"This is a time to celebrate the great vibrancy of faith and commitment to the Gospel of tens of millions of Filipinos here and all over the world. It is a time to be grateful for how the values of the Gospel of Jesus have endured for 500 years despite being historically so enmeshed with colonial oppression."
"As part of celebrating the 500th anniversary of Christianity’s arrival in the Philippines, I was involved in crafting the common statement from the different Christian churches of the Philippines. The quincentenary was deemed an opportune moment by the different church leaders to strengthen the ecumenical effort towards unity in faith."
Living in faith is being open to see and recognize the many faces of God in our world. Growing in faith is being able to go beyond the self and work together as one community, regardless of gender, faith, nationality, culture and age, for the good of all and of our planet Earth.
We, Columban Lay Missionaries, yearn to find and celebrate God’s loving presence among people everywhere and in all of God’s creation.
This interview was featured in an online symposium, “Remembering Tatay Bido: A Man of Contemplation”, as part of a series of symposia celebrating the Year of Interreligious Dialogue (2020) in the Philippine Church.
The events that first brought Christianity to our shores also brought much division, discrimination, sowing the first seeds of conflict between the Christians, Muslims and Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines.
"Although my husband and I have expressed it in many different ways during the different stages of their life, the love we have for our children will be forever evolving. We give our love to them freely because we, too, have received love freely."
Our faith has continued to grow and develop in so far as we have been able to respond to all these new challenges. It is thanks to the wisdom and faith-commitment of the people with whom we have lived and worked over the years that God has allowed our Columban Mission to evolve into what it is today. We can look back with immense gratitude, as we face an uncertain future with renewed joy and hope.
As we mark 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines, we celebrate the ways in which our faith in Christ has grown up and come of age – how it has learned to respond confidently and courageously, in the face of injustice, greed and conflict, with acts of justice, truth and compassion.
As we celebrate 500 years of Christianity, I pray that every parent will be aware of their responsibility to do what they can so that their children become more responsible and mature Christians.
500 years of Christianity in the Philippines “A time to keep and a time to discard” [Ecclesiastes: 3:6] by Paul Glynn
In our quest for building one Christ-centered learning community, we need to consider the generational difference among us youth. There are other factors that challenge our Christ-centered youth ministry from flourishing.
The Philippines, an archipelagic country composed of 7,600 islands, breeds diversity in culture, language, tradition, and customs. Inevitably, such diversity could sometimes lead to misunderstandings, form a regionalism perspective, and disunity.
"It is hard to imagine how my life would be without the missionaries who came into the country. I am grateful because I am now harvesting the fruits of their labor. "
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