YWCG MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY

Bishop Reuel Norman Marigza
UCCP General Secretary 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth... And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good... - Genesis 1:1, 31 (ESV)

The first verse and last verse of the first book of the Bible shows the Author of life in the act of of creating, from out of chaos into something very good. Human beings, in turn, are turning this very good creation into a state of chaos.

Yet we were given the task of being stewards of the earth, taking care of creation and managing it for the common good, not only for our the present but also for the future generations.

I am very happy that the Christian Youth Fellowship is taking the theme, "Towards a Spirituality for a New Creation" seriously. In a real sense, we are talking about your future. Spiritualities, in the past, tended to see Creation as an object of ex-ploitation and domination. Such spiritualities failed to see that our human life de-pended on a healthy and clean environment. The word "towards" in the theme shows that the spirituality for caring for the earth which in turn sustains us is not yet in the mainstream of Christian consciousness.

The UCCP Declaration of Principles states that "As steward of God’s creation, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines shall protect, promote and enhance the ecological balance and the integrity of creation" (Art II Sec 12 UCCP Constitution).

May the CYF indeed live out and stand by this Declaration.

Yours in Christ's service,


BISHOP REUEL NORMAN O. MARIGZA
General Secretary