Education institutions in PH pray for national restoration, healing

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

CEBU CITY – Retired Chief Justice Renato Puno, DepEd secretary Leonor Briones, CHED chief Prospero de Vera and member institutions of the various university groups/associations in the country joined the “National Prayer Breakfast for Education Institutions” on February 13 organized virtually by Silliman University (SU) and Wesleyan University-Philippines for national restoration and healing amid the pandemic.

 “Global warming, excessive population growth, water shortages, destruction of life in the ocean, mass famine in ill-organized countries, the spread of diseases, the spread of pandemics, extreme poverty, the growth of shanty cities, the unstoppable global migration, non-state actors with extreme weapons of massive destruction, violent religious extremism, run-away computer intelligence and a war that could end civilization” are the primary causes of these turmoil and disarray.  Our planet today is in terrible turmoil and disarray and needs healing.” Puno said is his message as one of the meditation speakers during the event.

Puno added that these issues have caused devastating effects of the planet’s landscape hence a landscape that needs restoration, a landscape that needs healing.  He however focused on how COVID-19 continues to wreck the land and how it is putting into high risk people’s expectation to a decent future, at the very least.

He cited statistics showing how the pandemic is crushing the Philippine economy, which resulted in a gross domestic product growth of negative 9.5 percent in 2020 and the loss of jobs for 3.8 million Filipinos and prices of commodities are soaring as the country faces a food crisis.

Puno then quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14 “tells us what man should do for the Lord to heal our land: Humble ourselves, pray, seek his face and turn from our wicked ways,” as his prayer message.

Meanwhile, Commission on Higher Education Chief Prospero De Vera III also offered his prayer during the event and said that the event was therefore the perfect occasion for people to gather to praise and honor God and to thank Him for all what we have achieved together despite the pandemic.

“It was indeed a season of hope for all of us, and we all know that we could not have generated all these blessings and good news without the hand of God. He led us to make good, oftentimes positive, sometimes meaningful out of a difficult and very challenging time,” De Vera said.

According to Dr. Leonor Briones, secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) that she was honored to be part of the breakfast prayer because the role of educational institutions cannot just be ignored or put aside in efforts at this time to deal with terrible pandemic. 

Briones added that educational institutions with the church and the family play a major role in shaping learners’ minds in teaching them critical thinking, preparing them for survival, and what awaits them when they finish schooling.

Event host, SU President Dr. Betty Cernol McCann said that educational institutions have done what [they] could do in facing the challenges associated with the pandemic to continue their service to the nation.

“Now more than ever, we need to bond in fellowship and prayer to plead for continued counsel, for guidance, and to obtain wisdom from our great Master Teacher. Let our prayers ring and let our hearts and minds be open to God’s leading,” McCann said.

The breakfast prayer was participated by member institutions of the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities, the Association of Christian Schools, Colleges and Universities, the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, the Philippine Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, Universities and Seminaries, and the Asia-Pacific Association of Methodist-related Educational Institutions.