29/05/2026
On May 25, 1948, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) was established through a merger of churches from the Japanese-sponsored Evangelical Church of the Philippines (福音教会) which remained intact after the Second World War. This was the result of the Basis of Union finalized in a conference held at Ellinwood Malate Church, with each jurisdictional area presided by a bishop.
American Reverend Stephen L. Smith was elected as the first General Secretary of the UCCP. By 1952, Reverend Dr. Leonardo Dia was elected as the first Filipino General Secretary of the UCCP.
According to the 1948 Census, Protestants formed 2.3 percent of the Filipino population, the fourth (4th) largest religious affiliation in the Philippines after the Roman Catholic Church (82.9 percent), the Aglipayan Church (7.6 percent), and Islam (4.1 percent). Among other notable members, the UCCP produced the first Protestant Christian President of the Philippines, Fidel V. Ramos (elected in 1992), and three Senate Presidents, namely Camilo Osias, Jovito Salonga, and Neptali Gonzales, Sr.
In April 1943, the Japanese looked into religious nationalism as a way to integrate Filipino cooperation with the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. According to General Yoshihide Hayashi (林 義秀), then Director of the Japanese Military Administration a year prior, there was need for a "great spiritual revolution" in the Philippines if the Filipinos hoped to create a strong, healthy, and independent country similar to Japan. This was aligned with the Japanese call for Filipino religious nationalism, which efforts focused on non-Roman Catholic Christians: "The fact that we are a Catholic nation is a historical accident. Along with the Filipinization of politics and economics, we require Filipinization in our spiritual ideals," The Tribune published in a February 5, 1944 article. Besides Evangelicals, the Japanese also expressed support for the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Aglipayan Church), honoring their first Supreme Bishop Gregorio Aglipay (1860-1940) through state-sponsored Mass, among others.
The Japanese-sponsored union of Christian churches was similar in the ecumenical spirit of the Evangelical Church (Iglesia Evangelica) established by Protestant Christian missionaries from the United States on April 26, 1901 to coordinate the work of all Protestant denominations and churches throughout the Philippines. However, unlike the earlier American version, the Evangelical Church of the Philippines was intended by the Japanese to be led by Filipinos themselves. More so, the Japanese decided to include in this union churches and religious groups already organized and led by Filipino ministers, such as Nicolas Zamora's Iglesia Evangelica Metodista en las Islas Filipinas (IEMELIF, 1909), and Felix Manalo's Iglesia ni Kristo (1914, later renamed as Iglesia ni Cristo or INC in its Amended Articles of Incorporation by 1948).
According to INC history, Felix Manalo (1886-1963) was offered by the Japanese to lead this Evangelical union. Allegedly during the course of negotiations, Manalo eventually refused the Japanese offer, raising suspicions against the INC founder. At this time, Manalo's credibility was also challenged, when on April 21, 1942 Court of Appeals Justice Francisco Enage ruled against Manalo in a libel case. On June 29, 1942, Manalo issued a circular designating Prudencio Vasquez, the first INC supervising district minister for Nueva Ecija, as the INC Executive Minister to succeed him, acceding to the Japanese demand. Furthermore, Manalo reassured INC members that he would remain in their church despite the change in leadership. Although the Iglesia ni Kristo would not participate in the Japanese-sponsored Evangelical Church of the Philippines, according to Hukbalahap leader Luis Taruc, INC members were then recruited as "civilian guards" during the Second World War.
Baptized a Roman Catholic as Felix Ysagun, Manalo stopped taking formal education when the Philippine Revolution erupted in 1896. Between this and his introduction to Protestantism, Manalo was involved in farming and hatmaking. By 1904, Manalo became a member of Zamora's Methodist congregation. Thereafter, he entered the auspices of the Presbyterians, the Disciples of Christ, and the Adventists, until December 25, 1913, when Manalo preached to and baptized the first members of the newly independent Iglesia ni Kristo. He was ordained as presiding minister of the INC on December 25, 1918 by representatives of the American-sponsored Iglesia Evangelica (Evangelical Church), the IEMELIF, and the Iglesia de los Cristianos Filipinos.
It would be Reverend Dr. Enrique Sobrepeña, Sr. (1899-1978) of the United Evangelical Church of the Philippines (UEC) who would be elected as the first and only Presiding Bishop of this Evangelical union. A survivor of the Bataan Death March, the US-educated Sobrepeña received his Doctor of Divinity in 1935 and his Doctor of Laws in 1937. While studying in the United States, Sobrepeña established a church plant for Filipino migrants. He was also an elected delegate of La Union for the 1934 Constitutional Convention. During the early phase of the war, Sobrepeña served as Chaplain Major of the Philippine Army Reserve Force.
Sobrepeña had been at the forefront of unifying Filipino churches even prior to the Second World War, particularly with the organization of the UEC on March 15, 1929 by Presbyterian, Congregationalist, United Brethren, and United Churches of Manila, implementing the 1924 Nanjing (Nanking) Agreement. Leading the Japanese-sponsored Evangelical union, however, challenged Sobrepeña's credibility. Around half of the congregations under the UEC decided not to join the Evangelical Church, believing that the Japanese rhetoric of religious nationalism was nothing more than an instrument to support Filipino collaboration with Japan. While other Christian churches also did not join, such as the Philippine Council of the Assemblies of God, segments of the Adventists, the Methodists, the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo (Unida Church), the Disciples of Christ, the IEMELIF, the Iglesia Evangelica Nacional (National Evangelical Church), and other independent local congregations participated in the UEC-led Evangelical union. On June 22, 1945, Sobrepeña was arrested and charged for collaborating with the Japanese. He was acquitted on August 6, 1945, in favor of his defense that he was forced to cooperate. Sobrepeña would later be part of the UCCP.
Meanwhile, the UCCP continued to grow. As of 1970, membership has exceeded 140,000 according to author Arthur Tuggy, leading the pack of the largest Protestant churches in the country. By 1974, the UCCP had formally adopted and ratified its constitution and by-laws. With this new setup came the election of its first Chairperson, Dr. Eliezer Mapanao. Among the significant positions of the church reiterated at this juncture was the denunciation of the human rights violations during the implementation of Martial Law, proclaimed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. in September 1972.
For its public positions on national and local issues, the UCCP also endured criticism and controversy, even to this day. As observed by the US Department of State in 2020, the UCCP was one of the religious groups labeled by the Philippine government as an "open sectoral organization" of the Communist armed rebel wing New People's Army (NPA). The UCCP had tried to dispel "red-tagging" attempts against the church, to the point of resorting to bringing their case to the Supreme Court.
Another significant decision reached at this time was the moratorium on receiving foreign missionaries. This formed an issue in particular with the entry of Korean missionaries from the Presbyterian Church of Korea (HapDong), led by the first Korean missionary in the Philippines, Reverend Kim Hwal-young (Gerardo Kim). In March 1977, Kim arrived in the Philippines to preach the Gospel. Considering the UCCP had Presbyterian roots, Kim attempted to establish relations with the federation of churches in hopes to amplify evangelism efforts. When the discussions did not come to fruition, Kim went on to unify the Korean missionary movement instead and formed the Evangelical Presbyterian Mission (EPM), an organization that would serve as foundation of the Presbyterian Church of the Philippines established in 1987.
In 1988, the UCCP launched its program to build 2,000 new churches by the year 2000. According to the 1990 Philippine Census, UCCP membership reached 902,446, forming around 1.5 percent of the Filipino population. Statistically, this constituted the high water point of UCCP membership, as subsequent editions of the Philippine Census would show lower number of adherents for the UCCP.
In 2006, the UCCP approved its current Statement of Faith (revised from the 1986 version), affirming its Trinitarian theology and its belief that the church as the Body of Christ is the whole community of persons reconciled to God.
How did the Christian movement spread across the archipelago? More about the Evangelical cause: https://history-ph.blogspot.com/2017/01/evangelicalism.html
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