Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
December 4, 2002
Suburban parish to share stewardship principles with Philippines Church
Father Andrew Kemberling and Mila Glodava to present January workshop in Manila
By Michelle M. Thomas
St. Thomas More Parish in suburban Centennial is sending two strong proponents of stewardship to the Philippines in January "to plant seeds of giving" at a first-ever conference on stewardship in Manila Jan. 13-17.
Father Andrew Kemberling, pastor, and Mila Glodava, communications and stewardship director, will join bishops and priests headed by Cardinal Ricardo Vidal and lay leaders from dioceses across the Philippines to share ideas on establishing a foundation of stewardship among Filipino Catholics.
Sharing the message of stewardship with the Filipino people is a dream, said Mila Glodava, who was born in the Philippines and has devoted herself to supporting Catholics in her homeland.
"This is a pioneering effort," she said. She conducted an introductory workshop on stewardship for the clergy of the Prelature of Infanta last June.
"The Filipino people value the principle of stewardship, but they haven't made it a tradition in their churches, in part because they don't know how to implement a successful stewardship program," she added. "We're hoping to help them to make stewardship a reality."
St. Thomas More has developed a long relationship with Catholic churches in the Philippines. For the past five years, the Small Wonders preschool religious education program and the youth ministry at St. Thomas More have conducted a "Pennies from Heaven" fund drive to help renovate St. John the Baptist Parish in the town of Panukulan. In January, Father Kemberling hopes to to deliver a check for the final $2,000 of the $10,000 cost of the church renovation.
St. Thomas More recently donated $11,000 to help a Catholic radio station in the Philippines return to the air, and the parish has also supported catechetics and education in the Prelature of Infanta. Last February, Philippines Carmelite Bishop Julio X. Labayen visited St. Thomas More to convey his appreciation.
More than 85 percent of the population of the Philippines is Roman Catholic. Many of those in Bishop Labayen's sinecure are rural people, supporting themselves by producing coconut oil, fishing and rice farming.
"I do admire the Filipino people very much," Father Kemberling said. "Here I am preaching stewardship in a very affluent society in Colorado, and I have struggles and sometimes mixed results. Yet here are the poorest people on the face of the earth wanting to learn about stewardship so that they can do the most they can to be good stewards to the people in their midst. With the little they have, they want to be sure that they are good stewards of the resources they do have."
During the conference, he will advise priests and laity on the spirituality of stewardship, especially the four underlying values of identity, trust, gratitude and love, and the principles of time, talent and treasure that are the foundation of the program at St. Thomas More.
"We want to give them some spiritual tools and show them ways to communicate that stewardship shouldn't wait until a future moment," Father Kemberling said. "Now is the day of salvation. Now is the day that you turn, go and offer your will to God on a daily basis."
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