NATIONALISM AND RISE OF THE IEMELIF

In the light of the dynamism of Philippine nationalism, it is natural to ask how The Methodist Church was affected by it. Such a potent force, as gave rise to the Philippine Independent Church, could be expected to have a significant impact on Methodism, as well. Indeed, such was the case.

The first Methodist workers, like other Protestant missionaries, had to contend with a great deal of natural resentment on the part of the Filipinos. America was the enemy with whom the Philippines had been at war; and therefore American missionaries, although not agents of the state, were nonetheless suspect. It was not known whether or not the religion of the new white masters would be as oppressive as that of the old. Bishop Thoburn's first sermon was received with curiosity, but also with a good deal of reserve and even hostility. In time however, these initial fears were lessened. The fairly widespread acceptance, or at least knowledge, of Masonry helped in this process. So did the presence of a few Filipinos, such as Nicolas Zamora's father, who had become Protestants in Europe.

The rapid early growth of Methodism was aided by the leadership of Nicolas Zamora, who, as was mentioned earlier, was ordained to the ministry in March, 1900 shortly after Methodist work began in the Philippines. He, along with Felipe Marquez and the other early Filipino workers, did much to present Evangelical Christianity in terms that were meaningful and relevant to their Filipino hearers. Zamora was quickly thrust into a position of leadership in the Methodist work, serving both as evangelist and as pastor of the First Filipino Church. By 1901 there were, in addition to Zamora, five Filipino local preachers and twenty-nine exhorters.⁵⁵ By 1904, there were two native ordained preachers, nine local preachers and eighty-seven exhorters.⁵⁶ Zamora became a full member of the Annual Conference in 1903,⁵⁷ followed by Felipe Marquez and Teodoro Basconcillo in 1906.⁵⁸ At the same Annual Conference of 1906, eight other Filipinos entered the Conference, as trial members.

Although during these years the actual leadership and decision-making was fully in the hands of the missionaries, these first Filipino Conference members served on some of the committees of the Church. Nonetheless, indigenization did not advance rapidly enough for Zamora, whose nationalistic feelings were still very strong. These feelings were inflamed by two things: first, the policy that was taken by The Methodist Church in America toward Methodism in the Philippines as regards the latter's mission status; and second, the presence of a certain amount of conflict between the missionaries and some of the Filipino nationalists, including Nicolas Zamora.

From 1900 until 1904, the Methodist work in the Philippines had been known as "the Philippine Islands District of the Malaysia Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church of Southern Asia."⁵⁹ In 1905, the status was changed to that of a Mission Conference of the parent body, by action of the General Conference. It officially became known as "the Philippine Islands Mission Conference of The Methodist Episcopal Church of Southern Asia."⁶⁰ In 1908 it was changed from a Mission Conference to an Annual Conference. In the light of later developments, a most significant petition was sent in 1908, to the General Conference regarding the future status of Methodist work in the Philippines. The text of the petition was as follows:

...We, the Philippine Islands Annual Conference… after careful and prayerful consideration do hereby declare that because of the distance from the homeland, the uncertain tenure of our government here, and the character of the work we are called upon to do among these people, it will be to the best interests of the cause that the Philippine work continue to be administered as a foreign field, and that any attempt to change our present status to that of a home; field, might be construed by the people as inimical to the cause of independence, which is dear to the heart of every Filipino, and would thus work great harm to the progress of our cause in these Islands.

We therefore petition the General Conference to permit us to remain in our present status. (italics supplied)

The Women's Conference of the Philippine Islands Mission meeting that same year passed a similar resolution.⁶¹

In 1906, Nicolas Zamora, as Methodism's most experienced and ablest native pastor, had been sent to Tondo where there had been a great deal of unrest. Many of the Methodists there had wanted to separate from The Methodist Church and start their own church under their own leaders. They had founded a society, known as “Katotohanan,” with the purpose of fostering Filipino patriotism and religion. They sought both political independence for the nation and ecclesiastical independence for Philippine Methodism. At the outset Zamora was able to quiet down the agitation from the society and at the same time build up the work of the church in Tondo.⁶² Despite Zamora's continued faithfulness at that time, however, much of the initial cause for the unrest remained. It was becoming increasingly evident that independence for the Philippines from the United States was a long way of. From 1898 until 1901, there had been military rule over the country. Then in 1901, the municipalities were placed in the hands of elected officials and partial autonomy was given to the provincial governments. In 1907, a popularly-elected lower house – known as the Philippine Assembly – was established; and in 1913, with Wilson being elected U.S. President, the upper house – known as the Philippine Commission – came to have, for the first time, a majority of Filipino members. In 1916, the Jones Law abolished the Commission and replaced it with an elective Senate. Thus by 1916, legislation was almost completely in Filipino hands, although such high offices as that of the governor-general and the Supreme Court justices were still appointed by the U.S. President. In 1935, the Philippine Commonwealth officially began.⁶³

Looking back on this process today with the calm, dispassionate eye of history this seems to be an orderly, and even admirable, development. But to have lived through that process, with the fiery blood of nationalism pulsating through one's veins, must have seemed an agonizingly bitter experience. After all, had not the Philippines been proclaimed as the first republic in all of Asia? Had not the Philippines produced, through men like Rizal, magnificent evidence of the fact that she was indeed ready for independence? Had she not been moved by the great liberal tradition of the nineteenth century, that held high the torch of liberty? And if all these things were true, then why must she wait decades more for her independence?

If such were the feelings about the nation as a whole, the same situation prevailed in relation to the Church. Zamora had shown his faithfulness, in the Tondo Circuit, to the Church that had nurtured him. And the missionaries, by their resolution of 1908, had shown that they were sensitive to the nationalist feelings among the members. But unfortunately, some of the Filipinos felt that The Methodist Church in America was not keenly enough aware of these sentiments.

The change of the status from Mission Conference to that of Annual Conference seemed to confirm the fears of the Filipino nationalists. As a Mission Conference the Methodist work had clearly been that of a foreign field. In becoming an Annual Conference, Philippine Methodism gave evidence of its growing numerical strength, but to those desiring complete Filipino independence, this also indicated that the Church in the Philippines was becoming an even more integral part of American Methodism.

At this point the members of the Katotohanan began to win Zamora over to their side. Their cause was aided by tensions that were growing deeper between Nicolas Zamora and some of the missionaries. He had long been dissatisfied with the small voice Filipinos were given ill the actual policy decisions of the Mission Conference. In addition, as a leader who was both highly nationalistic and very capable, he deeply resented the paternalistic attitudes of some of the Americans toward the Filipinos.⁶⁴

The breaking point actually came, however, over differences with some missionaries concerning Zamora's ministerial ethics. It was believed that Zamora had been charging high fees for performing weddings; and that he was also solemnizing some marriages under questionable circumstances, as for instance in marrying minor without parental consent. This issue had been raised with Zamora on several occasions. Finally, in 1909, when the district superintendent raised the issue once more and reminded Zamora of the Church's attitude toward such practices, Zamora responded by announcing that he was withdrawing from the Church.⁶⁵

Thus on February 28, 1909, at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Tondo, Zamora announced the formation La Iglesia E1Jangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas, church to be completely free of foreign control and leadership.⁶⁶ The IEMELIF, as the new church came to be called, grew for the most part among Tagalogs, in and around Manila. Of nine Filipino conference member four followed Zamora, as did 25 out of 121 local preachers. In addition, about 1,500 out of 30,000 Methodists in the Manila District joined the Zamorista schism.⁶⁷ Noteworthy is the fact that "not a Bible woman, a deaconess, or a young person trained in the public schools and able to speak English... (was) drawn into the new organization."⁶⁸ This, then, was by and large a movement of the older Tagalogs, who had been nurtured on a fervent nationalism that a more moderate younger generation did not share.

Zamora became the General Superintendent of the new church and remained in that position until his death His life was sadly ended in 1914 during a cholera epidemic.⁶⁹ The movement he had led however, continued to grow in the decades that followed.

All the early records of the coming of Protestantism to these shores pay high tribute to the capability of Nicolas Zamora. Bishop Isabelo de los Reyes of the Philippine Independent Church referred to Zamora, during the fiftieth anniversary of the IEMELIF in 1959, as "a man who was not swayed by the attraction of pomposity, even of honor, who did not fall to the temptation of power, who dedicated his life in order to gain the full freedom of Philippine Methodism."⁷⁰ Bishop de los Reyes was paying tribute, of course, to a man who, like Aglipay, had started a church free of any foreign ties. A brief biography of Zamora, published by the IEMELIF, describes the beginnings of their church:

During those times different politicians in America and in the Philippines made statements concerned with the ability of Filipinos to govern their own countrymen. It is said that during a discussion of this topic in the Congress of the United States...in 1902, there were testimonies by some leading Catholics and Protestants that Filipinos did not yet have sufficient ability to govern their own government and church. This news, a popular topic, was the "spark" that became a flame by the time it reached the Philippines.

These incidents gave no pleasure to many nationalistic Filipinos. Among them were many evangelicals under mission boards. So, during the years 1904-1907 Methodism in the Philippines was shaken. Among some Filipino believers in Tondo arose the desire to separate from The Methodist Episcopal Church and form a free and independent church.
In 1909, The Methodist Episcopal Church flourished in the Philippines. The Filipinos knew that they had done much for the success of Methodism in the Philippines. In the midst of this success...God once again acted in order that a Methodist Church which was truly headed by and meant for Filipino citizens would be set up....Pastor Zamora was gradually won to the side of the preachers (in Tondo) who wanted to separate, even in 1907, from The Methodist Episcopal Church. The schism was seen by (him) as the way to avoid a worsening of the strife between Filipinos and Americans who were servants of God in the Philippines. So Pastor Zamora decided to leave the Church where he was a member since 1899 and established a church that was led by and meant for Filipinos.⁷¹

Zamora wrote in a letter dated March 5, 1909:

We do not have ill feeling nor hatred toward the Americans and their colleagues. We only want to be independent.⁷²

In one of his sermons he said:

It is the will of God for the Filipino nation that the Evangelical Church in the Philippines be established which will proclaim the Holy Scriptures through the leadership of its countrymen.⁷³

Over the years La Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas has remained the largest among a number of small, completely indigenous evangelical churches. By 1948, the IEMELIF had forty-five churches, seventy-six ministers, thirty women workers and 20,000 members.⁷⁴ Despite some tensions in the early years, the relationship between The Methodist Church and the IEMELIF today is most cordial, the two bodies working side by side in the National Council of Churches in the Philippines. Certainly in this ecumenical era, there is no reason why these two Methodist bodies should not be reunited. It is to be hoped that effective efforts toward this end will emerge in the years ahead.

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