CFC-FFL
The Chapter and District in CFC-FFL
The
basic subdivision of the one CFC-FFL is the district and the
chapter. The one CFC-FFL is made up of districts (or mission
areas), and the district is made up of chapters.
The
district
Districts
conform to the territorial boundaries of dioceses. Often these
diocesan boundaries are the same as the political subdivisions
of a country. At other times they are not. For example, in
the Philippines, Manila has 7 dioceses while the province
of Pangasinan has 3. On the other hand, the diocese of Maasin
encompasses one whole province and part of another.
All
areas (i.e., province, state, etc.) start out as mission areas.
Then a territorial or mission area becomes a district when
it is officially recognized as such by Manila and a District
Head has been appointed.
Prior
to the appointment of a District Head, whoever is the top
leader in the area (whether Household Head, Unit Head, Chapter
Head or Cluster Coordinator) is considered the Area Head.
He is overseen by the Area Coordinator (someone from outside
the area).
The
chapter
A
chapter is a grouping of units, which in turn is a grouping
of households. A chapter is led by a Chapter Head.
As
the district conforms to the diocese, in turn the chapter
conforms to the parish. Our chapters are parish-based.
However,
our parish presence may be less than a chapter, or more than
one chapter. We then refer to such presence in the parish
as the “CFC-FFL group” in the parish.
As
there should be only one person who represents CFC-FFL in
the parish, that person is our highest leader in the parish
(the Household Head if we just have one household, the Unit
Head if we have two or more households, and the Chapter Head
if it is already a chapter). If there is more than one chapter,
the District Head designates one of the Chapter Heads as the
senior Chapter Head1, who then becomes the overall
head of CFC-FFL in the parish.
Liaisons
Aside
from the overall head for CFC-FFL in a parish, we also have
Church liaisons. As we are a servant to the Church, we want
to actively collaborate and coordinate with our clergy. This
is done through Church liaisons, on the levels of the parish,
the vicariate (deanery) and the diocese. Thus, as appropriate,
we appoint a Parish Liaison, a Vicariate Liaison, and a Diocesan
Liaison2. These are all appointed by the District
Head. They may, or may not be, the Chapter Head, Cluster Coordinator
or District Head themselves.
If
the Church liaison and the overall head are different persons,
the Church liaison works under the authority of the overall
head of CFC-FFL in the parish, vicariate or diocese. There
should be close collaboration between the overall head and
the Church liaison, to allow the latter to discuss matters
authoritatively with the clergy3, while being in
line with the life and mission of CFC-FFL as determined by
the overall head.
Pastoral
and service support
Pastoral
and service support is through households. All leaders belong
to upper households. Such households follow the pyramidal
structure of households, units, chapters, clusters and district.
Thus, the overall head in a parish, vicariate or district
would belong to an upper household whose head and members
may be outside of the parish, vicariate or district.
On
the other hand, service support in relation to being parish-based,
vicariate-based and diocesan-based would follow the pyramidal
structure of parish, vicariate and district. Thus, in relation
to Church matters including Church activities, the overall
head in a parish reports to the vicariate head, who in turn
reports to the diocesan head.
There
can be an exception to upper households following the pyramidal
structure of households, units and chapters. Upper households
may follow instead the pyramidal structure of parish, vicariate
and diocese. For example, if CFC-FFL is just household size
in a parish, the upper household of the overall head (the
Household Head) would normally be the unit household, which
might be headed by a Unit Head based in the adjoining parish.
An alternative would be to put that Household Head, being
the overall head in the parish, in the household of the Cluster
Coordinator who is the head for the vicariate. In such a case,
it is important to determine that there is a pastoral fit,
that is, that the said Household Head would be comfortable
being in a cluster household possibly with more mature seniors.
To
sum up, when it comes to handling lower households, a leader
reports to and has a service meeting with the one over him
according to the household-unit-chapter-cluster-district structure.
On the other hand, when it comes to Church matters, a leader
reports to and has a service meeting with the one over him
according to the parish-vicariate-diocese structure.
1
Seniority is n0t in terms of length of service as Chapter Head.
Rather, it generally depends more on the maturity or stature
of the Chapter Head, as determined by the District Head.
2 At time we may have to consider the preference of the parish
priest (or vicar or bishop), or who would have his confidence.
3 The parish priest (or vicar or bishop) may want
to liase with one who has decision-making authority. The overall
head should be sensitive to this.
(Dec 15, 2008) |