The Theology and Ministry Program of the School of Humanities invites you to the online oral defense of the M.A. Thesis entitled “Conversation, Accompaniment, Discernment, Co-Navigation, and Co-Creation as a Process of Program Development for Evangelization in Liceo de San Pedro Calungsod Mission School” by PAUL RICHARD G. DY on November 23, 2021 (Tuesday), 3:00 p.m. The Board of Examiners is composed of Br. Joaquin Yap, Jr., S.W., D.Phil. (Principal Examiner), Fr. Roberto Ma. Buenconsejo, S.J., S.T.L., and Fr. Jose Quilongquilong, S.J., S.T.D. The M.A. Thesis Adviser is Marie-Paul de Luna, Ph.D. The defense is being held in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Theological Studies with field of specialization in Pastoral Theology. It is open to the public.
Abstract: Pope Francis reminds the Church that the call to evangelization is to allow the Gospel message to shed light on a people’s deep questions regarding the meaningfulness of life in their context and culture. When the heart of the Gospel connects to a people’s real problems, the question of meaning becomes a question of faith. Recognizing how Catholic schools inevitably dialogue with communities and engage the Catholic culture to dialogue with other cultures, it is the thrust of the Diocese of Masbate that Catholic school teachers be empowered for evangelization.
This pastoral project, therefore, develops a program that will help teachers develop a context-based evangelization program for the Catholic schools in the Diocese of Masbate. By employing methodologies from Organizational Development, particularly Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and SOAR frameworks, teachers engage in conversations that generate deeper meaning and new possibilities, identities, relationships, and culture. It is through conversations, dialogue, and collaboration that people bring forth a world. People use conversations to think together, develop partnerships, generate solutions, activate action, deliver results, and create shared meaning. When teachers discover God in whatever is meaningful, they seek to become part of God’s ongoing redemptive work in the communities by adding energy to what is already creating life in the world. With Liceo de San Pedro Calungsod Mission School as a prototype, this project developed a “program for evangelization program development” that focuses on the process more than the output for replicability in other schools of similar context. In an intertwined process of conversation, accompaniment, discernment, co-navigation, and co-creation, the teachers underwent spiritual formation and capacity development through a program that is process-oriented, context-based, and culture-conscious.
