The Root of Growth (ACT)

THE BEGINNING OF ACT COMMUNITY

The early beginnings of the ACT (Apostles in Contemporary Times) was conceived in the spirit of Vatican II when a group of lay people and sisters from different religious congregations saw a new way of being religious...  a new way of being Church... in order to respond to the sign of the Times. The religious sisters, in particular, felt the institutional constraints of their respective congregations which restrained them from directly working with and for the poor. Thus, ACT was conceived as a new way of being religious in the Church and in society today.

PENTECOST CELEBRATION

In 1975, Feast of Pentecost, Bishop Teotimo Pacis, CM  (at that time the Bishop of the Diocese of Legazpi) celebrated the Eucharist wherein lay people and religious sisters openly expressed their commitment to be in solidarity with the poor as a way of living out the Spirit of Vatican II, assuming the joys and hopes, the grief and anxieties of the poor.

 

In 1975 onwards, with the encouraging and spiritual support of friends, priests, bishops and the poor, the Apostles in Contemporary Times  (ACT) continued to discern God's will. From 1978 to 1980 a moratorium on accepting members was implemented because a number of religious sisters, who left their congregations  searching for new identity, joined the ACT and tended to create more problems than solutions.

During the moratorium continuous  discernment was done, and in the end unique calling  of God became  very clear for ACT.Bishop Julio Xavier Labayen, OCD- with his diocesan Yapak Formation Programs towards building the Church of the Poor was chosen by ACT to be its Bishop Protector & Spiritual Guide.