Philippine World Christianity

  While in the Philippines last week, I rubbed up against several snippets of World Christianity: Asian Evangelical mission leaders, Nigerian Pentecostal GOFAMINT missionaries, and Filipina Roman Catholic Missionary Benedictine Sisters. Spending time with such a tapestry of active participants in Christian mission was a fresh reminder of how expressions of Christianity are always both local and universal - “glocal” is one expression used to express the combination of “local” and “global” - as well as both concrete and other-worldly.

  Attending the 12th Triennial Convention of the Asia Missions Association (AMA) provided the primary impetus for traveling to Manila. The Rev. Dr. David Cho, now 92 and still attending, was the pioneering instigator of the AMA at the time with the Lausanne Movement as a whole began in the early 1970s. Korean leadership, numbers, and finances have continued to provide significant support, but AMA participants are spread throughout South, Southeast, and East Asia - even if the MIddle East, Central Asia, and China were not represented at this particular gathering. (Read more about the AMA here.)

  This Convention’s theme was “Globalization and Mission,” explored from various angles in plenaries and seminars. Like Lausanne, the AMA addresses a spectrum of mission themes. However, reaching Unreached People Groups is the explicit, central meaning and purpose of Christian missions for the AMA. The Convention was warmly hosted by the Philippines Missions Association, several music groups led in worship, and the Greenhills Christian Fellowship provided the venue.

  For some it may be surprising to learn of Nigerian Pentecostal missionaries, including of such missionaries serving in the far-flung Philippines. In fact, Christian mission today truly reflects the oft-noted but idealistic-sounding dictum, “From everywhere to everywhere.” I had met Rev. Michael and Anna Omolaoye last August when they and many other missionaries had returned to Nigeria to attend the special Jubilee GOFAMINT (Gospel Faith Mission International) Convention in Ibadan. (I had received a gracious invitation to that Convention through the efforts of OMSC** alumnus Rev. Ayodeji Evenezer Ayeni.) As a mission and church - two sides of one coin, if you will - GOFAMINT is one of several thriving Christian movements that have shot up in Nigeria over the past few generations. (Read more about GOFAMINT here.)

  Rev. Michael and Anna have been serving among the poor in Manila for nine years. It was inspiring to have them take an entire afternoon and evening, drive me through stifling Manila traffic, and introduce me to some of the communities where they are ministering with gospel preaching, education, and food distribution.

  Spending an entire day with some of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing was also an inspiring privilege. OMSC alumnae Sr. Theodora Bilocura and Sr. Joanne Lico Ungay are the two I knew best, but the indomitable Sr. Mary John Mananzan (do an Internet search to learn of her many titles, awards, accomplishments, and responsibilities) also took time out of her busy schedule for a visit and a delicious Japanese lunch. I was able to visit St. Scholastica’s College in Manila and the priory house in lovely Tagaytay City, nestled in the mountains south of Manila.

  Established in the Philippines in 1906 by five German nuns, the Filipina Missionary Benedectine Sisters are fearless and compassionate - and contemplative - social activists. Over recent decades they have contributed greatly in some of the key political movements in the Philippines, and they continue zealously to advocate, for example on behalf of indigenous peoples against abuses inflicted on them by the mining industry (Read more about the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in the Philippines here.)

  Again, these are just a few snippets of World Christianity in the Philippines. Roman Catholic history in the Philippines is of course lengthy and eventful, and recent growth of larger evangelical and charismatic movements are noteworthy. Even so, just the few examples I encountered represent traditions that have roots in various peoples of almost every continent.

  I hope that this brief report points to the reality that, wherever one looks, specific “glocal” expressions of World Christianity are present.

**OMSC is the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, CT, USA, where I served from June, 2011 until April, 2015.

Ethereal Beauty, Real Pain

   They stir the heart, uplift the spirit, calm the soul. They are simply unmatched in their serene beauty and delicacy. Part of their charm is how a gentle breeze carries them fluttering away just as politely as they have appeared, depositing a snow-like ground cover that soon swirls off with the next wind gust. Please stay a bit longer, sakura 桜 (even the kanji is exquisite), then hurry up and return next spring.
   There are many cherry blossom viewers, however, who greet these breathtaking blooms with deep pain and a mixed, begrudging welcome. For most Koreans, the beotkkot 벚꽃 (NOT "sakura") are inexorably intertwined with Japanese atrocities and conflicting historical accounts about them. Even the trees themselves are understood by some to have been stolen from Korea long ago by the Japanese, then obnoxiously reinvented into Japan’s charming national symbol. The large variety of species can serve either to simplify or to complicate the historical and scientific arguments involved.

   Few non-Koreans, including Japanese, would openly dispute the fact that many cherry trees in Korea today were unquestionably planted for self-serving and oppressive reasons by the Japanese during the 1910-1945 colonial occupation. Many young Koreans, in their enchantment with the fresh beotkkot blooms every spring, can bracket away that history to bring Busker Busker’s 2012 mega-hit “Cherry Blossoms Ending” (벚꽃 엔딩)** back to No.1 annually on the pop charts. Indeed, most of the general Korean populace would acknowledge that the beotkkot are clearly beautiful. They might quickly add, however, that the devil can appear as an angel of light, too.
   For many, trying to appreciate the blooming beotkkot can be akin to listening to a musical virtuoso while suffering a migraine.
   Some wounds run unfathomably deep. Related memories and accounts can spread resulting infections even deeper. For Koreans and for Japanese – and for those of us who are neither but whose hearts beat strongly within one or both of those worlds – enjoying together the sakura 桜 / beotkkot 벚꽃 can be frustratingly elusive. Thankfully, by God’s grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ there are some exceptions. Even so, for the most part the ethereal beauty beckons the heart to sing, while acutely real pain hushes any crescendos of elation.
   Kyrie eleison.
**Live links to 5-minute music videos, the first with subtitles. Watch 'til the end.