This year’s LEAD Joint Councils Workshop (JCW 2025) has opened at De La Salle University–Dasmariñas, carrying the theme “We Are Pilgrims of Hope to the Peripheries.”
Day 1 of JCW 2025 was a reminder that those gathered form a community on the move, journeying together in faith and service. In his opening remarks, Br. JJ Jimenez FSC, LEAD Visitor, invited the participants to keep welcoming and accompanying “fresh faces”—a vital pathway to growing the community of Lasallian leaders in East Asia and sustaining the mission in our District. Ms. Thea Quintos, formerly from De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde (Philippines), led a morning recollection centered on the Gospel story of the road to Emmaus and facilitated an afternoon workshop on building stronger communities.
The second day of JCW 2025 featured a series of committee meetings and plenary sessions. Morning conversations focused on each Committee’s accomplishments over the past year, with time for participants to offer commendations and recommendations after every report. In the afternoon, the Committees revisited their strategic plans—discerning which initiatives to stop, continue, or start now that they are at the midpoint of their terms. The day concluded with a presentation of the draft LEAD Viability Plan by the Viability & Vitality Committee, followed by an open call for suggestions on how to enrich and strengthen the proposal.
The third and final day of JCW 2025 was an invitation to stand in deeper solidarity with those in the peripheries. The District Communications Team presented their proposed advocacy strategy, Lasallians for Life, a campaign designed to encourage more Lasallians to actively participate in and support the District’s ministries for the peripheries—in whatever capacity: as advocates, volunteers, benefactors, and more. The joint councils expressed their collective commitment to strengthening and promoting these advocacies.
The day concluded with the participants of JCW 2025 joining the celebration of the Profession of First Vows of Br. Polycarp Lal Than Mawi FSC from Myanmar and the Perpetual Vows of Br. Ivan Umali FSC, whose vocation has been deeply shaped by his experience of association with our brothers and sisters in Mindanao.
The members of the LEAD District and Mission Councils return to their respective Sectors with renewed commitment to growing the Lasallian mission in the peripheries—together and by association.
The LEAD Joint Councils Workshop is an annual collaborative gathering of the District’s six Working Committees—each composed of members of the LEAD District and Mission Councils—who come together to reflect, discern, and plan for the life and mission of the District.
