Lay vocation animators from across the country will gather in Tagaytay City next month for their first-ever national assembly.

Dubbed as the “National Conference of Lay Vocation Animators,” the event will be held at the Caritas Philippines Academy in Tagaytay City from November 20 to 24.

The conference is an initiative of Vocation Network Philippines, in cooperation with the Episcopal Commission on Vocations (ECV) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).

As a fledgling gathering, the four-day event will focus on establishing the role of the laity in fostering vocations.

“It will focus on establishing the laity as kalakbay at kasama sa pagtataguyod ng bokasyon,” said ECV executive secretary Fr. Randy De Jesus, who is also the national coordinator of the Directors of Vocations in the Philippines.

According to the event’s primer, the conference aims “to provide specialized training on different forms of vocation promotion and accompaniment.”

“We must hone the richness of their potential to form them into empowered vocation animators,” it stated.

The gathering also aims to define the role of the laity in the vocation ministry.

“Ultimately, the assembly must also be able to write a proposal for the CBCP-ECV-DVP By-laws that defines the role of the laity in vocation ministries,” it added.