Blazing the trail for 8th Provincial Chapter
CEBU CITY – As the Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno of the Order of Augustinian Recollects sets for its quadrennial fraternal gathering for the 8th Provincial Chapter beginning May 16, 2022, the Provincial Council mustered individuals to comprise a seven-member secretarial team.
In view of accomplishing their tasks and paving the way for the Chapter proper, the Secretariat convened at the Chapter’s venue, the Talavera House of Prayer-Recoletos, Cebu City, on May 11, 2022. They are to conduct prior preparations related to their primary Chapter-related responsibilities, which include doing technical assistance, editing, communications, transcriptions, translations, layout designs, photography, videography, and publications, before, during, and after the Chapter. Fray Jose Ernil Almayo, the incumbent provincial secretary, serves as the chairman.
The appointed committee members are Frays Jose Ernil Almayo, Leander Barrot, Reynaldo Jaranilla, Robin Ross Plata, Julius James Tinapao, and Jhyryx Vincent Gamulo, and Ma’am Brenda Saliendra.
More than their duties, unique experiences await the group as many firsts adorn this Chapter.
This year’s Provincial Chapter decided to go paperless for the first time. Thus, the team has to go through the nitty-gritty of technology to accomplish it. It includes composing a manual to assist the delegates in utilizing the media platform that the team employed and designed for them.
Then for the first time since the Province’s foundation, the Council determined to include a lay person in this transitory group. Normally, the Council appoints to the team professed religious of the Province. And what a coincidence! The first lay-appointee to man the committee is also the first woman to serve it.
Furthermore, the other identified firsts consists of the first instance that the Province held a Chapter in the month of May, the first one right after the Order’s 56th General Chapter, and the first Provincial Chapter in the Order that Fr. Miguel Ángel Hernández attends for the first time as Prior General.
The preparations of the Secretariat are tantamount to the belief that setting things to their track beforehand brings glamour to accomplish planned activities, especially distinct ones such as of this Province’s highest governing body. Onwards they go as they trailblaze the 8th Provincial Chapter.