“If our Church has been able to offer the Filipinos such a rapid transition from Roman Catholicism to Rationalistic Christianity, it has been due in great measure to the liberal writings of our National Heroes. We trust that our Independent Church will continue its work of enlightenment and progress forever.”          --Isabelo de los Reyes, Sr., Bishop of Manila, 1939

 

 

The CUC Partner Church Committee wants to bring you information today about the possibility of forging a partner relationship with a Unitarian Universalist Congregation in the village of Doldol in the Philippines. Zachary Morrice and Kathleen Judd will offer reflections and Martha Chattergee and David Finch will also take part in the service.

 

The Philippine UU congregations are generally village serving farming populations, rather different from the middle and upper middle class population of American congregations.. Most of the 26 UU congregations in the Philippines were founded more than 50 years ago by Toribio Quimada, one of the people in the world who independently had the insight that a loving God, a God worth believing in, would be a God who would bring salvation to everyone and everything – a belief in universalism.   Quimada had become a bishop in a church called Iglesia Universal de Christo – not a Universalist Church -- but the name encouraged Quimada to develop his own thoughts about universal salvation. He was frustrated because he did not have religious education materials for adults or children, and he decided that he would need to look to other parts of the world for those. One day, in 1951, a strange thing happened. He received a letter wrapped in an old piece of newsprint. He looked at the newspaper page. It was from the United States (1951, and it included a list of churches. Among them was the Universalist Church of Wisconsin. He wrote to that church, and thus began a relationship between US and Philippine churches that has been present, to some degree, ever since.

 

We are in the development phase of a partnership with one of those village congregations.  In March Zach Morrice will travel with me on a Partner Church organized trip. I want you to meet Zach today and learn a little about what motivates a high school senior to make contact with Unitarian Univeralists on the other side of the world.

 

 

Personal Reflection                                                                             Zachary Morrice

“Tienes miedo?” my host brother suddenly asked me. “Claro que no!” Rather quickly I responded, “Yo puedo hacer todo!”

 

The truth was that I was filled with terror of what lay ahead. My apprehension grew as the car advanced up the mountain at such a slow pace that I thought that the world was frozen in time. “Am I actually going to go through with this? What if something goes terribly wrong?” I worried. All too soon, we reached the top of the mountain and a new emotion overcame me. The fear I had gave way to excitement; I was actually going to do something I had never done before.

 

I put on the equipment and the instructor explained what to do next. “RUN? Like down the mountain? Are you sure that will work?” I asked him. Even though I knew that this was an everyday activity for him, I was still scared. Yet, I knew I was safe. Partly encouraged by the instructor’s quick nod of assurance, I ran, hoping not to go off the edge and plummet to a sure death.

 

In seconds I was off the mountain and shocked at the amazing sight of the ground thousands of feet below me. The apprehension I previously felt seemed ridiculous now.

I had a bird’s eye view of life. Soaring through the air, I could see the whole world. Dirt roads weaved in and out of the mountains and small villages. Off in the distance, I saw Ibarra, known as The White City because of its white-washed houses and cobblestone streets. A lake far in front of me reflected the many gentle clouds visible in the sky. I then felt myself spiraling down as the graceful wings of the paraglider turned toward the earth. Although the paraglider might have been graceful, I was not. I hit the ground with a thud. 

 

What I just described to you was my exhilarating paragliding adventure in Ecuador. As a foreign exchange student, I stayed with a host family and for six weeks, experienced first-hand a culture completely different from my own. I grew to love the country’s music, rich food, traditions, and people. I also saw unbelievable sights as well as learning of the dire situation the country is in. My trip not only enhanced my perception of the world by teaching me a different culture, but also contributed to a growing passion to help people in my community and the world.

 

Our seventh Unitarian Universalist principle, adopted in 1985, states that everyone should have “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” In March, I will be traveling with Rev Carol and the Unitarian Universalist Partnership Church Counsel to visit various churches in the Philippines, as well as our own partner church in Doldol. There are many valuable lessons that can be learned from our international friends and while in the Philippines, I am excited to learn of the different forms that Unitarian Universalism can take. My goal is to share my own traditions and experiences in the United States, and return with valuable knowledge from the far side of the world to share with our church. I can’t wait for another adventure of a lifetime. Thank you.

 

Personal Reflection                                                                             Kathleen Judd

In January, 2008, I accepted an invitation to go on a Partner Church Council trip to the Philippines. I wasn’t sure what to expect. The Philippines? All I could come up was that it was tropical country in Asia with a woman who bought a lot of shoes.   Still, it was what I was looking for: an adventure and a way to become more involved. 

           

So it was in March I flew into the Philippines and met my fellow UU travelers.   I then discovered that at forty-two I was the youngest person on the trip.   And I was on my toes to keep up with my older fellow travelers. We also learned that we were the guinea pigs as this was the first trip to the Philippines by the Partner Church Council.

           

We covered a lot on that trip, but I will focus on Doldol which we have an opportunity to partner with. To get to Doldol we had to drive up a dirt road up a mountain. It took some doing but our intrepid driver made it. Once there we were greeted by the Unitarian Universalists of the village.   We went to their church, passing the old UU church to get to the new one they had built. On the walls of the church were the eight UU principals. Yes, eight. The Philippines added an extra principal – “God is love”. This is an important idea in the Philippines as many UU Philippines are attracted to the hope and love expressed in our theology. A service was led by Arman Pedro, the lay UU leader in the village.

           

After the service we went to the town center. Here something happened that hadn’t occurred in any of the other villages. The whole town – Catholics and Unitarian Universalists -- welcomed us. We were lead up to a stage and presented with hats that the villagers had made. The town leaders then welcomed us. We were then treated to a show. First a dance group expertly showed us some of the traditional dances of the Philippines. Then the girls of the villages entertained us with the modern dances. 

           

After the show we joined the villagers in a feast of snacks that they had prepared for us. It was enough to feed a small army. It was during this time that we spoke to Arman and the other leaders of the village that he works with. This was possible because Arman and some of the other residents speak English.   When asked how they work so well together their answer was simple. They had agreed to not to try to convert each other to their faiths.   In other words their objective was to do what was best for the village and let each other find and live with their own truths.

           

All in all I found my trip to the Philippines to be a strange time trip. I saw our past as Unitarian Universalist might had been when it first helped shaped the liberty and democracy of this country.     I was also in the future seeing how Unitarian Universalism could spread throughout the world and become enriched by the different cultures where it could grow.   

 

 

 

 

Reading                          from “Maglipay Universalist”                by the Rev. Fred Muir

                                                Margaret Chattergee, reader

There was already a rich history of interaction with the American Unitarian Association, before Bishop Quimada sent his letter to that Univeraslist congregation in Wisconsin. The Rev. Fred Muir, now the minister of our UU congregation in Annapolis, has researched these relationships and published a book on UU Church of the Philippines. He offers a quotation from Louis Cornish, a leader of the American Unitarian Church, who wrote in 1936:

 

 

Muir continues: “Louise Cornish’s observations and veiled plea for insight, respect, and understanding are as relevant today as they were in 1936. . . Cornish was saying then, and it could apply today as well: Don’t judge the Philippine liberal church or rush to complain about its theology and practices based on initial impressions: experience and learn about it, be open to them.”[1]

 

                                   

Homily                                                                                   The Rev. Carol Huston      

Bishop Toribio Quimada discovered Universalism – the belief that a loving God would not send a part of his creation to damnation, but would ultimately save all of creation -- as a part of his own spiritual odyssey. He is not the only person in history to do so.   An Englishman, John Murray, did so in the 18^th Century. An American, Hosea Ballou, refined the thought in the 19^th. A Canadian named Magnus Skaptason, repeated the same story. And most recently an Evangelical minister named Carlton Pearson has done so in Tulsa, Oklahoma and brought his congregation into relationship with All Souls Unitarian Church there. The visions of John Murray and Hosea Ballou resulted in a Universalist denomination in this country. The vision of Toribio Quimada resulted in a small but stalwart denomination in the Philippines, linked, by the accident of that piece of newspaper, to our American Unitarian Universalist Association.

 

Why should we here in White Plains link ourselves with a small congregation in a farming village? A trip to the Philippines and face-to-face meeting with people in that congregation will enable me to make a better answer to that question, but interaction with some of the leaders of the UUCP, and the book by my colleague Fred Muir helps to demonstrate what we can learn from this outpost of Unitarian Universalism on Negros Island.

 

The short passage that Martha Chattergee read reminds us that the congregations in the Philippines won’t look exactly like ours, nor should they, because the context is so different. Rev. Muir outlines the influences that shape the Philippine congregations:

 

First there is Roman Catholicism. It is the only inheritance of more than 300 years of Spanish occupation – not even the Spanish language is present today, but Catholicism is there in every part of the society, from the presence of a “worship box” on editorial pages of the newspapers, though the idea that many courtrooms display relics of saints. When people in the Philippines think of worship, they think of the Mass, and that structure is present in our congregations.

 

But more important in this context is the history of oppression in the Philippines, oppression by the Church, by the government, and by poverty itself. We Americans are part of this. We took ownership of the Philippines from Spain in 1898, briefly as a peaceful gesture, and then in a bloody response to resistance. And a Unitarian was present at the outset: William Howard Taft, an active Unitarian before and after he was elected President of the United States, was the civilian governor of the Philippines from 1900 through 1903, and he brought Unitarian connection as a part of the general liberal religious influences that developed there in the early 20^th century. The links are indeed long and offer us invitation to remain involved.

 

And of course, poverty still oppresses the Philippine people, a rural poverty of a sort that we haven’t seen in this country for a long time. They have development needs that we will hear about, but another congregation, Annapolis – which is, by the way, Fred Muir’s congregation --  will be working with Doldol around those needs. On our side, we have already sent a shipment of children’s books, preparing a shipment of books for young adults right now. English is taught in the schools, as the only language that can unify a country which has many differing dialects on its islands. And you may recall we gave 25% of our Sunday plate offering to the Doldol congregation last March. That money – a little over $400 -- has been used to add a bathroom to the church building. (Wish that would work here!)