Q:  How does the leadership address the concern of the ladies now that the Ladies’ Breakfasts are optional?  I feel that sidetracking us ladies deprives us of the growth path that we need in the BCBP. — Edel Mapile, BCBP Manila

A:  There has been a lot of misinterpretation regarding the Ladies’ Breakfast.  What was said during the National Leaders’ Retreat (last September 2009) was that the purpose of the Ladies’ Breakfast was never meant to be for evangelization.  In fact, when it started, it was not a breakfast at all but a luncheon that was really more of a fellowship among the ladies.  The implication therefore of going back to the roots of the Ladies’ Breakfast is that the women are now more free to design it in a way that will cater to their interests and needs such as addressing women’s issues, not necessarily in the format of a breakfast.  The activity can be directed to strengthening themselves as Christian women, wives and mothers, to being in right relationships with others and with God, and, thus, to provide the necessary anchor of love for family and community.

Let it be said that the national leadership acknowledges the important and key role of women in BCBP and its growth will not be what it is today without the support of our wives.  There is absolutely no intent to “side-track” the ladies in the community.  –Bobby Atendido, Chairman of BCBP Board of Trustees