CATHOLICITY AND BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES

CATHOLICITY AND THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE PHILIPPINES

Presented by The Rev. Dr. Winfred B. Vergara, Asian Missioner &Director of Ethnic Congregational Development of The Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017 (wvergara@episcopalchurch.org, Telephone: (212)922-5344) at the Conference on Catholicity and Globalization held at General Theological Seminary, New York City on November 12-15, 2007)

The Beginning of Catholicity

Historically, “catholicity” emerged out of the context of disharmony and conflict in the community of faith and not of global unity.  It is interesting to note that this term which comes from the Greek word, kath’holou and implies “universality and wholeness,” was actually shaped by the irritations and disagreements that characterized the developmental process of the institutional Church. In the early church after Pentecost, there was no mention of kath’holou because the Church naturally developed from the communal way of life of a loving community of diverse peoples who were devoted to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of the bread and prayers (Acts 2:42) and a vision of lifestyle evangelism.

In enumerating the shaping of catholicity, I refer mostly to the work of Cardinal Avery Dulles in the Catholicity of the Church (Clarenden Press: Oxford, c. 1985). Cardinal Dulles, S.J., traced the historical development of Catholicism and catholicity in the context of Christian disharmony.

The term “catholicity” assumed a more precise meaning by the middle of the fourth century when it was used to refer to “the great Church in opposition to the dissident Christian groups.” It is in times of crisis, when the pressure is on, that the authenticity of catholicity is tested. So I find it interesting, and maybe it is a repeat of history, that we are here today, trying to revisit the topic of Catholicity in the setting of General Theological Seminary, an institution of The Episcopal Church, at a time when the worldwide Anglican Communion is engaged in a heated debate on biblical orthodoxy and is threatened by fracture due to contemporary theological and doctrinal disharmony.

...

Cyril of Jerusalem, representing the mainstream Church in the fourth century ( Catechetical Lectures) assigned five reasons why the great Church of his time was catholic and they are: 

(1) If the church extends to the ends of the earth;

(2) If the church teaches all the doctrine needed for salvation;

(3) If the church brings every sort of human being under obedience;

(4) If the church cures every kind of sin; and

(5) If the church  possesses every form of virtue.

Against this framework, Cyril argued, lies the authenticity and catholicity of the church.

The second crisis that brought the church to revisit the word catholicity happened in the 4th and 5^th centuries, when there arose the Donatists who identified catholicity in terms of strict observance of the Ten Commandments. The great Augustine of Hippo debated the Donatists, arguing solidly that catholicity is not so much a strict adherence to the law but to the grace and “high spirituality of Christian love,” emanating from God and sealed by the sacrament of universal communion. Augustine claimed that “in its full extension, the Body of Christ,” the communion of saints that “includes all members from Abel, the righteous one up to the last Christians in the final consummation of the heavenly kingdom.” The Church is a continuum of history, the living and the dead, joined together in this fellowship of the redeemed by the One Christ who holds all things together.

In the middle Ages, when the Church had its lowest ebb, St. Thomas Aquinas defined catholicity as “freedom from all limitations of particularity.” Because she possesses a gift of extensive comprehensiveness, the Church is able to transcend the frontiers of time and space and includes all people in all sorts and conditions. By its very nature, the church catholic is also inclusive for its ideology “frees us from all particularities of culture, national and socio-political boundaries.”

In the fifteenth century, “catholicity” underwent an even more severe crisis on the issue of orthodoxy. The Council of Florence which w=was called to settle the controversy failed to resolve the issue and what was first thought to be a “temporary rupture of the communion” became a definitive split between the Eastern (Orthodox) and the Western (Roman Catholic) churches. I am of course, praying that this part of church history would not happen again in the context of the Anglican Communion but it if does, it is nothing new.

In the sixteenth century, fanned by the winds of reformation, the Western Church fractured into a multiplicity of contending factions---Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Roman Catholic---which in the ensuing centuries continued to subdivide, often on the same issue of orthodoxy versus heterodoxy; purity versus accommodation; strict literalism versus contemporary innovation..

The Orthodox churches have continued to claim catholicity, which to them meant “the adherence to the one faith handed once and for all by the apostolic fathers.” Each local church is catholic if it embodies this qualitative adherence and celebrates it in the liturgy. Roman Catholics, on the other hand, faced by the fragmentation of Western Christendom, went back to Augustinian argument of them being “the true Christ of Christ” because of their wider geographical reach and global plenitude

In the Reformation, Luther was unhappy with the word “catholic” in the Creed because of its implied identification with Roman Catholicism. Other Lutheran theologians like Melanchton and Gerhard, however, contended that a reformed church is also catholic because “it adheres to the doctrine of Scripture and to the common teachings of the Fathers of the ancient, undivided Church.” They accused the Roman Church as the one which introduced “doctrinal innovations” and thereby departed from catholicity.

In the period of Enlightenment in Europe, secularization created an atmosphere of irreverence and unbelief . Many theologians saw pure reason as the principle of universality. They lost interest in the Church and its authentic catholicity. As a response to secularization, the Tubingen School in Germany and the Oxford Movement in England set out to counter the prevailing distortion of catholicity and converged on a revivalist  claim that the Church as “the religion of incarnation had been only been catholic in the third century when it struggled against heresies such as Gnosticism.” To the revivalists, Catholicity was synonymous with traditionalism, orthodoxy, ritualism, monasticism and, as represented by Rome, legalism. Human authority and behavior took the place of the divine Spirit and Catholicism became the fall from grace. Reformation, which was the catchword of Christian revival, was a protest against this defection from biblical faith and a summon towards evangelical revival.

CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THEPHILIPPINES

Catholic Christianity came to the Philippines in the 16^th century in the context of Spanish colonization. Combining the Cross and the Sword, the Spanish conquistadores and friars, secured these Islands in the Orient and brought them in subjection to the King of Spain and the Pope of the Roman Church. For over three hundred years, Las Islas Filipinas, the islands of (King) Philip (II) became a colony of Spanish Empire and vassal of Roman Catholic Church.

It has to be said that Hispanization-Catholization of the Philippines has the same ambiguity of the current globalization. Spanish colonization was an intervention, a disruption of the natural order of societal development in pre-Spanish Filipinos. Left to themselves, all living beings are capable of organizing and aligning themselves from primitive communal society to an advanced civilization. Colonization is an intervention, an intrusion in the natural process of societal development.

In the same manner of colonization, catholicization was imposed upon the Philippine Islands with the same ambiguity as the western civilization. I remember the theologian Kosuke Koyama in 1975 speaking at the 5^th Assembly of the World Council of Churches saying that “If Western civilization were simply a demonic monster, then what we ought to do is to have a ‘program to combat western civilization.’ The fact of the matter is that western civilization is not simply a demonic monster; it is an ambiguous monster.” It has a paradoxical wounding and healing effect upon the other civilizations it comes in contact with. It combines both “gun power and ointment.”

So Spanish colonization fractured native pre-Spanish Philippines Filipino community. Prior to the coming of Magellan, there was already a Confederation of Madyaas in the Visayan Islands. With the Spanish strategy of “divide et impera” (divide and rule), Filipinos distrusted and fought against each other.  It took more than 300 years before oppressed Filipinos achieved consciousness of an independent nation enrolled in the family of nations. This consciousness led to intermittent revolts and finally ended with the Revolution of 1896-1898.

This Philippine Revolution finally broke the back of the colonial government of Spain but the Philippine Republic which the Filipino revolutionaries had hoped for, was cut in the bud when the new empire, the United States took over control of the Islands. At the Treaty of Paris, Spain ceded the Philippine Islands to the United States as a bargain concession, following their defeat in the Hispano-American War.

The brief but nevertheless costly Filipino-American War sealed the fate of the short-lived Philippine Republic. Filipinos had to adjust to a new colonial master.  American globalization took over Spanish globalization. To paraphrase the writer Nick Joaquin, the Filipinos who were forced to live in the convent for the past 300 years were now made to embrace Hollywood for the next 50 years!

While the dream of the revolutionary movement called Katipunan for political independence did come to fruition, there was one organism that survived the colonial turnover. It was the religious embryo of the Filipinization movement, which eventually became the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, the other wing of the Filipino revolutionary enterprise.

The IFI, which was proclaimed in 1902, is considered by historian Teodoro Agoncillo as the “only tangible product of the Philippine Revolution of 1898.” It secured not only catholicity but also apostolicity when it received the bestowal of apostolic succession from and engaged in Concordat of Full Communion with The Episcopal Church USA.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE PHILIPPINES

It is in the context of this historical development in the political and religious arenas in the Philippines and the world that I would approach discussion on the catholicity of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines, a sister-church of the IFI and a daughter church of TEC. Discussion of its catholicity is especially significant today, in light of the fact that the ECP had recently achieved full autonomy from the TEC.

The Episcopal Church in the Philippines was born in the vortex of the socio-cultural and political change, the Spanish-American colonial turn-over of the Philippine colony. Hispanization and Roman Catholicization went hand in hand in Las Islas Filipinas for over three centuries (1521-1898) but only among the lowland Filipinos. The people in the Mountain Provinces of Luzon had been largely untouched and unconquered by Spain. The tribal Igorots of the Mountain Province, like the Muslims in Mindanao, had successfully resisted Spanish intrusion and preserved their cultures. In other words, while the whole Filipinas underwent a transformation to a mestizo culture, the native Igorot of the Mountain Provinces maintained their native way of life. As the lowland Catholic Filipinos say their novenas to the Santo Nino and Santo Entierro and sing Ave Maria, the Igorots of BIBAK (Bontoc, Ifugao, Benguet, Apayao and Kalinga), sounded their gongs and danced in homage to their Kabunian, the Great Father, the Supreme Being. At the coming of the Americans, the Igorot were still known, in the words of Igorot Mayor Thomas A. Killip, “half-naked natives, wearing g-strings, eating dogs and cutting off the heads of their enemies.”

 Even at the time of the American rule, the Igorot people of these Cordillera mountains were so marginalized in “civilized” Philippine society. The first Filipino/Asian Secretary General of the United Nations, Dr. Carlos P. Romulo, who popularized the statement “Filipinos are brown Americans,”disdained the “backwardness” of the Igorots and commented in an American newspapers saying that “Igorots are not Filipinos.” This discriminatory statement was of course not shared by the enlightened general public who now consider the Igorots to be one of the most civilized, English-speaking, most educated and most ethical people---and much of this change of perception was due to the witness of the Episcopal Church in the Mountain Province.

If there is a similarity, therefore, between the IFI and the ECP, it is this: the IFI was the church of the revolutionary poor and the ECP was the church of the culturally marginalized. The IFI was the by-product of religious revolution of the oppressed Filipinos in the lowlands; the ECP was the product of American mission to the “unchurched” Filipinos in the uplands and hinterlands.

Credit to this unique mission to the Igorot Filipinos goes to Charles Henry Brent, the first bishop of the Philippine missionary district of The Episcopal Church USA. Although the first Episcopal Eucharist was actually conducted by chaplain John Staunton of the American military expeditionary forces, it was the vision and ethical framework of Bishop Brent that gave shape to the formative stages of the ECP. Seeing that the Philippines were already Christianized, Brent remarked that he would not “build an altar on someone else’s foundation.”

The advent of American colonialism was a tremendous opportunity for American Christian mission. The Filipinos were learning English and embracing the tutelage of their new teachers. The break-out of the IFI loosened the stranglehold of Roman Catholicism over the Filipino faithful. In the words of one missionary, “the IFI shook the tree of Roman Catholicism and the Protestant denominations were picking up the fallen fruits.”

But instead of joining the other American Protestant denominations (Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists Baptists, etc.) in mapping out the proselytization of Roman Catholics, Bishop Brent “set his eyes on the hills,” the "unchurched, unchristianized or un-catholicized" tribal Filipinos.
 

Bishop Charles Henry Brent arrived in Manila on August 24, 1902 with a “with a huge amount of money to support the beginnings of his work” but instead of using these resources to the expansion of the Episcopal empire in the Philippine mainstream, Brent set out to plant the church among people in the margins---the Igorot headhunters in the Mountain Provinces, the Tirurays in Muslim Mindanao, the Chinese immigrants and refugees in Manila’s inner city---and the American expatriates in posh MetroManila.

From 1903 to 1917, Brent concentrated on building the Episcopal Church among the cultural minorities in the hope of improving their way of life. He established the Church of Resurrection, Easter and Brent Schools in Baguio City; St. Mary’s Church in Sagada; St. Benedict’s School in Besao; and planted the seeds for St. Luke’s Hospital and St. Stephen’s Church in Manila; Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John in Quezon City; Kawakawa Hospital in Jolo; and an Agricultural School and Holy Trinity Church in Mindanao.

When Brent left the Philippines to became Chief of Chaplains of General John Pershing’s Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War I, and eventually assumed position as bishop of the Diocese of Western New York his successors---Frank Mosher, Robert Wilner and most especially Norman Binsted---pursued the goal of indigenization of the church.

According to ECP historian, Bishop Edward Malecdan, “the breakthrough in the development of clergy and lay leadership of the ECP happened during World War II.” Ironically, it was in moments of great trials that the Church becomes even more creative, visionary and strong.

The American War with Japan created collateral damage to Philippines in the Japanese invasion. Tremendous suffering, death and destruction described the war years of 1941-1944. Church structures were destroyed by bombings. Among the few which escaped destruction were Stephen’s School, St. Luke’s Hospital and Brent School. When War finally ended with the surrender of Japan in 1944, Bishop Binsted decided to repatriate the surviving American missionaries and engaged the native ministers in the task of post-war rehabilitation. Digging through the debris of the Cathedral in 1945, he recovered land titles and deeds and stock certificates which surged in values at the postwar reconstruction.

The sale of the recovered stocks and bonds gave Bishop Binsted the resources to jumpstart the reconstruction and design a road map towards native leadership. He bought the property of Cathedral Heights that would contain his vision: a cathedral, a hospital, college of nursing, a seminary and a university. Today, that vision is realized in the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. John; St. Luke’s Hospital and College of Nursing; Trinity University of Asia; and St. Andrew’s Theological Seminary. Binsted also sold the Manila location of the English-speaking American congregation and bought a prime property in Forbes Park, Makati where the Holy Trinity Church now stands.

I do not have the time to narrate the chronology of the events that eventually led to the autonomy of the ECP. Suffice it to say, however, that by 1967, the first Filipino Bishop Benito Cabanban was consecrated. Two years thereafter he became become the first Prime Bishop. Subsequent developments saw more Filipino bishops being consecrated: Manguramas, Abellon, Longid, Lumpias, Ticobay, and Ignacio Soliba.

The Filipino Episcopalians fully transitioned to take the helm of the ECP. In 1978, the National Convention approved the first reading of its proposed Constitution and Canons; in 1982, it adopted a Covenant Relation between the ECP and PECUSA as preliminary step towards becoming an autonomous province; and finally on May 1, 1990, the autonomous Province of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines was inaugurated.

Last month, in October 2007 at the Executive Council meeting of the TEC, the ECP Prime Bishop, Ignacio Soliba and the Provincial Secretary, Miguel Yamoyam presented the ECP-TEC Covenant, their statement of full autonomy and interdependence with their mother Church.

The ECP, which was born on the mountains and the hinterlands of the Philippines has now come of age. With its 130,000 members in six dioceses (Central Philippines, North Central Philippines, Northern Luzon, Santiago, Northern Philippines and Southern Philippines), the ECP stands today as one of the constituent members of the Anglican Communion and an integral part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.

THE UNIQUE PLACE OF ECP IN THE CONTEXT OF CATHOLICITY

What is unique in the development of the ECP is that it is a church that has begun in the margins of society that has succeeded in “mainstreaming” these cultural minorities into the spectrum of national and international life. The ESP’s vision of catholicity has its beginning from the first bishop himself, Charles Henry Brent, who begun as an agent of American imperialism and was transformed to become a missionary to the people in the periphery. Brent himself became one of the pioneers of the ecumenical movement and a pillar of the World Council of Churches. The National Council of Churches included the ECP as one of its initial member-churches.

The formative stages of the WCC, happened at the time when the Roman Catholic Church, itself experienced Vatican II, which provided a guiding light to its fresh quest for Christian unity. Pope John XXIII popularized the Moravian axiom---“in matters essential, unity; in matters non-essential, tolerance; and in all matters, charity.”

Aloys Grillmeier, in Commentary on Lumen Gentium, said that one of the achievements of Vatican II was the “rediscovery of the universal Church as the communion of the local Churches, understood as fully themselves, and the rediscovery of the universal Church in the local Church.” It presented catholicity not as a monotonous repetition of identical elements but rather as a “reconciled diversity.” The Anglicans, for the first time, was referred to by the Roman Church, not as heretics or unsaved but as “separated brethren.”

With both the World Council of Churches and Vatican II Roman Catholicism, the interrelatedness of the Church universal in all its pluralism and diversity is being explored. The oekomene, the whole creation is groaning for the realization of the cherished hope for unity and harmony. The whole globalized world is working towards dynamic integration and the harmony of all created beings. The power of the Holy Spirit continues to nurture the gift given to the Church as a ministry of reconciliation.

Catholicity is therefore another word for inclusivity. Cardinal Avery Dulles summarized it in this way:    

“Catholicity always implies, in principle, adherence to the fullness of

       God’s gift in Christ. Christianity is inclusive not by reason of latitudinarian

            permissiveness or syncretistic promiscuity, but because it has received from

       God a message and a gift for all people of every time and place, so that all can

             find in it the fulfillment of their highest selves.”

           

Through power of the Holy Spirit, the transcendence of God was made manifest in the incarnation of the Son and through the mission of Jesus the immanence of God in creation is affirmed by the presence of the Christian Church throughout the whole world.

       “Catholicity demands that we accept Jesus as Lord, not because God

       demonstrably had to come to is in this way, but because he has in fact

willed to make himself present in this wandering rabbi of first-century

Palestine. Jesus Christ is, so to speak, the concrete universal, for in the

particularity and contingency of his human existence the plenitude of

divine life is made available to all who will receive it.”

In this manner, the Igorot Episcopal Church exemplifies the “concrete universal Christianity” in the particularity of the Philippines. Coming from culture of marginality, she moves towards the mainstream of catholicity. D. T. Niles, a Sri Lankan theologian, wrote that “evangelism is a began telling another beggar where to find bread”. The Igorot Episcopalian speaks on behalf of the marginalized in our society---the cultural minorities, the women, the gay, the youth, the immigrants, refugees, migrant workers, the poor, the jobless, the ethnic peoples, the gypsies, the wetbacks, the masa, the minjung, the dalits---the masses---who are marginalized in their societies. The Igorot Filipino Episcopalian is a beggar who found the source of abundant bread and is telling God’s people in the globalized world, where to find it.#.