Parish Priest Bares 2019 PPC Leadership Selection Process
As of press time, Fr. Steve Zabala would have already received the results of the tabulation and summary of the nominations submitted by the current members of Parish Pastoral Council, plus some 70 other involved parishioners, mostly core team members of the different ministries plus mass slot liturgical coordinators. This is part of the leadership selection process devised by Fr. Steve in consultation with the Parish Pastoral Officers, or PPO. Up for replacement after serving for the three year term July 2016 to June 2019 are the Parish Pastoral Of@icers (Lay Coordinator, Secretary, Treasurer), the ministry heads (Worship, Formation, Social Services & Development, Family & Life, Youth, Children, Seniors, Vocation, Catechetical, Public Affairs, Social Communications, Urban Poor, BEC), the Liturgical Coordinators (LeCom, EMHC, GreCol, Altar Servers, Music), and village coordinators (for Acropolis, Greenmeadows 1, White Plains, St. Ignatius, Corinthian Gardens, Corinthian Hills, Ivory Court, Enclave, Arcadia- Greenwich, Galleria-Poveda-Eton, La Maison, and Libis).
The mandated organizations and renewal movements are not included since they internally ‘elect’ their leaders- coordinators using their own governance cycle. The Stewardship Committee was also not included since Fr. Steve would like to wait for the results of the Stewardship Assembly before making any move, and it was decided that the position of Assistant Lay Coordinator will not be nominated, rather, the position will be filled from among the ranks of the new ministry heads.
Included in the list of survey respondents drawn up at the PPO meeting were the four Parish Pastoral Officer couples, 21 ministry heads and head couples (not counting David and Fely Ong who are concurrently
Formation Ministry head couple and Bing and Elise del Rosario who are concurrently Media Ministry head couple, all of whom are part of the PPO), two ministry assistant heads, seven liturgical coordinators and assistant liturgical coordinators, the Basic Ecclesial Communities Coordinator, 18 village coordinators and coordinator couples, 16 heads and head couples of mandated organizations and renewal movements, 23 liturgical leaders (EMHC, LeCom, GreCol, Music), 40 core team members from five ministries (Stewardship, Seniors, Children, Youth, Family & Life), 10 still-active former PPC members, 10 parish of@ice and sacristan staff, and seven past and present members of the CTK clergy, including former parish priests Msgr. Dan Sta. Maria and Fr. Bong Tupino.
The 150 potential survey respondents had been asked by Fr. Steve to help him select the next set of lay leaders of the Christ the King Parish Greenmeadows by responding to the leadership survey. The nomination form required the respondent to identify his or her candidates for one or more of the PPC positions needing to be filled up for the three year term 2019-2022. The nomination form allowed the respondent to identify as many as three candidates for the same position, ranked in order of preference, but also required him or her to state the reasons why the candidate was a good fit. The nominator had to identify himself and include a contact number in case Fr. Steve wanted some clarification.
But in order to ensure that the responses would be made in enlightened fashion, the PPO agreed that all respondents should first attend a discernment talk before being allowed to accomplish and submit the nomination forms. Several names were mentioned but a week later, Fr. Steve Zabala had firmed up on Fr. Anton Pascual, Executive Director of Caritas Manila, as thediscernment speaker, to talk on the topic of Servant Leadership. The Discernment Assembly was held on the morning of Saturday, March 9. Following Fr. Anton’s highly-appreciated talk, Fr. Steve discussed the intricacies of the nomination and selection processes, then turned it over to Bing del Rosario to run through the duties and responsibilities of the different positions that needed to be @illed up. The respondents were given one nomination form good for only one position but in case someone wanted to nominate for several positions, additional nomination forms were available with the administrative assistant.
Respondents were given until March 22 to submit their nominations. The forms were then collated and summarized by a small team of objective ‘canvassers’ from the diocese office, the results of which were then turned over to Fr. Steve. The plan is for Fr. Steve to take all these inputs, and for each position review the nominations, identify which nominations should be given greater weight, e.g., a ministry head recommending his or her replacement carries more weight than others, a Greenmeadows 1 resident recommending a person for village coordinator of Greenmeadows 1 carries more weight than someone from Acropolis, a core team member of the Sunrise Ministry recommending the next Sunrise ministry head carries more weight than the nomination of an EMHC for the same position, etc. Fr. Steve then goes through his own discernment process and draws up his first, second and even third choice for each position.
He then takes the month of April to get in touch with his candidates, starting with the Parish Pastoral Officers, then the Worship Ministry head, followed by the liturgical coordinators, then the other ministry heads, and finally the community coordinators. Once his first (or second, if the first one refuses) choice for Lay Coordinator confirms acceptance, he will then confer with the new Lay Coordinator his choices for the other PPO positions before calling on his first choice candidates for the other PPO positions. Once all his choices for PPOs have confirmed, he then moves to his ministry head choices. Once the Worship Ministry choice has confirmed acceptance, Fr. Steve will confer with the new Worship Ministry head his choices for the Liturgical Coordinator positions before calling on his first choice candidates for the liturgical coordinator positions. The last group that he will call on and confirm acceptance will be his choices for village coordinators. The full set of new PPC members for 2019-2022 will then be announced.
The new ministry heads will not be wasting much time. After their confirmation, they need to form their core teams if appropriate and start planning their July 2019 to June 2020 activities. They will be aided by the Treasurer’s report on projects accomplished and budget expended for the first four months of 2019 as well as the projects planned and budgets approved for the second half of 2019. Hopefully, the previous ministry head and core team can assist during the planning meetings. Then during the week of May 20 to 25, the new PPO and Fr. Steve meet separately with the different ministries to review their first draft of plans and budgets. The plans will go through several iterations until the Fr. Steve and the PPO are satisfied with the proposed projects and activities and that the budget requested is in line with resources. The ‘draft final’ set of ministry plans will then be presented en banc to the PPC on June 8, three weeks before the start of the new fiscal year. The three-week period allows further iterations of the plans and budgets based on final feedback during the weekend planning conference.
Because of the Diocese of Cubao Priority 8-Point Agenda, the parishes are required to identify Agendum Coordinators beginning this coming fiscal year. It was agreed at the PPO meeting that for the meantime, some ministry heads will be assigned concurrently as Agendum Coordinators.
