Remembering the legacy of Genaro “Totik” Diesto, Jr. – with the aim of sharing the life, love and works of Rev. Diesto, Central Philippine University held the 10^th Genaro “Totik” Diesto, Jr. Memorial Lectures at the Educational Media Center on June 29-30, 2017.

For the welcome remarks, Rev. Dr. Bernabe C. Pagara, Dean, College of Theology acknowledged the participants in the event. He also reflected on the life of the late Rev. “Totik” Diesto stating that his passion and vision in enlightening others through discussion and meditation of the word has made an impact not only to the Centralian community but also beyond its borders.

After which, Mrs. Jean Te Diesto, the wife of Dr. “Totik” Diesto, thanked CPU for always remembering “Totik” a true-blooded Centralian who finished his elementary, high school and college education at CPIU. She shared her memories with her husband and their children. They have three children namely Chaim, Asher and Iana.

Prof. Evangelica D. Padernilla, member of the CPU Corporation read a poem about the late Rev. Dr. Genaro “Totik” Diesto Jr. written by Mrs. Omega Diesto-Moore.  Both are sisters of “Totik.” The poem talks about the love of a sister for her brother. Written in the days when Dr. Diesto was poor at health, the poem tells a story of a younger Diesto who was on fire with life. His imprisonment during the Martial Law years opened his eyes that made him eventually commit himself to the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. It can be recalled that “Totik” was actively involved in the CPU Republic and became an activists during the Martial Law years while enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts major in Political Science. It was his imprisonment that led him to commit himself in full-time ministry. He enrolled at the CPU College of Theology and graduated cum laude in his Bachelor of Divinity. Mrs. Padernilla also shared the meaning of the word “Totik” – it is a combination of “Toto” a word of endearment to Ilonggo sons, and “Diutik” which means small.

The first speaker for the seminar was Rev. Dr. Limuel R. Equiña, Executive Director of the Association of Theological Education in South East Asia. Rev. Dr. Equiña’s topic “From Captivity to Contextuality: Revisiting Totik Diesto’s Theological Construction” talked about constructing a contextually relevant to Filipino theology. According to him, the relationship between the seminary and the church must be inseparable and indissoluble in doing contextualization. “The church must provide context and the resources for academic reflections. The seminary and the church must generate a synergy for a contextualized theological education and mission.” He also stated that the goal of late “Totik” Diesto was to “Construct a Contextually Relevant Filipino Theology.” “Totik” Diesto earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Inter-cultural Studies at the School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California where he was given the Contextualization Award for his excellent dissertation.

For the second lecture, Bishop Edgardo T. Espinosa shared about “The Challenges of Pastoral Ministry in the Philippine Context.” His topic focused on the tasks and responsibilities of being a pastor in the Philippine setting. He shares that there are different areas of challenges, all of which can be converted into strength once one finds balance and putting Christ in the center of ministry work. He also mentioned that one should always be aware of the culture in dealing with the challenges.

Dr. Emilito A. Yangco or “Emo” as he is fondly called was the third speaker. He talked about the topic “Towards Decolonizing Colonial Mentality.” His talk aimed at the realization that our Christian faith must be branded with our own identity as Filipinos. According to him, colonial mentality has affected the way we see faith because we have given it a Western and colonial standard. It must be embraced with our strength anchored on our unique identity as Filipinos. In doing so, one needs to decolonize the colonial mentality – meaning, to do away with the mentality that Westerners are superior and Filipinos are inferior.

The fourth and fifth lectures were given by Dr. Wati Aier. Dr. Aier was the classmate of “Totik” in Fuller Theological Seminary and the Best Man of “Totik” and Jean in their wedding. He is from Nagaland, India. His topics were “Prophetic Imagination in Ministry” and “The Romance of Contextualization.” He said that we need to be like the prophets who were “troublemakers” in the right way. He cited the movement of the radical Baptists in the 16^th century that was part of the Protestant movement. He also emphatically reminded everyone that “sitting is a crime.” According to him the need of foresight and revelation is important for any ministry to move forward. Ministries will grow if there is something to look forward to and to work on, the future helps the present persevere. Prophets imagine the future and they start the work of realizing that imagination in the present.

His second lecture revolved using contextualization as a way of doing theology in order to have a deeper understanding and reflection of the Christian faith. He cited the works of two Centralians Rev. Dr. Johnny V. Gumban, and Rev. Dr. Domingo J. Diel, Jr. who have great contributions in the development of an Asian theology. He also quoted Bishop Emerito Nacpil, the Filipino theologian who developed “The Critical Asian Principle” of doing theology. 

For the Dialogue Panel, delegates asked the panel of speakers regarding practical applications of the lecture to their respective churches. Questions regarding the role of the church in the political, social and economic sector, pluralism, theological hermeneutics and contextualization challenges were also addressed.

Ending the panel discussion, Rev. Dr. Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, faculty and staff of the CPU College of Theology posed a question to the participants encouraging them to ask themselves how they will the things they learned in lecture-seminar help their church grow and to address their own respective challenges.