May 16, 2003

United Church of Christ in the Philippines
Visayas Jurisdiction
CENDET, 85 Osmeña Boulevard
Cebu City

Message

The Thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy.
I have come in order that you might have life
- life in all its fullness.
TEV, John 10:110

Brothers and Sisters in Bethany,

Solidarity greetings to you on the occasion of your 85th Anniversary!

As a Christian institution, our actions are dictated by the core of our being which sets us apart from other healing institutions. As a hospital borne out of the commitment of our early missionaries, we are thus committed to the pursuit of the ministry of the great healer of all - Jesus Christ! He who comes not just to appease the temporal sickness of humanity but rather to advocate life in fullness-from the economic to the socio-political realms-becomes our only example and motivator.

Our theme, "85 Years of Continuing Commitment to a Christian, Holistic, Quality Health Care Delivery" is but fitting as it puts us in connectivity with past event as we project the future of our healing ministries. But we should not stop from there. Human sickness or even frailties are not a happenstance. It is not that too many are sick but that a few has control of medicines much more than they can use. It is not that some contries are poor or has no capacity to produce medicines and medical practitioners but that the more develop countries tend to exercise control on the vast medical resources of the world for their own monopoly and use.

Thus, this 85th Anniversary should provide us the opportunity to seek out deeper truth of the reality that surrounds us for inless this is done, there can be no holistic or quality health care. All these must have been sufficed if in our little ways, we become active participants to the protacted process of achieving life in its fullness.

Bishop Ebenezer C. Camino
Area Bishop, UCCP-VisJur