Episcopal Church, for the development of a children's ministries program in the Philippines. Beginning in 1989-90, CSMO's fund raising will be done through the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
For further information about CSMO, contact: Office of Children's Ministries, The Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017; tel. (800) 334-7626, ext. 251 or 252, or (212) 867-8400, ext. 251 or 252.