Media Wise Communications/Muse Books headed by artist-publisher Ramoncito Ocampo Cruz has done it again, added more notches on its book production belt by hauling in Philippine Quill Awards for 2014 publications.
At the Awards Night on March 9 held at the Crowne Plaza Galleria Manila, Media Wise Communications/Muse Books won for two outstanding coffee-table books, the same genre that has made it a publishing byword.
Years of Enkindling Hearts: Sacred Heart Parish, Cebu won the Philippine Quill Award of Excellence for Publication Design, while The Philippine Arena: A Monument to an Enduring Faith, won the Award of Excellence for Publication Design and a Merit Award for Publications in the communication skills division.
The first book celebrates the past 60 years, and the beginning of another 60 years, of the Sacred Heart Parish in Cebu City. Established in 1952 by Jesuit missionaries expelled by the communist regime in China, it initially served only the Chinese Catholics in the province of Cebu. But the parish now also serves all other Catholics along D. Jakosalem Street, in particular the devotees of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the archdiocese, with Filipino Jesuits as its pastors.
The book highlights the convergence of these three unique features of the parish: Chinese, Cebuano and Jesuit. The backgrounder for the book project proves interesting.
In 2012, the 60th year of the foundation of the Sacred Heart Parish in Cebu, Archbishop Jose S. Palma erected the parish church as Archdiocesan Shrine of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. After a year of celebrations, the Pastoral Council deemed that these two milestones called for a documented reflection — on where the parish had been and where it was going, beyond the regular parish newsletter.
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The council then tasked Fr. Jayson Dy, S.J., one of the assistant parish priests, to contract Media Wise Communications Inc./Musebooks to produce the coffee-table book. The final product would then be used to reconnect former parishioners to the parish.
The book team recognized the opportunity to give the parish a definitive and well-designed documentation of its history, as well as that of all of the parishioners who have been a part of it. The documentation thus focused not only on the Jesuits but also on the lay leaders and ordinary faithful who built and have sustained the church.
The publication essentially highlights the role of the Cebuano Chinese in the foundation and continuous growth of the local church. Many of the Cebuano Chinese who have been parish members have become the country’s business leaders.
Fr. Benjamin Sim, S.J., the parish priest, was the executive publisher, and Fr. Jayson Dy, S.J., assistant parish priest, served as the executive creative director. Both approved the content and over-all design before and after presentation to the Pastoral Council. Other Jesuits in the parish became resource persons for the research involved in the project.
Notable historian Fr. Jose S. Arcilla, S.J. was tapped as the main writer and source of archival information and artifacts. Complementing his lead article on the Jesuits’ involvement in Cebu and in the parish were various other articles on the parish history, ministries and direction, and especially on the role of the lay parishioners.
One formidable challenge posed during the research process was that of language. Some of the documents on the history of the parish were in Spanish. In one instance, the researcher had to correspond in Spanish to a parish in Mexico to verify the source of the design of the parish church. There were also texts that had to be translated to Chinese script for clarity and for design effect.
In lieu of lost and inaccessible documents, researchers had to deal with what they had or search for other documents, as well as conduct interviews with the living pioneer parishioners.
The production team had a total of 14 members who worked with 13 Jesuits, two archbishops, 39 parishioners and 44 parish communities or associations to come up with this outstanding coffee-table book.
One thousand five hundred copies were printed in Singapore, and as of yearend of 2014, more than half have been sold, with numerous copies given as a gifts to Parish donors. Some copies are on the shelves of strategically located Fully Booked branches in Metro Manila and Cebu City. Others have been given to parishioners, particularly the Chinese parishioners who have already moved to Manila or some other places in the world, so that they would be reconnected to the parish of their roots.
Bravo to Years of Enkindling Hearts: Sacred Heart Parish, Cebu!
For its part, The Philippine Arena: A Monument to an Enduring Faith stands as a large-volume documentation of the epic construction of the Iglesia ni Cristo’s latest landmark.
The foreword has it:
“The Philippine Arena is a mega-structure emblematic of the faith that has come to build it.
“Like the proverbial mustard seed, the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) had lowly and obscure beginnings. No one could have imagined that this tiny religious organization planted on a developing country 100 years ago would blossom into a dynamic global Church that it is today, with membership consisting of over 120 races and ethnicities, and more than 5,600 congregations in 100 countries and territories throughout the world.
“Indeed, analogous to the transformation of the mustard seed mentioned in the Lord’s parable — from being ‘smaller than all seeds’ to being ‘greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches when full-grown (Mat. 13:31-32), World English Bible — the Church of Christ, the builder of the Philippine Arena, is now hailed as the ‘largest independent Christian Church in Asia’. Dubbed as the ‘largest domed theater on the planet,’ the Philippine Arena is a testament to the Church’s colorful and triumphant journey to what it is today, and a fitting representation of its potential in the years ahead. Its 36,000-sqm dome has earned it the label, ‘the biggest roof space in the world.’ Similarly, millions of its members around the world consider the Church of Christ as their spiritual home and sanctuary for their wearied souls.”
The coffee-table book presents to both the general reader and the architecture enthusiast the architectural marvel that is the Philippine Arena, the planet’s biggest fully roofed arena. It takes the reader through the arena’s eventful journey from conception to construction to completion, detailing along the way the many extraordinary engineering and architectural features of the building, and the uncommon obstacles that the builders had to overcome to keep to a significantly abbreviated timetable.
What normally took six to 12 months for a 300-page coffee-table book took only three, in time for the inauguration of the Philippine Arena on July 21, 2014, as the major highlight of the run-up to the Iglesia Ni Cristo Centennial Celebration on July 27, 2014.
Twenty thousand copies were printed locally, with most of these given away as mementos to the publisher’s 5,545 congregations worldwide, all in a matter of days after the arena’s inauguration. Among the first recipients of the book was President Benigno Aquino III, who was presented a copy by INC Executive Minister Eduardo Manalo during the building’s inaugural ceremonies.
The book’s production team included writer Achilles Mina, editor Ditas Bermudez, managing editor Hannah Jo Uy, editorial assistant Chino Cruz, design director Eros Basilio, art director Edwin de Guzman, graphic designer Alex Dulay, and photographers Eduardo Nicart III, John Chua, and Paulo Alcazaren LIPAD Aerial Photography.
Bravo to the publisher, the book team, and the momentous book itself!
