BAGUIO CITY, Philippines—In the early landscapes of Baguio City from the 1920s to the 1930s, a simple chapel which evolved into a cathedral had stood proud on the west side of Burnham Park.
This structure announced the advent of Protestantism, whose seeds were first sown by early Filipino converts evangelized by Dr. Howard W. Widdoes, an American missionary. Widdoes and his wife arrived in the country in 1904 and began their mission in La Union.
Some of the Ilocano converts moved to Baguio and together with more converts “came together in fellowship” on Feb. 11, 1911, to establish the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB).
The EUB soon became the Baguio United Evangelical Church, which came to be known as the “Protestant Cathedral” in the 1930s, the forerunner of what is now the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)-Baguio.
Now 100 years old, the UCCP-Baguio held a three-day celebration of “a century of God’s faithfulness and love.” Some 1,000 members paraded with torches around the city on Feb. 11; launched a centennial book, dedicated a historical marker’s site, and unveiled a “Faith Founders Wall” on Feb. 12; and held a centennial anniversary thanksgiving and worship service on Feb. 13.
<strong>Historical</strong>
“Our centennial celebration is very historical because it is very much part of the history of Protestantism in the country and the history of Baguio as a chartered city,” says Bishop Marino Inong, UCCP-Baguio senior pastor. Baguio was established as a chartered city by the Americans on Sept. 1, 1909.
Like other mainstream Protestant churches in the Philippines, the UCCP traces its roots to the American missionaries, who came to the archipelago at the turn of the 20th century.
The first missionaries served as chaplains of the US Armed Forces, which occupied the country after Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States in 1898 under the Treaty of Paris.
For better coordination and to avoid duplication, the American colonizers and their missionaries partitioned the Philippines for mission work.
On April 26, 1901, they formed what was called the Evangelical Union, which was preceded by a Board of Christian Strategy composed of missionaries who were in the country before the Union.
The idea of the Union was to divide the country into areas and its mission was assigned an area for evangelical work.
The UCCP-Baguio sprang from the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, a small mission led by the Widdoes couple in La Union. Later, the mission expanded to the Cordillera through Baguio.
After Baguio was established as a chartered city, “what became a summer capital also became perfect fertile ground for evangelization,” says a UCCP-Baguio historical document.
<strong>Peacetime bliss, war</strong>
The UCCP-Baguio experienced both peacetime bliss and the painful impact of the last war.
Despite difficulties, the period from the early 1900s until 1939 was considered “peacetime bliss,” which enabled mission workers to build and plant churches.
The simple EUB chapel was transformed into a Gothic church in 1928. It was formally dedicated in April 1930 and renamed the Baguio Evangelical Church.
But that calm was disrupted from 1940 to 1945 during the Japanese invasion. With the presence of the American-established Camp John Hay Air Base in Baguio, Japanese planes dropped bombs in what was a quiet and beautiful mountain city in the early morning of Dec. 8, 1941.
Every resident was caught by surprise after 27 planes circled the city once and came back flying over Camp John Hay and dropping bombs. Despite the war, which left many Filipinos homeless and forced others to flee to the hills, the Baguio Evangelical Church served as safe haven.
On March 15, 1945, the Americans bombed Baguio, shelling suspected Japanese camps and trenches. The church was not spared.
Those who took refuge in the church basement were “shielded by the Lord’s hand and saved from further agony and anguish,” says a UCCP-Baguio historical document.
Baltazara Gatchalian, one of the refugees, recalled how “they prayed hard and begged the Lord to save all those huddled in the church basement.”
After the smoke cleared, they saw a big hole in the wall caused by shrapnel, just a meter and a half above their heads. Despite the terror and anguish, and “with tears of joy, we thanked and praised God with loud voices,” Gatchalian said. “How God answered prayers!”
<strong>Rebuilding</strong>
The UCCP-Baguio was one of the first buildings to rise in the postwar landscape, says Erlyn Ruth Alcantara, a church member. It was rebuilt on the original foundations of the Protestant Cathedral.
“To many survivors, this became the symbol of strength they needed to help them heal from the trauma of war,” Alcantara says.
“Together with the rising of the church also grew a firm bond of Christian fellowship among church members as they faced the aftermath of war together with a stronger, deeper faith in God,” she says.
After the war, the UCCP-Baguio helped rebuild Baguio through its evangelization and literacy programs. These, in turn, helped develop local leaders, says Bishop Emeritus Juan Marigza, a former UCCP-Baguio pastor.
According to a UCCP-Baguio primer, the programs also “helped reconstruct and rehabilitate the psyche and spirit of a traumatized people.”
Today, after 100 years and with over 3,000 members, the church has “kept alive many time-honored traditions that fostered Christian fellowship,” Alcantara says.
In Alcantara’s historical presentation, the UCCP-Baguio paid tribute to its “faith founders” and its leaders involved in various aspects of community life—educators, lawyers, judges, doctors, media practitioners, cultural workers and other professionals.