Personal and Social transformation

This week the Bishops-Ulama Conference(BUC) will coordinate the region-wide celebrations of the Mindanao Week of Peace(MWP)‎ which begins on November 27and culminates on December 3. The theme of the celebration is: “We pray for long-lasting peace in Mindanao. Give, Share, Live and Proclaim Peace”.

On this theme the BUC convenors issued their customary‎ Joint Statement to provide a focus of the MWP activities. In this instance they call attention to a “sustained struggle at personal and social transformation” as the only way towards the realization of authentic and genuine peace.
They further explain that this core concept of peace-building is rooted in inner and outer integrity and is expressed with the words shalom(Hebrew) and salam(Arabic) which all mean peace while admitting that the words have equivalents in other cultures especially the indigenous cultures.

This is also the core principle on which the National Transformation Council (NTC) grounds it’s revolutionary program of regime change through system change. This is the main reason why there are religious leaders in the Council.

To promote this idea nationwide ‎NTC has already held 3 assemblies. They were in Lipa City on August 27, Cebu City on October 1 and Butuan City on November 11. The coming assemblies will be in Imus City, Cavite on November 25, Clark Airbase, Pampanga on November 27, Manila on November 29 and in Davao City on December 5. Participation is by invitation.

Convincing people of the need for change and manag- ing change is a slow process‎. We need to pray and be patient.