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Out-going CPBC General Secretary Job Santiago speaks at the 75th anniversary dedication
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Dan and Sharon Buttry at the 75th Anniversary Marker
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Missionary martyrs appear in heaven (on stage) in historical drama
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Sharon Buttry with Muslim and Baptist leaders during the Mindanao Interfaith Peace Forum
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75th anniversary plaque
My wife Sharon and I journeyed to Iloilo City in the Philippines to share in the Biennial Assembly of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC--the Filipinos love acronyms!). It was a historic occasion--the 75 anniversary of CPBC, and thus the 75th anniversary of mission partnership between CPBC and IM (International Ministries). The theme for the Assembly was drawn from Jesus' words in the Gospel of John: "My Peace I Give to You."
110 years ago American Baptist missionaries first went to the Philippines and began evangelizing and planting churches. Once the CPBC was founded the partnership between the IM (actually at that time known as ABFMS--American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society) and the Philippine Baptists took an institutionalized form that continues to this day. Over the years many missionaries have served in the Philippines. Right now we have no resident missionaries, but we still have an effective and dynamic partnership, which was illustrated by what happened related to the assembly.
In a pre-assembly event Sharon and I and Ben Chan, the Area Director for IM who relates to the Philippines, joined with CPBC leaders in the dedication of a memorial marker of the 75 years of CPBC life and witness. At that same time we also dedicated the new building raised on the CPBC compound to expand their administrative capacity as well as provide space for church-related businesses for income-generation to support the CPBC's mission work. Ben's presence represented the financial partnership in which IM had provided a financial grant to help with the construction of the building. (Ben also preached repeatedly and consulted with CPBC leaders about ways to maintain and strengthen their mission.) Our gift was an expression of our missiology at IM of empowering the national leadership of our mission partners, here enabling the CPBC to develop new sources of revenue and new capital assets to sustain their growing and long-term mission work.
Sharon and I preached a plenary message at the assembly on the topic of reconciliation out of the traumas of violence. The Philippines is under-going a complex web of conflict. There is the conflict in Mindanao which involves three different insurgencies related to issues of ethnic and Islamist desires for self-determination or secession in some form. There is the decades-long Communist insurgency of the New People's Army which has been growing in power due to the chronic economic injustice experienced by the poor. Then there is a culture of political violence centered around systemic corruption, which erupted to the forefront a few months ago with a stunning massacre of over 40 people--political figures, journalists and other people in the wrong place at the wrong time in Mindanao. How will the Filipino Baptists show the peace of Christ in their context? This was the question Sharon and I were asked to address both in our plenary dialogical address and in a series of workshops and trainings we held around the country during and following the assembly.
During the assembly the youth group from a local church performed a powerful drama in choreographed movement, music and narration about the 75 year history of the CPBC. Seldom has history been so profoundly expressed in a church setting--what a great way to share it and for the younger generation to learn it! Their performance covered one particularly poignant chapter of the mission partnership between IM and the CPBC and violent conflict--the martyrdom of 11 American Baptist missionaries by the Japanese army during World War II. The missionaries had been hidden by the Philippine Baptists in a beautiful remote forest valley they called Hopevale. They were eventually discovered by the Japanese Army and beheaded. The youth group portrayed their arrest and martyrdom, ending with the missionaries clad in white in heaven. This especially touched my heart as an American Baptist missionary walking in their footsteps. Every time I go to the American Baptist Assembly at Green Lake I pay a meditative visit to the Hopevale Memorial and ponder the cost of discipleship as we take up the cross to follow our Lord Jesus. Here in the Philippines the blood of the martyrs is still fresh.
Though IM currently has no resident missionaries in the Philippines, our mission partnership continues through many ways, including my invitation to come as a IM's Global Consultant for Peace and Justice. Feraz Legita, the Director of Development for CPBC, which includes peacemaking work, took Sharon and I down to Mindanao. We explored some of the context of the conflict, met with various peace organization, and then facilitated an interfaith forum at the Southern Christian College in Midsayap. At the forum we had Christians from Catholics to Baptists and Pentecostals, Muslims and indigenous people following their traditional religions. Sharon and I taught some conflict transformation concepts that are helpful in assessing what is going on and finding constructive ways to act. Then we facilitated the interfaith conversations find some ways to common understanding and joint action for peace. It was a delightful and highly energetic encounter.
So at the marking point of 75 years of Philippine Baptist witness, we were there. Ben Chan, Sharon and I were expressing with our presence and ministry the on-going partnership of IM with the CPBC. But you were there, too! It was your calling and commitment that sent us. It was your prayers that sustained us. It was your prayers that kept us safe as we traveled in areas where even some of our Filipino hosts were concerned about our well-being. It was your financial support that enabled the new CPBC building to be constructed. It was your financial support that enabled Sharon and I to travel to the Philippines and hold conflict transformation workshops in four different islands including Mindanao. You were there, and we thank you!
What will the future hold. We don't know. The challenges of poverty, corruption and violence in the Philippines are still present in daunting ways. There are millions of people who don't know the saving love and hope of Jesus Christ. But the Philippine Baptists are strong and growing. They have vibrant youth moving into positions of leadership and exercising their gifts. They have elders still aflame with mission passion. And they still welcome us to share in partnership with them, bringing our gifts to join in witness for Christ together. The future is as bright as the promises of God.
In hope and joy,
Dan Buttry
110 years ago American Baptist missionaries first went to the Philippines and began evangelizing and planting churches. Once the CPBC was founded the partnership between the IM (actually at that time known as ABFMS--American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society) and the Philippine Baptists took an institutionalized form that continues to this day. Over the years many missionaries have served in the Philippines. Right now we have no resident missionaries, but we still have an effective and dynamic partnership, which was illustrated by what happened related to the assembly.
In a pre-assembly event Sharon and I and Ben Chan, the Area Director for IM who relates to the Philippines, joined with CPBC leaders in the dedication of a memorial marker of the 75 years of CPBC life and witness. At that same time we also dedicated the new building raised on the CPBC compound to expand their administrative capacity as well as provide space for church-related businesses for income-generation to support the CPBC's mission work. Ben's presence represented the financial partnership in which IM had provided a financial grant to help with the construction of the building. (Ben also preached repeatedly and consulted with CPBC leaders about ways to maintain and strengthen their mission.) Our gift was an expression of our missiology at IM of empowering the national leadership of our mission partners, here enabling the CPBC to develop new sources of revenue and new capital assets to sustain their growing and long-term mission work.
Sharon and I preached a plenary message at the assembly on the topic of reconciliation out of the traumas of violence. The Philippines is under-going a complex web of conflict. There is the conflict in Mindanao which involves three different insurgencies related to issues of ethnic and Islamist desires for self-determination or secession in some form. There is the decades-long Communist insurgency of the New People's Army which has been growing in power due to the chronic economic injustice experienced by the poor. Then there is a culture of political violence centered around systemic corruption, which erupted to the forefront a few months ago with a stunning massacre of over 40 people--political figures, journalists and other people in the wrong place at the wrong time in Mindanao. How will the Filipino Baptists show the peace of Christ in their context? This was the question Sharon and I were asked to address both in our plenary dialogical address and in a series of workshops and trainings we held around the country during and following the assembly.
During the assembly the youth group from a local church performed a powerful drama in choreographed movement, music and narration about the 75 year history of the CPBC. Seldom has history been so profoundly expressed in a church setting--what a great way to share it and for the younger generation to learn it! Their performance covered one particularly poignant chapter of the mission partnership between IM and the CPBC and violent conflict--the martyrdom of 11 American Baptist missionaries by the Japanese army during World War II. The missionaries had been hidden by the Philippine Baptists in a beautiful remote forest valley they called Hopevale. They were eventually discovered by the Japanese Army and beheaded. The youth group portrayed their arrest and martyrdom, ending with the missionaries clad in white in heaven. This especially touched my heart as an American Baptist missionary walking in their footsteps. Every time I go to the American Baptist Assembly at Green Lake I pay a meditative visit to the Hopevale Memorial and ponder the cost of discipleship as we take up the cross to follow our Lord Jesus. Here in the Philippines the blood of the martyrs is still fresh.
Though IM currently has no resident missionaries in the Philippines, our mission partnership continues through many ways, including my invitation to come as a IM's Global Consultant for Peace and Justice. Feraz Legita, the Director of Development for CPBC, which includes peacemaking work, took Sharon and I down to Mindanao. We explored some of the context of the conflict, met with various peace organization, and then facilitated an interfaith forum at the Southern Christian College in Midsayap. At the forum we had Christians from Catholics to Baptists and Pentecostals, Muslims and indigenous people following their traditional religions. Sharon and I taught some conflict transformation concepts that are helpful in assessing what is going on and finding constructive ways to act. Then we facilitated the interfaith conversations find some ways to common understanding and joint action for peace. It was a delightful and highly energetic encounter.
So at the marking point of 75 years of Philippine Baptist witness, we were there. Ben Chan, Sharon and I were expressing with our presence and ministry the on-going partnership of IM with the CPBC. But you were there, too! It was your calling and commitment that sent us. It was your prayers that sustained us. It was your prayers that kept us safe as we traveled in areas where even some of our Filipino hosts were concerned about our well-being. It was your financial support that enabled the new CPBC building to be constructed. It was your financial support that enabled Sharon and I to travel to the Philippines and hold conflict transformation workshops in four different islands including Mindanao. You were there, and we thank you!
What will the future hold. We don't know. The challenges of poverty, corruption and violence in the Philippines are still present in daunting ways. There are millions of people who don't know the saving love and hope of Jesus Christ. But the Philippine Baptists are strong and growing. They have vibrant youth moving into positions of leadership and exercising their gifts. They have elders still aflame with mission passion. And they still welcome us to share in partnership with them, bringing our gifts to join in witness for Christ together. The future is as bright as the promises of God.
In hope and joy,
Dan Buttry