Friday, November 15, 2024

World Council of Churches and the Church Health Ministry on Reversing HIV Epidemic

 


Phnom Penh, Cambodia—The World Council of Churches and Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) convened a Regional Interfaith Forum on “Reversing the HIV Pandemic in Asia: Faith-based Engagements” from November 13-16. Over 80 participants from various Asian countries, including religious leaders, healthcare professionals, and advocates, gathered to explore the vital role of faith communities in combating the HIV epidemic.

The forum highlighted the need for faith-based organizations to take an active role in addressing the stigma and discrimination faced by people living with HIV (PLHIV). Among the notable speakers was Dr. Nezer Soriano, representing the United Methodist Church in the Philippines. Dr. Soriano shared valuable insights on bridging the gap in mental health services for PLHIV, emphasizing the interconnectedness of physical, mental, and spiritual health. “John Wesley emphasized a holistic Christian ministry of the mind, body and spirit. In our work, we’ve seen that addressing the mental health challenges of PLHIV is essential to improving their overall well-being and quality of life,” Dr. Soriano said. He outlined best practices implemented in faith-based initiatives, including community-based counseling programs and support groups that integrate mental health care with spiritual guidance.

The forum also featured discussions on prevention, treatment, and advocacy, with case studies from countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines showcasing the success of faith-based interventions. Participants underscored the importance of collaboration between religious organizations, governments, and international bodies to expand access to care and education.

The event concluded with a joint declaration calling for intensified efforts to eliminate HIV-related stigma and ensure equitable healthcare for all. Faith leaders committed to leveraging their influence to support the United Nations’ goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

See other related stories: Mental Health Care of individuals living with HIV

Sunday, October 13, 2024

A Wesleyan Perspective on Finances

 
Theme: “Responding to God’s Overflowing Faithfulness through Extravagant Generosity”

Text: 1 Chronicles 29:11-12, Mark 10:17-31

Message: Stewardship is Discipleship.

Call to Action:  Respond to God’s faithfulness.

This sermon was preached during the Pre-Harvest Festival of Santiago Central UMC.

The Gospel text that was read this morning comes from Gospel of Mark. This book was written to early Gentile Christians about who Jesus is and how to become his follower and disciple. Today, this book speaks to us how we can respond to God’s call and follow Jesus and become better Christians.   

In the story, we see a man asking Jesus how can he be a disciple of Jesus and enter heaven. So, one of the important verses on discipleship is from verse 21 and it reads:

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."

Today is also our pre-harvest festival. Every harvest festival, we focus on stewardship. Our verse this morning is very appropriate because it gives us a view on how we must treat wealth and stewardship of financial resources. One of the important things that we must not forget is that our stewardship is always connected to our discipleship. That means how we grow into better Christians. And today Jesus is calling us to follow me, and we must respond to that call. We must respond to that call of discipleship.

Stewardship is about discipleship.    

I was once invited to talk about financial literacy by the UMYAF. And I will share the stage with Chinkee Tan. Sabi ko, ano naman ang ituturo ko tungkol sa pera eh hindi naman ako negosyante. But the organizers said, talk about stewardship and share to us your practices as a Christian. But then I remembered John Wesley and that is what I will reflect on today. I will share some reflections with you based on the Bible with a Wesleyan perspective. This times, we need to go back to what John Wesley was teaching the early Methodists based on Biblical principles. Tayo ay babalik sa Ugaling Metodista. Ano ba ang Ugaling Metodista? Ano ba ang dapat na tugon kapag tinawag tayo?

The text for this Pre-harvest Festival tells us that God owns everything. “For everything in heaven and earth is yours.” That is an important Biblical understanding of stewardship of physical resources given to us. The finances, the businesses, the farm lot, the Negosyo, the careers and employments we have that produces wealth belongs to God. “Wealth and honor come from you.” As Christian Methodists, we recognize that everything we have belongs to God. And as Christians we need to be good stewards of God’s property. The end. No!

In Luke 16: 9, Jesus said that “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.”

So, the question that needs to be asked, is what does the Bible tells us to do with the worldly wealth, including time and talent and treasures or physical resources like the harvest from our farms, the income from our jobs, the earnings from our businesses? If all of this wealth belongs to God, what do we do with it to be good stewards? John Wesley has an answer. He actually had a sermon, “The Use of Money.” This is one of John Wesley’s famous sermons. And the lessons there are some of the important lessons that I have applied in my life ever since I read about that sermon. He said that money is not evil on its own. In fact, he believed that money if in the hands of Christians can be food for the hungry, housing for the homeless, healthcare for the sick, and help for the needy. That is why he preached about financial literacy and stewardship and discipleship.

John Wesley said in his sermon, so yes it’s like listening to John Wesley’s sermon, except the English accent. John Wesley said, “earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.”

So, the first one said: Earn all you can

Since stewardship is Discipleship, how can earning all you can help you become a better Christian?

Stewardship of God’s creation tells us that we must be able to gain something or create wealth from taking care of God’s property. John Wesley taught that Christians are always productive. Earning and gaining something is our response to taking care of God’s resources.

We remember the parable of the talents where a master gave money to this servant and asked them to take care of it. And when he returned from his trip asked the servants what they did with the money. The first two servants invested the money and earned profit and gained income while the third servant did not use the talents, the money that was given to him and it was taken away from him. He was not a faithful servant and a poor steward of the master’s property.

So, we know that a good steward is always productive. Christians use God’s resources to invest it, use it, and gain something for it.

So, John Wesley emphasized that we must earn all we can. We must be productive.

If you have a farm, then try to plant and produce harvest and earn from it. If you were given a talent and skill to be a worker or an employee or to serve others like a nurse, teacher or office worker then try to use that talent to be able to earn from your employment. If you were given talents and skills to own and manage a business then earn from your business. And since we are given time, we must use our time to be productive in any work. 

Yes, earn all you can John Wesley said. But he has two important premises”

First, when you earn, do not abuse self.

Do not sacrifice your life and health. As Christian Methodists, we understand that our physical body is a temple of God that is sacred. For John Wesley, no amount of money will justify sacrificing our health much more our life for the sake of earning income.

That means, if the way you earn income leads to lack of sleep, poor eating habits, activities that harm our bodies and leads to poor health, then we must reconsider how we earn our income.

Second premise is do not earn in sinful ways.

The end does not justify the means. Even if you are earning, it will not be acceptable if the way we are earning leads you to commit sin. Engaging in business or work or activities that harms other people, harms the environment and harms the community are sinful ways. John Wesley says that our soul must be preserved as we journey to Christian perfection.

As a good steward, earn all you can but with all diligence and honesty without harming yourself, others, the environment and the society.

The second one: Save all you can:

Since stewardship is about discipleship, how can saving money help you become a better Christian?

Saving is a response to discipleship. John Wesley emphasizes two things here:

First, make sure that you must be able to save money or resources that provides the basic needs for yourself and for you and family. So, that is the most important aspect. One must save money to channel the blessings from God in providing the basic necessities of the person and his family.

Second, the good steward will not waste any resources in buying useless things or spending on luxuries so you can satisfy your vanity. Saving money is your response so you will not commit the sins of vanity or be envious of others by desiring luxuries and showing off. Saving also helps you become humble and avoid the sin of pride and arrogance.

Did you know that early Christian Methodists do not recommend wearing expensive jewelries and expensive clothes, including shoes. 

John Wesley said, you must be able to save the extra income you have after spending for the needs of the family.

You are not expected to use the extra income to spend in other luxurious stuff.

The early Christian Methodist understood that for everyone to have a share from the available resources from this earth, we must only get what is sufficient for us. For example, when getting food from the table in a luncheon party. You only get what is enough that you can eat and not waste any food. The extra food in your plate that you took is food that could have been eaten by someone else.

Saving money is your response to discipleship in recognizing the needs of your neighbors after you have satisfied your own family’s needs.

We are our brother’s and sister’s keeper’s. When we have blessings, we must use only what we need because saving means we also remember those who are in need.

But John Wesley was careful again to remind that saving must not lead for other people especially our children and family members to commit sin of being unproductive and being wasteful.

We do not save so that our children will have their own resources to spend. That will teach them to be sinful in becoming unproductive stewards of God’s resources.

We do not also save so that we can give to those in need without helping them to be productive as well. It was never a dole out for John Wesley.

We do not save so that our families can be wasteful of the extra resources they have. The resources must be distributed to those in need.

Because stewardship is about discipleship, the saved money should be distributed to bring honor and glory to God.

So, we proceed to the third and last lesson.

The third one: Give all you can:

Since stewardship is about discipleship, how can giving all you can make us a better Christian? This one is very obvious but difficult to do.

John Wesley recognizes that everything comes and belongs to God.

The classic Methodist theological understanding is that what ever you need, you have already saved it and so, beyond what you NEED must be given to others who are in NEED. Now that may sound too radical, but that is actually what Wesley was teaching the early methodists and in fact he did until he died.

As a professor, he was earning a lot and he was buying real estate. But he owns nothing. Wesley used the money to buy Methodists houses that became churches, Wesley gave away huge capital that when he died, there was nothing in his name and he had nothing to share in his last will and estate.

Whatever you saved, give it to those in need. That is extravagant generosity.

That is our theme for this harvest Festival. Ang Ugaling Metodista ay mapagbigay.

Giving all you can means extravagant generosity.

But this concept is not easy to understand, much more not easy to do.

Bishop Juan once preached on this and said extravagant giving is when you give until it hurts. You are not yet giving anything if it does not affect you.

It is very difficult for us to follow Jesus. It is very difficult for us to sell our possessions and give it to the poor. Even the practical advice of John Wesley to earn all we can, save all we can and then give all we can… is so challenging for us.

Our common excuse, Doc, wala naman akong perang maibibigay dahil kasya lang. Remember that God gave us not only treasures but also time and talent. And we have been diligent enough to earn and save time, talent and treasures. And what do we do with the excess time or talent and treasure? We have extra time but we spend it in the coffee shop or in the mall or somewhere else doing something that satisfies our personal desires. We have talent but we reserve it for the parties and office use only. We have extra treasures but we use it for ourselves only

That is the reason, John Wesley said “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”

Methodists have been good and successful stewards that they have accumulated so much wealth and saved so much resources and own properties… but, they have not given to the poor, they have not given time to God, they have not used their talents in ministry and they have not used their extra resources for the work of God. They are in danger of going to hell and have stopped becoming disciples of Jesus.

Wesley was talking about social holiness and the Methodists declining ministry to those in need. He was worried that early Methodists have lost their generosity and have stopped caring for the poor. There is only one way to prevent them from committing this sin… that is to give all they can.

Doc, ang hirap naman nun.

It may be too difficult to do but the good news is that we have an extravagantly generous God. A God who was so extravagant that he gave His only begotten Son for you and for me.

God gave his Son so we can be forgiven from our selfish desires, cleansed from our sins and become more like him… become more loving, become more giving, become extravagantly generous just like our extravagantly generous Father in heaven.

My dear brothers and sisters, God has been faithful to us and God’s faithfulness have given us the ability to respond. By God’s grace we have the ability to respond.  

We have the ability to respond. In the name of Jesus, we have the response ability to follow Jesus and become better Christians… we have the response ability to earn all we can, to save all we can and the response ability to be extravagant in giving all we can.

In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  

 Reference:

-         Dominic Roser. John Wesley: The Use of Money. Retrieved from: https://www.eaforchristians.org/blog/john-wesley-the-use-of-money-12/#we-should-earn-as-much-as-we-can

-         Methodist Church of Singapore. How to earn, save and give all you can. Retrieved from:  https://www.methodist.org.sg/methodist-message/how-to-gain-save-and-give-all-that-i-can/

-         Resource UMC. John Wesley on Giving. Retrieved from: https://www.resourceumc.org/en/content/john-wesley-on-giving

-         Revised Common Lectionary. Vanderbilt Library. Retrieved from: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=382&z=p&d=79

-         Mark Vitalis Hoffman. Commentary on Mark 10:17-31. Retrieved from: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-28-2/commentary-on-mark-1017-31-7

-         Valson Abraham. Live without Worry. Retrieved from: https://revivemegod.org/articles/readarticle/285

-         Randy Alcorn. Putting Our Hope in God’s Ownership and Provision in Times of Financial Worry. Retrieved from: https://www.faithfi.com/eternal-perspective-ministries/putting-our-hope-in-gods-ownership-and-provision-in-times-of-financial-worry-3447

-         Holy Bible (NIV). Bible Gateway. Retrieved from: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Chronicles%2029%3A11-12&version=NIV

-         Kevin Konghorn. John Wesley’s Focus on Money. Retrieved from: https://seedbed.com/john-wesleys-focus-money/

 

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

The Church Narthex

 
Many of the protestant church buildings are smaller that the different parts of any medieval church are no longer recognizable. One church part is the narthex. What is this area in the church? 

The narthex is a Greek word that means "scourge." The narthex is also defined as the gathering space before the nave, or the main worship space. This area is sometimes called the lobby but it is more appropriate to call it as the church narthex. According to the www.umc.org website, the narthex has been traditionally the area where the penitents and the catechumens are gathered because they cannot worship together with other Christians in the main worship space until they are able to complete their orientation or re-orientation to the Christian life. However, today we use this space as a place where we greet worshippers and exchange our pleasantries with one another. The narthex serves as a venue where we can welcome other Christian believers to come worship with us.

Thursday, May 16, 2024

Mental Health Booth in Bicol

 

We were able to visit Daet during their Bicol Philippines Annual Conference. 

The conference was able to make an action to recognize the trained peer advocates called Tigbansay for Mental Health of BPAC. They also made a conference action that they would include in their Annual Conference budget to support the ministry of their Tigbansay.

During the 3 day event, we were able to serve more than a hundred people with Mental Health screening using DASS21, provide mental health break with our meditation area, refreshments to release the stress from a whole day of meeting, some raffle prizes that provides a break from the strenous acitvities of the day and some Words of Inspiration notes quoted from the Bible.

Saturday, April 13, 2024

Spirituality and Medicine

I was invited to speak in the Haligi Congress in Cebu organized by the Philippine Society of Public Health Physicians and AMSA - Cebu. It was my second time to talk about the intersection of Spirituality and Medicine among physicians. But this was more for public health practitioners and the medical students. 

My topic was entitled "Soulful Balance: Embracing Spritual and Mental Wellness Among People in Healthcare."

My talk was focused in highlighting the role of spirituality in addressing the problem of health human resource scarcity in our country. I opened my talk with a review of the six building blocks of health according to WHO and highlighting the importance of the Human Resource for Health block. I then surveyed the current problems leading to the exodus of HRH and the maldistribution of the remaining HRH in the country. Then I introduced the concept of spirituality and related it to the purpose and reason why a person would seek to become a healthcare provider much more a public health practitioner in the countryside. I discussed extensively using examples from my experiences and highlighting published researches that supports my arguments. 

I concluded my talk by emphasizing the importance of including spirituality early in medical school to guide students in the path that they would choose to take. 

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Last Supper during the Holy Week

The Last Supper is the Feast of the Passover for the Jews. 

We celebrate the Last Supper or the Holy Eucharist as one of the sacrament in the Church. On Maundy Thursday, we have a worship service with the Last Supper as a reminder of the time Jesus eat with his disciples on the night he was betrayed. 



Wednesday, February 28, 2024

February on fire


The hymnal keeps the Methodist theology aflame. 

But this month, the United Methodist hymnals in Davao City were literally in flames after the Cathedral UMC in Davao City was affected by the fire in the neighborhood. 

These hymnals held many memories for the early Christian Methodists that grew in faith in the church. I remember when I was a Junior Youth in the church, our yearly project included wrapping these hymnals with plastics to protect it from wear and tear, dirt and stains. Wrapping these hymnals also meant having to make sure that the hymnals are properly taken cared. That is where my affinity in making sure hymnals are physically cared for started.

When I became a youth, I started participating more in the choir. It always involved having practices for hymns that are going to be used the next Sunday. Yes, choirs back then do not only practice the song for the Choral but also all the hymns that are going to be sang the next Sunday. What more, the choir is supposed to know the hymns that are going to be new and introduced to the congregation if it is unfamiliar to them.

As I became more involved in ministry, I started teaching to the congregation that according to John Wesley, our hymns contain our theology and is formative of our faith. The hymnals are important documents in our church as it holds the theology and expression of our faith. The current trend of our churches singing more of the contemporary songs leads us to the desire to have the burning desire to sing our hymns agian in our worship services. The hymnals will keep our Methodist theology aflame.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

January 2024: Baptismal Font

This year will be great.

We will start a series of blogs on the symbols in worship, church and in liturgy and reflect on how it relates to a significant event that I will participate.

Today is Epiphany Sunday. The lectionary text is on Mark 1:4-11 and the story of the Baptism of Jesus.

The baptismal font is situated in the altar. It is used for the sacrament of Baptism. The water used during in baptism is very symbolic as it relates to the many references of the water in the Bible as a cleansing of the people, the sins, the protection of God, the quenching of the thirst and the living water.