United Methodist institutes changing lives in the Philippines

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

MANILA, Philippines (UMNS) - Two 100-year-old United Methodist institutions of higher education in the Philippines are producing Christian leaders who are making a difference around the world.

Union Theological Seminary and Harris Memorial College also have been instrumental in bringing Methodism to the South Asian country.

Founded in 1907, Union Theological Seminary is an ecumenical theological institution offering bachelor's degrees in religious education, Christian education, early childhood education, church music and theology. Master's degrees in divinity and theology as well as doctorate degrees in theology are offered on the campus in Cavite, Philippines, on the southern shores of Manila Bay.

Union was born out of the 1907 merger of the Presbyterians' Ellinwood Bible School and the Methodists' Florence B. Nicholson Seminary. The United Brethren, Disciples of Christ and Congregational Church joined the seminary in the following years.

The college celebrates its centennial Nov. 20-23 and more than 1,000 are expected to converge on the campus.

On Nov. 20, the Philippine National Historical Institute will unveil identical markers on the facade of the old Union Theology Seminary building in Manila and in the atrium of the library building on the campus in Dasmariñas, Cavite. The observance will celebrate Union's significant contribution to Philippine evangelization.

Preaching the Word at Union
"Preach the Word is the motto of the seminary," said the Rev. Romeo L. del Rosario, the school's president. "Through the years, the evangelization that resulted from the program and ministry of the seminary helped shape many of nation's best leaders in the different fields and areas of life."

The seminary has been an inspiration for many Filipinos, and its impact "reaches the shores of many lands," he said. Union is located on a 97-hectare property surrounded by 1,200 mango trees. Students help raise vegetables, and they supply fresh produce to the college and community. Also on campus are fish ponds, beehives and a greenhouse for growing mushrooms. Various farm animals - cows, goats, turkeys and poultry - walk undisturbed through the campus' lush green acres.

"We think we have a unique opportunity where we are to teach and inculcate the divine call to care for the earth and to be faithful stewards of its gifts. If we can be gentle with the earth, it will also care and provide for us," del Rosario said.

Most of the seminary students come from the farming areas or agricultural regions of the Philippines, and their cultures are strongly and significantly linked to the land.

"We are in the process of shaping a curriculum that recognizes this and that honors the theology of land that the students already bring with them to the seminary. We need to tap this as a resource in teaching and in linking the students' training and education in the seminary to the realities of life in the various localities where they will return to serve."

Pioneering women of Harris
United Methodist women dedicated to the care and nurture of children and youth have been changing lives for more than 100 years as graduates of Harris Memorial College.

"I have heard it said that the pioneering work of deaconesses in its early years in the Philippines contributed significantly to the growth of Methodism in the Philippines," said Rebecca Asedillo, staff executive for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. "They were involved in evangelism, early childhood education and Christian education in the local churches."

For more than 100 years, the college has been the only training center for deaconesses in Southeast Asia. It was established in 1903 and has played a major role in the ministry, life and mission of The United Methodist Church, said Christina M. Mainyabat, director of the center for Christian education and discipleship at Harris.

Harris pioneered early childhood education as the Philippines' first school to establish kindergarten and train kindergarten teachers, noted Phebe Crismo, a deaconess serving in the Davao episcopal area. "Deaconesses work day in and day out," she said of her sisters in the ministry.

Called to be in ministry with children and the marginalized, these Filipino women are often underappreciated, according to Mainyabat.

"As deaconesses we would like to see ourselves not only confining our ministries within the four walls of the church, but also as God would use us to make a difference in the lives of people, especially those who are neglected, who are marginalized, who are outcast in the community and the wider society," she said.

Asedillo said the role of deaconesses is often stereotyped.

"When I was studying to be a deaconess, churches tended to expect deaconesses to be able to play the organ, sing and conduct choirs," she explained. "I hope that is no longer the case because we all have varying gifts, and each gift deserves to be treasured and affirmed."

Sadly, the stereotype does still exist, according to Crismo, and some deaconesses are even expected to clean the church they serve. Deaconesses often live in substandard housing, and the highest paid ones make about $200 a month.

"I visited one deaconess who told me she was so filled with joy at having lodging, but when I saw where she was living I was furious," she said, adding that the woman and her children were living in a passageway between the church and the kindergarten. "The exhaust from the toilet was in her room, and she and her children slept on a mattress on the floor. They cooked their meals outside."

Today, deaconesses have expanded their functions to include community development, advocacy and care for the vulnerable segments of the larger society, according to Asedillo.

"Even while the option of ordination is open to them (and many women, including deaconesses) have taken that option, it seems the majority of deaconesses remain as deaconesses because that is where they have found their calling - 'to serve the present age.'"

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.