NDCC HISTORY

History of Notre Dame Catholic Community

Notre Dame Catholic Community (NDCC) owes its birth from a group of 16 encountered couples led by Ensong-Zeny Aquino. This group took Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar from one of the recognized sector of the Marriage Encounter Foundation of the Philippines (MEFP) - the 'Pag-ibig sa Diyos Catholic Community or PDCC in 1987. This led the couple to participate actively in church activities and later held key positions in the parish.

Inspired by their Spiritual director, Fr. Ross T. Olaybal, the group decided to introduce the Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar in their Parish - St. John the Baptist, Taytay, Rizal. Despite the many challenges, oppositions, and tribulations encountered by the founding elders, they were able to get the approval of their Parish Priest, Msgr. Teodoro Perez, and hence NDCC became one of the mandated organization of SJB Parish.

Fr. Ross Olaybal, the Spiritual Director of the group coined the name NOTRE that means 'Our Lady' and DAME is an acronym of 'Diocese of Antipolo Marriage Encounter'. The group also adopted a logo which includes the Holy Spirit, the white background is an image of the Blessed Mother, the Holy Eucharist because it was conceived during  the Year of the Eucharist in 1987, wedding rings with lighted candle inside and underneath the white bsckground are Olivo and Tipolo leaves.

Armed with a strong desire to be of service to the community and to bring couples closer to God, the group started the first Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar (MEWS) on Nov. 5-7, 1987 at Las Brisas Hotel and Restaurant, Antipolo City. The Ecclesial Team then was Fr. Ross Olaybal, team priest and Ensong-Zeny Aquino; Caloy-Auring, and Rolly-Lina De Leon as presentors. Ensong-Zeny A. was the Shepherd Couple of ND-1. After a month, another MEWS was scheduled and for five consecutive months with ND-9 having the most number of participants (49 couples) followed by ND-12 with 45 couples. The community decided to schedule MEWS every quarter of the year to give ample time for Sponsoring Class' preparation for the next batch.

Meanwhile the community was able to spearhead some of the activities like free Medical and Dental Services, Blood letting, Fun run, Concerts and other fund raising activities where proceeds went to support various Christ-centered seminars like CLSS, GSS, Deepening, MEWS, and some portion went to the construction of the Multipurpose Building which now house the grade school department of the parish. One of the apostolates of the community includes suporting other nearby parishes to put up their own MEW Seminar. The group was able to extend their Outreach Program to Our Lady of Light Parish in Cainta, Rizal; Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish of Antipolo City; St. Rose of Lima Parish in Teresa, Rizal; Sta. Ursula Parish of Binangonan, Rizal to name a few. As the community continues its apostolates, the founding elders also supported some members of the community, Ministry heads to enhance and further their knowledge by attending seminars given by our parish and mother organization - MEFP.

After almost ten years of these apostolates, the group through the leadership of Ino - Shirley Tolentino asks the approval and blessings of Bishop Protacio Gungon of Diocese of Antipolo to allow us to form a Core group composed of heads of different M.E. communities; but did not materialized due to time constraint, although the community continues its outreach program up to the present. 

  At this time, NDCC has 11 different ministries, 80 batches graduated from Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar with total of 1,722 couples.

NDCC OFFICERS 2015-2016

NDCC BY-LAWS

NOTRE DAME CATHOLIC COMMUNITY BY-LAWS

ARTICLE 1
NAME AND MAIN OFFICE
Section 1:  The name of this body shall be 'NOTRE DAME CATHOLIC COMMUNITY',                                            for short - 'NDCC'.  
Section 2:  The main office of this body shall be St. John the Baptist Parish Church, Taytay, Rizal      and/or the residence of the presiding elder or President - Couple.

                             

ARTICLE 2
OBJECTIVES AND GOALS
Section 1:  It shall have for its ultimate goal of bringing couples back to Christ or closer to God.
Section 2:  It shall have for its mission the development of good couple relationship in particular and good family life in general in the Diocese of Antipolo.
Section 3:  It shall promote, support or supervise, and coordinate the activities of various ministries in order to ensure better efficiency and more positive results of the program.
Section 4:  It shall promote, assist, initiate, and finance the members to attend Seminars, Team Couple Training and undertake further studies and researches in the area of family life and guidance.



ARTICLE 3
POLICIES
Section 1:  It shall be the policy of the community to accept only couple candidates to the Marriage Encounter Weekend Seminar who were validly baptized, confirmed, and married as Catholics.
Section 2:  It shall serve as a support body to the Parish ME Group and it shall not in any way interfere with the Parish activities.
Section 3:  It shall train and develop more Team Couples, Speakers, Shepherds and Facilitators.
Section 4:  It shall see to it that all MEW classes shall follow the format, rules and regulations set by the Council of Elders, Shepherds and Ministry Heads.
Section 5:  It shall see to it that all ME Team Couples in MEW, Speakers or Sharers in the follow-up programs, Shepherd Couples are of good moral standing as parishoner in Parish where they belong and have finished training either in the  MEFP or in the ministry recognized by the community.



ARTICLE 4
MEMBERS AND OFFICERS
Section 1:  Membership in NDCC shall posses the following:                              
            1.1 Must be a Catholic and believes in Catholic Doctrine.
            1.2 Must be a graduate of NDCC MEW Seminar, however should a non-NDCC member          joins, he or she should posses the sincerity of intention and must be approved by the Council of Elders Advisory Group.
            1.3 Must not be an officer or active member of other ME community.

Section 2:  The Council of Elders Consultative Board shall be composed of all active Founding Elders. The Council of Elders Advisory Group shall be composed of all Elder Advisers, Ministry Heads and Shepherd Couples.

Section 3:  The Officers shall be as follows:
a. President Couple
b. Vice-President for External Affairs
c. Secretary
d. Assistant Secretary
e. Treasurer
f. Assistant Treasurer
g. Auditor
h. Assistant Auditor
i. Press Relation Officer
j. Assistant Press Relation Officer
k. Delegates to WESTYVFLA.

Section 4:  The tenure of office of elected officers shall be two consecutive years.

Section 5:  Election of Officers shall be at least a month before the end of their term.

Section 6:  In case of vacancy, incapacity, disability, etc., of officers, the President Couple or the one acting in his capacity shall inform the Council of Elders for proper replacement of the vacant office/s.

Section 7:  All resignation are to be made in writing and should be addressed to the Council of Elders Consultative Board.



ARTICLE 5
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The duties and responsibilities of members shall be as follows:

Section 1:  To promote the Vision, Mission, Objectives, and Goals of the Community.

Section 2:  To support, attend, and participate in all activities and projects of the Community.
Section 3:  To adapt, use, and implement the official formats of the Community in all its programs.
Section 4:  To abide by the rules and regulations promulgated by the Council of Elders and By-laws.
Section 5:  To perform other duties assigned to them by the Council.

Section 6:  It shall be the duty of the Shepherd Couples to help members of their class to be fully alive in all levels of their relationship; Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Metapersonal through follow-up programs.



ARTICLE 6
MEETINGS

Section 1:  The Council of Elders Advisory Group shall meet every first Sunday of the month at the venue specified by the Presiding Officer.

Section 2:  The Secretary shall call the meeting by sending a notice to all officers/members a week before the schedule meeting either by mail, delivery, or by phone/fax.

Section 3:  The President Couple may call for special meeting and the corresponding notices shall be issued.

Section 4:  The meeting shall be presided over by the President Couple or any Elder Adviser duly delegated.

Section 5:  The order of the meeting shall be as follows:
             5.1 Opening Prayer
             5.2 Gospel reading followed by insights/sharings
             5.3 Reading of the minutes of meeting
             5.4 Report of the Treasurer
             5.5 Report of the different Ministries
             5.6 Proposed matters/issues/problems to be discussed.
             5.7 Announcements/Communications, etc.
             5.8 Closing Prayer / Adjournment

Section 6:  No hard or fast rule shall be followed as to the number of members/officers should constitute a quorum in a meeting. It is the prerogative of the President Couple to declare weather the members/officers present in a meeting are sufficient to transact a business.



ARTICLE 7
FOLLOW-UP PROGRAMS

Section 1:  The ME Couples shall attend a monthly reunion where ME Team Couples designated by the Follow-Up Ministry Head Couple will give a review of each talk. The sharing of the couples present shall highlight each talk. Gospel reading followed by insights/sharing shall be a vital part of each reunion. The Shepherd Couple for the class shall take charge of its implementation.

Section 2:  The Biblia-rasal Ministry shall divide each ME class into groups with designated facilitators from Senior Graduates. Each Biblia-rasal group will meet once a week to study, reflect, and give sharings on Sunday Scriptural Readings. The Facilitators may stay with the group for a period of 16 weeks or more depending on the agreement.

Section 3:  The Shepherd Couple shall encourage their members to attend other follow-up programs for couples given by the Community such as Prayer Meetings, Catholic Life in the Spirit Seminars (CLSS), Growth in the Spirit Seminars (GSS), Deepening Seminars, etc.

Section 4:  All ME Couples shall attend a Retreat/Recollection at least once a year for further spiritual renewal and development.

Section 5:  The Council of Elders Advisory Group, all Shepherd Couples, shall guide all ME Couples in the Parish to continuously develop personal/spiritual upliftment and renewal evangelization.

Section 6:  The follow-up programs for ME Couples shall eventually lead each couple to contribute to the renewed spiritual development, evangelization renewal to the family and then to the community/parish.

Section 7:  The follow-up programs shall truly envisioned and fulfill the NDCC Outreach Work.


ARTICLE 8
SANCTIONS

Section 1:  The Council of Elders Advisory Group shall determine the sanction/loss of membership in the community on the account of the following grounds:
             1.1 Upon conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude.
             1.2 For unethical conduct and practices such as misrepresentation, non-cooperation, and insubordination causing confusion and disunity among  various members of the community.
             1.3 For non-attendance in any function, activities, meetings of the ministries and CEAG of the community.
             1.4 Voluntary resignation of membership.
             1.5 Non payment of monthly dues.

Section 2:  Any violation of these By-laws shall be dealt with accordingly. Due process shall be observed in any case.



ARTICLE 9
SEAL, EMBLEM AND BANNER                   

                                  

Section 1:  Seal
The Seal of the Community shall be a rectangular design with the name of NOTRE DAME and the year it was founded on the center.

Section 2:  Emblem
The Emblem of the Community shall be a rectangular design in green with the image of Blessed Mother in white background, the Holy Spirit on the upper portion of the cross followed by the Eucharist and two intersecting wedding rings on the lower portion. Inside each ring shall be a lighted candle.

Section 3: Banner
The Banner of the Community shall be a rectangular green cloth of proportional size as maybe approved by the Council of Elders. It shall contain the logo of the Community and the name in words 'NOTRE DAME CATHOLIC COMMUNITY' in the lower portion.



ARTICLE 10
AMENDMENT OF BY-LAWS

Section 1:  Amendment
These By-laws or any of the provisions maybe amended or repealed by the majority vote of all members of the Council of Elders Advisory Group at a meeting called for the purpose.



ARTICLE 11
EFFECTIVITY

These By-laws of Notre Dame Catholic Community called 'NDCC' shall take effect upon its approval in a meeting called for the purpose.

Approved this 25th day of May in the year of our Lord, 2002

CONSULTATIVE BOARD