BACK TO BASICS IN CFC CULTURE

When the top CFC provincial leaders in Misamis Oriental unilaterally severed ties with the global CFC represented by the IC, on July 30, 2009:

• -  neon signs and other symbols of CFC at the CFC Center in the close-to-a-hectare donated property at sitio Pasil, Bgy. Kauswagan, Cagayan de Oro City were quickly removed, CFC members loyal to the IC were not,  or otherwise coldly, entertained in compliance with a standing instruction to restrict their entry; yet, the collection of CFC members' tithes was continued by the rebel group using the traditional CFC system;
• -  the ringleader who donated the land on which sits the two-storey Administrative Office of CFC -  as part of a mini-development complex (which includes an adjacent GK village, a Sibol School, and centers for medical outreach and livelihood training) -  threatened to take back his donation if CFC took possession of the said Office  that was built, among others, with raffle ticket funds raised by the general membership and through voluntary services;
• -  like a ready-made answer looking for the appropriate question, the rebels have tenaciously clung to the CFC-GK acronym and provided ready-made shelter to the "orphaned" GK group of TM; also, anticipating a formal court battle on the irregular use of the CFC name, they have hinted at hitching on the splinter FFL group of Frank Padilla for the "CFC" term.  (Recall that in 1993, CFCFI was replaced by CFCGMFI.  Since then, CFCFI remained dormant but was not permanently archived as a dead organization.  In December, 2007, Frank Padilla and his rebel group filed fictitious documents with SEC in support of their petition - which was granted - to appropriate unto their FFL group the defunct CFCFI name.  CFCGMFI petitioned the Court of Appeals for review of the SEC decision, with the ruling expected within this year. ) 
  

CFC-IC in Misamis Oriental held on from near-demise following the blitzkrieg of the rebels.  With surgical precision, the new CFC-IC that was elected with overwhelming mandate by the Elders' Assembly last June, 2009, quickly removed the severing group from leadership positions and disseminated three (3) pastoral letters addressed to the global CFC community, the Philippine Mission, and the CFC members in Misamis Oriental, spelling out clearly the dialogues held with the rebels, and the events and circumstances that led to the latter’s decision to leave CFC-IC.

Now CFC-IC in Misamis Oriental holds a comfortable 60% of the membership, which continues to grow as others begin to realize the folly of the "rebellion" considering that they have made a covenant with God to follow the CFC way of Christian evangelization and not the GK way of nation-building.  The new area council and sector leaders are unfazed by the absence of the comforts of a CFC "administrative home" in the relatively "luxurious" Center.  As one senior member expresses in confidence:  "Up until now, we have zealously pursued our CLPs and reached out to help our less fortunate brothers amidst very scarce resources, all for the Lord.  We shall move on with our evangelization and work with the poor through ANCOP  unhampered by the absence of what may, in the end, turn out as 'undeserved luxury of a CFC building or real estate property.'"

And much, much more.  There is lesson on servant-leadership to be learned from the recalcitrance of leaders whose 'hubris', one observer writes, did them in, i.e., threatening to hold hostage the CFC-IC with their presumptuous hold on the membership.  There is also a serious need to review those times under the 'old regime'  when the general membership could have been overshadowed by an "elitist" CFC sub-culture promoted by the top leadership that preferred to give time to "other teachings" and views of the provincial director similar to the meetings of popular social clubs.

It is time to GO BACK TO THE BASICS OF BEING CFC.  GOD BE PRAISED!

The Author