Protestant denominations arrived in the Philippines in 1898, after the United States took control of the Philippines from Spain, first with United States Army chaplains and then within months civilian missionaries.
Protestants makes up nearly 11% of the Filipino population.[1] They include a wide variety of Pentecostal, Evangelical and independent churches. Some denominations were founded locally.
Statistics
Percentage of Protestants in the Philippines by Region[2]
In 2020, the World Christian Database estimated that there are around 38 million Pentecostals and Charismatics along with 19 million Christians independent from denominations in the Philippines.[3]
History
It is likely that there was some Protestant activity in the Philippines before 1898, such as during the British occupation of the Philippines, but there was no churches or missions established. One alleged early Filipino Protestant was Paulino Zamora, father of Methodist bishop Nicolás Zamora. Some consider Paulino to be the first Protestant in the Philippines. At the time of the Philippine Revolution, Nicolas Zamora was already preaching the gospel, making him one of the earliest Protestant ministers in the Philippines, even before the arrival of American missionaries.[4]
Protestantism began to seriously develop in the Philippines after the Spanish–American War when the United States acquired the Philippines from the Spanish with the 1898 Treaty of Paris.[5] During American Colonial Period, the Catholic Church was disestablished as the state religion, giving Protestant missionaries more opportunities to enter the islands. In addition, there was a backlash against the Hispanic Catholicism and a greater acceptance of Protestantism represented by the Americans.[6] The dominance of the Catholic Church in all aspects of life in Spanish Philippines and Protestant anti-Catholic animosity were prominent reasons for the start of Protestant missionary activity.[7] In 1901 the Evangelical Union was established in the Philippines to co-ordinate activities amongst the Protestant denominations and lay the foundations for an indigenous religious movement.[8]
The first Protestant service during this era was on Sunday, August 28, 1898.[a] Chaplain George Stull, a member of The Methodist Episcopal Church, came with the occupying forces. Although his primary duty was to minister to the soldiers, he recorded in his diary that that first service, held in an old Spanish dungeon facing Manila Bay, was attended not only by his own men but by some Filipinos as well. He commented on this service:[9]
"That the power of God will use this day to make a good Catholic better, any weak American stronger, any backslider ashamed, and the gloomy old dungeon the beginning of wonderful things in these Islands, is my prayer."[10]
After the defeat of the Spanish in the Battle of Manila Bay by the U.S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist leaders met in 1898 in New York to discuss how to bring Protestantism to the Philippines. The result was a comity agreement that divided the Philippines into missionary areas by denomination to avoid future conflicts among themselves and their converts.[11] Only one Protestant denomination would be in each area.
The meeting was followed by another gathering in 1901 by the early missionaries in Manila to further discuss the comity agreement with three specific major agenda items:
"to organize the Evangelical Union,"
"choose a common name for Protestant churches," and
"delineate the geographical work allotments for each church."[12]
From 1898 to 1930 the different Protestant denominations that joined the comity agreement were:
Brethren (Kapatirang Kristiano) linked to Plymouth Brethren, was established in the 1930s in San Juan, Metro Manila by a missionary named Cyril H. Brooks. They planted numerous chapels in the Philippines with majority in Bulacan, Pampanga and Rizal Province.
For a short time the comity agreement worked well, until the situation grew more intricate and splits occurred. The Methodists split in 1909 when Nicolas Zamora founded the Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas (IEMELIF). This shattered the agreement. Thus, the IEMELIF became the first indigenous evangelical denomination, an all-Filipino-supported church at that time, with Methodist Ilocanos from Northern Luzon moved into the areas of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Mindanao.[citation needed] Baptist Ilonggos migrated from Iloilo to Central Cotabato, traditionally Christian and Missionary Alliance territory. As this kind of movement increased, the sharp boundaries between the different comity areas became obscured.[15]
Divisions came with growth and expansion, and personality clashes, racial tensions, the dynamics of nationalism, cultural differences, power struggles and other non-theological factors contributed to the schisms. In the 1920s the fundamentalist-modernist controversy in the United States affected the Philippines, causing further division. By 1921, some nineteen independent denominations were registered with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and important splits occurred among the Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Disciples of Christ. Several small denominations, some of them entirely under national leadership, emerged.[16]
Unity of the churches was still a goal. In 1929, the United Brethren, Presbyterian and Congregational Churches formed the United Evangelical Church in the Philippines. In 1932, six of the smaller indigenous denominations of Presbyterian and Methodist backgrounds formed the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo, or now more commonly known as the Unida Christian Church. The assembly of these indigenous denominations was called by Don Toribio Teodoro, owner of the Ang Tibay shoes. The National Christian Council was founded in 1929 as a successor of the Evangelical Union. This was followed in 1938 by the organization of the Philippine Federation of Evangelical Churches. With the coming of World War II and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, the United Evangelical Church underwent severe trying circumstances when the mission agencies were completely cut off from the United States. American missionaries were incarcerated and mission funds were unexpectedly discontinued.
World War II and independence
The Bishop Moises F. Buzon Memorial Church - Templo Central of the Iglesia Unida Ekyumenikal (IUE) in Tondo, Manila.
To deal with the diverse Protestant groups, the Japanese during their occupation of the Philippines during Second World War pressed for the formation of the Evangelical Church of the Philippines which combined thirteen denominations. However, most of the larger denominations such as Methodist, Episcopal, Unida and other independent churches refused to join. After the war, the Evangelical Church of the Philippines further fragmented, but the Disciples of Christ, the United Brethren, the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo, the Evangelica Nacional, some individual congregations of the IEMELIF, the Philippine Methodist and the Presbyterian Churches remained intact. Several churches united to form the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in 1948. In 1949 the United Evangelical Church, the Philippine Federation of Evangelical Churches, and the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo formed the Philippine Federation of Christian Churches, now called the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. Today, Protestant and evangelical churches and denominations are grouped into major councils of churches: The National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) for mainline Protestant churches and the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) for evangelical churches, organized in 1964.
A major factor in the development of Philippine Protestantism is the explicit expression of religious freedom found in Section 5, Article III ("Bill of Rights) of the 1987 Constitution, separating church and state. The concept and its English phrasing has been present in every national charter since the 1935 Constitution promulgated by the Commonwealth government.[18] The Philippine Youth Movement founded in 1926 boosted the move to develop the indigenous Protestant church nationwide.[19]
A theme in the development of Protestantism in the Philippines is the tension between the religion and nationalism. After an initial period of resentment toward American missionaries, Filipinos gradually accepted Protestantism.[20] During the 1920s and '30s, American Methodist missionaries openly supported Filipino independence from the United States.[21]
Education
Silliman University was founded by the early Protestant American missionaries in 1901.
↑ It was likely that there were Protestant services held in the Philippines during the British Occupation of Manila in the 1760s, at least for soldiers like this 1898 service.
↑ McGrath, Alister E. (2008) Christianity's Dangerous Idea: The Protestant Revolution: A History from the Sixteenth Century to the Twenty-First London: Regnum Books (p 454 to 455)
The Evangelical United Brethren Church (EUB) was a North American Protestant denomination from 1946 to 1968 with Arminian theology, roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities, and close ties to Methodism. It was formed by the merger of a majority of the congregations of the Evangelical Church founded by Jacob Albright and the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. The United Brethren and the Evangelical Association had considered merging off and on since the early 19th century because of their common emphasis on holiness and evangelism and their common German heritage.
Christianity is the predominant religion in the Philippines, with the Catholic Church being its largest denomination. Sizeable minorities adhering to Islam, Dharmic religions, and indigenous Philippine folk religions are also present.
A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinct denominational orientations or traditions. Multi-denominationalism, or a multi-denominational church or organization, is a congregation or organization that is affiliated with two or more Christian denominations, whether they be part of the same tradition or from separate and distinct traditions.
The Christian Conference of Asia is a regional ecumenical organisation representing 15 National Councils and over 100 denominations (churches) in New Zealand, Australia, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand.
The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Reformed (Calvinist) churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Christian communion in the world after the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. This ecumenical Christian body was formed in June 2010 by the union of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC).
Trinity University of Asia, also known as TUA or simply Trinity, is an Anglican / Episcopalian affiliated private university located in Quezon City, Philippines. It was named after Trinity College (Connecticut) whose president then was the founder's father. Formally established in 1963 as an elementary, high school and collegiate educational institution by the Protestant Episcopalians, it dates back its earliest establishment in 1907 when the Trinity University of Asia - St. Luke's College of Nursing, its oldest organic academic unit, was established under the St. Luke's Hospital, the present day St. Luke's Medical Center. It later acquired its university status on July 18, 2006.
Protestants in India are a minority and a sub-section of Christians in India and also to a certain extent the Christians in Pakistan before the Partition of India, that adhere to some or all of the doctrines of Protestantism. Protestants in India are a small minority in a predominantly Hindu majority country, but form majorities in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. They are also significant minorities in Punjab region, Konkan region, Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with various communities in east coast and northern states. Protestants can trace their origins back to the Protestant Revolution of the 16th century. There are an estimated 20 million Protestants and 16 million Pentecostals in India.
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The United Andean Indian Mission (UAIM), was an ecumenical and interdenominational Protestant mission, formed in the United States of America in 1946 with the purpose of working among the indigenous peoples in Ecuador, South America. The UAIM was created under the sponsorship of the Committee on Cooperation in Latin America, a multi-denominational agency that served as an umbrella organisation for all liberal Protestant missions in the region.
The United Church of Christ in the Philippines is a Christian denomination in the Philippines. Established in its present form in Malate, Manila, it resulted from the merger of the Evangelical Church of the Philippines, the Philippine Methodist Church, the Disciples of Christ, the United Evangelical Church and several independent congregations.
The Evangelical Methodist Church in the Philippine Islands is a Methodist Christian denomination. Founded on 28 February 1909 by Bishop Nicolás Zamora, it is recognised in the Philippines as the first indigenous Evangelical Protestant denomination.
Union Theological Seminary is the oldest Protestant seminary in the Philippines.
The Presbyterian Church of the Philippines (PCP), officially The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the Philippines, is a growing evangelical, Bible-based Reformed church in the Philippines. It was officially founded by in 1986 and the General Assembly was organized in September 1996.
The United Evangelical Church of Christ ; commonly the Unida Church, Unida Christian Church or Unida Evangelical Church) is an evangelical Protestant denomination in the Philippines founded in 1932.
Nicolás Villegas Zamora was a Methodist minister who is credited with the foundation of the first indigenous evangelical church in the Philippines, known as the Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas. Zamora is also recognized as the first native Filipino Protestant minister in the Philippines.
References
Deats, R., Nationalism and Christianity in the Philippines (Dallas, 1967)
Anderson, G. H., ‘Providence and Politics behind Protestant Missionary Beginnings in the Philippines’, in G. Anderson (ed.), Studies in Philippine Church History (London, 1969)
Merlyn L. Guillermo and L. P. Verora, Protestant Churches and Missions in the Philippines, vol. 1 (Valenzuela, Metro Manila: Agape Printing Services, 1982)
A. Leonard Tuggy and Ralph Toliver, Seeing the Church in the Philippines (Manila: OMF, 1972), pp.26–53 discussed the Spanish–American War.
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