East Asian Pastoral Institute celebrates 60 years of ongoing formation

The East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) marked the year-long celebration of its sixty-year anniversary on Sunday with a Eucharistic Celebration for the community, presided over by Archbishop Ryan P. Jimenez, the President of the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific and Archbishop of Guam.

In his homily, Archbishop Jimenez commended their work to provide meaningful and faith-filled formation in a synodal Church.

He highlighted paragraph 143 of the Final Document of the Synod on Synodality that “formation provided by the Christian community be integral, ongoing and shared.”

In this context, he observed that these aspects of formation have been present at EAPI since its beginning.

At the same time, the Archbishop urged the staff and participants of the institution to first of all remain in Christ in order to be fruitful in His mission. He also exhorted them to remember the past in order to see the workings of God’s Spirit and to renew their commitment while updating the program to present needs.

The East Asian Pastoral Institute is an ongoing formation institute based in Manila, Philippines which provides pastoral renewal, leadership, and sabbatical programs through an in-residence experience of several months.

Founded after the Second Vatican Council in 1966 with 37 participants from 12 Asian countries, the Institute has since grown to more than 120 clergy, religious, and lay persons from over 20 countries around Asia, Oceania, Africa, and elsewhere.

Each year, parish priests, diocesan lay and clergy leaders as well as religious sisters, brothers and priests in leadership, education, pastoral ministry and other roles, come to EAPI for their sabbatical renewal, pastoral and theological updating, and leadership development formation.