Philippine Independent Church
The Philippine Independent Church, officially referred to by its Philippine Spanish name Iglesia Filipina Independiente and colloquially called the Aglipayan Church, is an independent catholic Christian denomination, in the form of a nationalist church, in the Philippines. Its revolutionary nationalist schism from the Catholic Church in the Philippines was proclaimed during the American colonial period in 1902, following the end of the Philippine–American War, by members of the country's first labor union federation, the Unión Obrera Democrática Filipina.
The foundation of the church was a response to the historical mistreatment and racial discrimination of Filipinos by Spaniard priests and partly influenced by the unjust executions of José Rizal and Filipino priests and prominent secularization movement figures Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora, during the former Spanish colonial rule in the country when Catholicism was still the state religion.
Overview
The Filipino historian Teodoro Agoncillo has described the Philippine Independent Church as "the only living and tangible result of the Philippine Revolution". Ever since its inception, the IFI Aglipayanism is widely characterized as a schismatic, rather than a heretical movement, although the church itself and its congregation distance themselves from the "schismatic" description and prefers the term "independence" instead. Despite not being in full communion with the Catholic Church, the Philippine Independent Church universally maintains and adheres to the core set of beliefs and practices of broader catholicity.The Philippine Independent Church is the country's first and oldest wholly Filipino-led independent Christian church. Its central office is located at the National Cathedral of the Holy Child in Ermita, Manila. At present, it is ecumenically in full communion with the worldwide Anglican Communion, the third largest Christian communion in the world, while still maintaining its independence as per their concordat and does not require from either the acceptance of all doctrinal opinions. Although marked with Anglican influence, the Philippine Independent Church had come to develop its own liturgy, traditions, and theology distinct from Anglicanism. While Trinitarian, the Philippine Independent Church had unofficially shifted to a Unitarian theological doctrine briefly during its earliest years before reverting to Trinitarianism in 1947.
The Philippine Independent Church has historically been involved in social and political issues in the Philippines, advocating for workers' rights, social justice, and nationalism. It has supported movements for land reform, sustainable development, indigenous rights, and workers' rights, making it one of the more socially active churches in the country.
History
Gregorio Aglipay and the Philippine Revolution
was an activist and Latin Catholic priest from Ilocos Norte, who would later be excommunicated by then Archbishop of Manila, Bernardino Nozaleda, for "usurpation of ecclesiastical jurisdiction" by joining Emilio Aguinaldo's libertarian movement and suspicion in possibly fomenting schism with the Pope in 1899 at the height of the Philippine–American War.During the earlier Philippine Revolution, Aglipay and his former college schoolmate and fellow anti-friar Isabelo de los Reyes, an ilustrado author, journalist, and labour activist who was in exile in Spain at the time, acted to reform the Filipino Catholic clergy which was then dominated and controlled by Spanish friars as Catholicism was the state religion at the time of the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines. At the time, the vast majority of native Filipino priests were already prohibited from administering a parish since 1870 and served only as coadjutors or just assistants to the Spanish friars. Native priests were also denied consecration to the episcopacy. Then-President Emilio Aguinaldo persuaded Aglipay to head the native Filipino clergy by appointing him military vicar general of the Philippine Revolution in 1898, wishing to overthrow the spiritual power of the Spanish friar-bishops.
Aglipay was a member of the Malolos Congress, the lone member coming from the religious sector, although he also represented his home province, as well.
Aglipay was also a guerrilla leader during the Philippine–American War, with the rank of lieutenant-general. He was also the convener of the Filipino Ecclesiastical Council on October 23, 1899, months following his excommunication, in response to the manifesto of former Prime Minister Apolinario Mabini, who first came up with the idea of urging the Filipino clergy to organize a "Filipino national church" as inspired by the secularization movement, but not necessarily a schism from Rome. The idea received support from Aguinaldo. The assembly was attended by 28 native Filipino priests, thus, the short-lived national church was materialized. However, it was disestablished in 1901 following the dissolution of the First Philippine Republic.
Post-excommunication and establishment of the Church by Isabelo de los Reyes and the ''Unión Obrera Democrática''
Following the end of the Philippine–American War, Isabelo de los Reyes, together with the members of Unión Obrera Democrática Filipina, formally founded and publicly proclaimed the commencement of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente on August 3, 1902, at the Centro de Bellas Artes in Quiapo, Manila. The new church faced opposition from the colonial government, which sought to maintain the status quo. The church was later incorporated with the then-Insular Government of the Philippines as a religious corporation sole in 1904. The new church rejected the spiritual authority and infallibility of the Pope and abolished the celibacy requirement for priests, allowing them to marry. At that time, even before Aglipay joined the movement, all of its clergy were former Catholic priests, mostly from Ilocos, with some of whom became the church's first ever nominated and elected bishops by its earliest batch of clergy and laity who mostly belong to various political parties in Manila. Among the first elected bishops was former Latin Catholic priest and vicar forane Pedro Brillantes. The elected bishops then formed the church's first Supreme Council of Bishops. De los Reyes also formed an Executive Committee for the church from the staff of the Unión Obrera Democrática Filipina who drafted the church's early first two Fundamental Epistles, which were later approved by the Supreme Council of Bishops. The elected bishops were then consecrated by the other priests as justified in accordance with the Fundamental Epistles. The first ever bishop to be consecrated in the IFI was Pedro Brillantes, whose consecration took place on October 20, 1902, and proclaimed Bacarra, Ilocos Norte as his episcopal seat. All of the former Latin Catholic clergy who joined the movement were later declared excommunicated by the Catholic Church.Isabelo de los Reyes was the chief initiator of the separation and suggested in absentia that Gregorio Aglipay, knowing that he was influential with the Filipino clergy, should be the founding head, or Obispo Maximo, of the church which was unanimously agreed by the members present in the proclamation. De los Reyes' desire to form a new church was conceptualized upon his repatriation to the Philippines from Spain in 1901 after his talks in 1899 with Giuseppe Francica-Nava de Bontifè, then the Apostolic Nuncio to Spain, to request the Holy See in looking into the conditions of the Philippines had failed. By then, the country had changed from Spanish rule to American. Although the American concept of separation of church and state was introduced in the Philippine Constitution of 1899, Spanish friars were still in control of the parishes all throughout the country, and de los Reyes feared that American clergy would sooner or later replace the Spanish, instead of native Filipinos. Along with the American colonization was the arrival of the American Protestant missionaries in the Philippines starting in 1901. De los Reyes envisioned the new church as a significant move towards Filipino sovereignty, not just politically but also spiritually.
De los Reyes managed to rally enough people from his organization, Unión Obrera Democrática Filipina, the first modern labor union federation in the country wherein he was its first president, to materialize an independent and purely Filipino-led church "conserving all that is good in the Roman Church and eliminating all the deceptions which the Romanists had introduced to corrupt the moral purity and sacredness of the doctrines of Christ." At the time, he had the necessary logistics and resources needed to form a new Filipino-led church, but one: an equipped and empowered bishop to head it.
At first, the already-excommunicated Aglipay was reluctant, as he was initially against a schism and was faithful to the magisterium. He believed that all means of reaching an understanding with Rome should be exhausted first before declaring any schism. Doubting that Aglipay might not take the leadership, the church elected its first batch of bishops, with Pedro Brillantes as the first ever to be consecrated. However, after Aglipay's talks with Jesuit and American Protestant leaders quickly backfired when both were dismissive and would not allow native Filipino priests to lead their respective churches, he eventually accepted de los Reyes' offer to head the independent church and was proclaimed as a bishop by the Supreme Council of Bishops of the newly-formed church on September 6, 1902, while also serving as the de facto "supreme bishop" until he was finally consecrated to the position by his fellow other bishops on January 18, 1903. Thus, the denomination also became known as the "Aglipayan Church", after its first supreme bishop.
Aglipay celebrated his first mass as the de facto Supreme Bishop on October 26, 1902 in the IFI's first central church at Calle Lemery in Tondo, Manila. During his first mass, Apolinario Mabini, who was in exile at the time and in bad health condition, sent a letter of encouragement to the new church. Isabelo de los Reyes himself would later be formally excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1903. De los Reyes assumed the role of the de facto principal theologian, as well as a lay leader, in the church. On October 1, 1902, Aglipay headed the signatories, approval, and promulgation of the very first and short-lived temporary Constitution of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente. Subsequently, Aglipay also formally signed the third up to the sixth and last Fundamental Epistles. In late 1902, the church opened a seminary which was later renamed Seminario Central de Mabini in 1917, named after Apolinario Mabini, at Nancamaliran West, Urdaneta, Pangasinan. With its nationwide campaign, the IFI was able to gain roughly three to five million followers all over the country on its first year of separation from the Catholic Church. All of which are former Catholics, including priests.
File:Aglipayan Old Tondo Cathedral.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The Tondo Cathedral was the Iglesia Filipina Independientes first national cathedral along Calle Azcarraga in Tondo, Manila which was established in 1905. It was heavily destroyed during the Second World War in 1945. It was later replaced by the National Cathedral of the Holy Child in Ermita, Manila.
Immediately after accepting the post, Aglipay demanded both then Governor-General William Howard Taft and Catholic Church authorities to turn-over the church buildings to him on September 27, 1902, starting with the Manila Cathedral, but got rejected. A five-year campaign resulted in the acquisition of nearly one-half of Catholic church properties in the country by Aglipay's followers. However, in 1906, the then-conservative Supreme Court of the Philippines ruled that all property that had been occupied by Aglipay's followers had to be returned to the Catholic Church. The Supreme Court of the United States upheld the decision in 1909. The Aglipayan Church was then forced to move to makeshift quarters, with only a handful of followers able to retain the occupied buildings.