INTRODUCTION

American period: 18981946

During the sovereignty of the United States, the American government implemented the
separation of church and state. It reduced the significant political power exerted by the Church
and lead to the establishment of other religions (particularly Protestantism) within the country.

In this era, in the first decade of 1900, Jorge Barlin was ordained as the first Filipino bishop of
the Roman Catholic Church. He was a bishop of the Archdiocese of Nueva Caceres. After
American colonization of the country, American jurisprudence reintroduced separation of church
and state relying on the First Amendment and the metaphor of Thomas Jefferson on the "wall of
separation... between church and state" but the Philippine experience has shown that this
theoretical wall of separation has been crossed several times by secular authorities. Schumacher
states that in 1906, the Philippine Supreme Court intervened in the issue of parish ownership by
returning assets seized by the Philippine Independent Church, while certain charitable
organizations managed or influenced by the Roman Catholic Church were either returned or
sequestered.

PROTESTAN CHURCHES

Protestantism developed in the Philippines after the SpanishAmerican War when the United
States acquired the Philippines from the Spanish with the 1898 Treaty of Paris. Under American
rule, the Catholic Church was disestablished as the state religion, giving Protestant missionaries
more opportunities to enter the islands. In addition, there was a backlash against the Hispanic
Catholicism and a greater acceptance of Protestantism represented by the Americans. The
dominance of the Catholic Church in all aspects of life in Spanish Philippines and Protestant
anti-Catholic animosity were prominent reasons for the start of Protestant missionary activity. In
1901 the Evangelical Union was established in the Philippines to co-ordinate activities amongst
the Protestant denominations and lay the foundations for an indigenous religious movement.

The first Protestant service held in the Philippines was on Sunday, August 28, 1898. Chaplain
George Stull, a member of The Methodist Episcopal Church, came with the occupying forces.
Although his primary duty was to minister to the soldiers, he recorded in his diary that that first
service, held in an old Spanish dungeon facing Manila Bay, was attended not only by his own
men but by some Filipinos as well. He commented on this service:
From 1898 to 1930 there were different Protestant missions agencies joining the comity
agreement, namely:

Methodists (1898, most of lowland Luzon and north of Manila);

Presbyterians (1899, Bicol, Southern Tagalog area and some parts of Central and
Western Visayas);

Baptists (1900, Western Visayas);

United Brethren (1901, Mountain Province and La Union);

Disciples of Christ (1901, Ilocos, Abra, and Tagalog towns);

Congregationalists (1902, Mindanao except for the western end); and

Christian and Missionary Alliance (1902, Western Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago).

Brethren (Kapatirang Kristiano) linked to Plymouth Brethren, was established in the

1930s in San Juan, Metro Manila by a missionary named Cyril H. Brooks. They planted
numerous chapels in the Philippines with majority in Bulacan, Pampanga and Rizal
Province.