National Council of Churches in the Philippines

Work in ecumenical education and nurture is guided by three principles – education is not neutral, it is not passive and is never compartmentalized.  From this philosophy stems the thrusts on Nurture and Value Formation, Capacity Building and Ecumenical Formation, Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Publications, Networking and Advocacy.

The Basic Ecumenical Course for church workers, Summer Internship Program for theological students, youth exchange programs, and summer youth camps are opportunities for integration with marginalized sectors and communities as bases for reflection on Christian social responsibility.

The EEN develops curricula and conducts facilitators’ training for children’s faith education in local churches across the country mainly for Vacation Church School.  It engages in inter-agency cooperation for the promotion and defence of children’s rights and protection.

The EEN engages women in building a community of faith through women’s formations and advocating for gender justice and furthering the cause of women’s issues by providing spaces for discussion of health concerns, mainly reproductive health rights and HIV/AIDS.

Vacation Church School

Part of the educational work of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) is geared toward children’s ministry. The NCCP has consistently implemented a program for literature production and facilitators training in the use of the study manuals for Vacation Church School (VCS). Each year, new sets of Teacher’s Manuals are published for use of local churches. Vacation Church School is one of the most patronized programs of the NCCP. Writers for the four levels: Nursery and Kindergarten; Younger Elementary; Middle Elementary; and Older Elementary come from the NCCP member churches. They undergo training in curriculum development. The output of this training is the actual writing of lessons which they themselves formulate. The manuals and accompanying songbook are then published and distributed to the local churches. Production of cassettes and CDs of the songs used in the manual have also been recently done. The writers form training teams which are farmed out to all the regions of the country to conduct facilitators trainings for the Christian Educators of the churches.

The value of this program is shown in the following:

1. The production is truly ecumenical as writers are drawn from the NCCP member churches. The content, therefore, is ecumenical.
2. The program is owned by the member churches as they pay registration fees for the training and the transportation expenses are borne by the member churches.
3. The teaching materials are purchased by the trainees for their local churches.
4. The program is implemented in the local churches.
5. The trend in participation in the trainings manifest a yearly increase which goes to show that the program is addressing a felt need in the churches.

Summer Internship Program

Summer Internship is an intensive immersion program of experiential learning on ecumenical work linking potential church leaders (seminarians) with the NCCP member-churches and with the church-based development-oriented programs and communities for theological action-reflection, ecumenical commitment and mission perspectives. It is a six-week program that intends to satisfy the curricular requirements of divinity schools and seminaries. Generally, it has three stages: The Orientation Stage (General orientation of the program, 4 days); The Experiential Stage (Immersion in Communities/Church related Programs, 1 month); and The Reflection Action Stage (Processing of Experiences/Evaluation, 4 days). The Summer Internship Program (SIP) is an inter-program unit effort of the NCCP.

The objectives of the program are:

• To provide ecumenical learning opportunities to theological students of the NCCP member-churches in order to foster understanding of, commitment to and informed participation in the ecumenical movement.
• To assist in the theological education and nurture of second- and third-liner ecumenical leaders.
• To support the education for ministry program of seminaries/bible schools.
• To encourage the participating seminarians to engage themselves and carry-out advocacy programs on peace building ministries, and stewardship of God’s creation.
• To equip seminarians with the relevant tools necessary for mission work among the poor in the urban and rural communities.

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The Basic Ecumenical Course

The Basic Ecumenical Course (BEC) is an annual training program for ecumenical formation and leadership development conducted by the NCCP through the Program Unit on Ecumenical Education and Nurture. The BEC is a comprehensive, systematic and ladderized capacity-building program, aimed at enhancing the theoretical/theological resources and practical skills of potential leaders in analyzing social realities and responding effectively to contemporary ecumenical challenges.

Designed as a centerpiece educational project of the NCCP, the program is implemented through inter-program unit cooperation (with the program units on Faith, Witness and Service, Church Unity and Ecumenical Relations and the General Secretary’s Office). The entire program consists of four phases: three phases covering an uninterrupted period of four weeks or the regular course; and the advanced phase held at a later day lasting seven days. This final phase features highly specialized courses offered mainly, but not exclusively, to graduates of the regular course.

Women, Children and Youth

The Comprehensive Program on Women’s Formation and Gender Justice is an ongoing program designed to promote greater awareness on issues related to gender justice, enhance the capacity of the women to engage in holistic ministry, and enable women to participate more fully at all levels of decision-making-at home, in the community, church and the workplace. It seeks to actively engage churchwomen in building a community of faith where women and men work as equal partners in mission.

The program is envisaged to contribute to the ecumenical vision of empowered women working towards an inclusive and just society, a society in which the gifts of women and men, young and old, people of all races an ethnic backgrounds are fully recognized, harnessed and developed. The stakeholders of the project, whose active participation shall be ensured from planning to implementation, are church women of the member churches of the NCCP, ecumenical women, and, ultimately, all women and men as well as youth and children suffering from discrimination, exclusion, marginalization and oppression.

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EEN Staff
Ms. Darlene Marquez-Caramanzana
Ms. Johanna de la Cruz
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