Philippine United Methodist women seek inclusion, autonomy
9/11/2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York By Rebecca C Asedillo MANILA (UMNS) -- If United Methodist women in the Philippines have their way, a woman would be elected bishop in December and their church would vote to become self-reliant and autonomous.
It is time for church leadership to be inclusive, said Pricilla R. Atuel, national president of the United Methodist Women Society for Christian Service, during an August interview in Manila.
"We want to break the notion that the highest leadership in the church is only for males," she explained. "We want to increase the awareness among our male leaders about partnership and about the fact that women have the capacity to lead."
The Philippines Central Conference of the United Methodist Church is scheduled to elect three new bishops when it meets Dec. 14-17. Two of its presiding bishops, Bishop Emerito P. Nacpil of the Manila Episcopal Area and Bishop Daniel C. Arichea Jr. of the Baguio Episcopal Area, are retiring. The Mindanao Area has been under the episcopal supervision of a retired bishop, Paul Locke A. Granadosin.
Of the 484 delegates to the 2000 Philippines Central Conference, 170 are women. In an unprecedented move, the national United Methodist Women's Society for Christian Service officially endorsed the Rev. Elizabeth S. Tapia to the episcopal leadership in 1999.
Tapia, a professor of theology and the academic dean of Union Theological Seminary in Cavite, is a widely acclaimed preacher, ecumenical leader and educator. She was a Bible study leader at the United Methodist Women's Assembly in Orlando in May 1998. She was also a speaker at a global consultation on evangelism sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries in Atlanta in June 1999.
The women picked Tapia on the basis of her academic preparation; experiences in practical church ministries as a deaconess and as a rural pastor; the inclusive nature of her theology and leadership style; and her support for autonomy and a self-reliant church, Atuel said.
While acknowledging the Philippine church's link with the global church, Atuel asserted, "It is time for the United Methodist Church in the Philippines to move towards an autonomous church where we can build on our resources and mobilize both our local and international linkages to let the world know that we can stand on our own."
She said she is convinced that the Philippine church has adequate leadership resources and a church constituency that could be tapped to support the efforts toward self-sufficiency. More than 100 years of Methodist presence in the Philippines ought to have made the Philippine United Methodist Church ready for self-reliance and for establishing its own identity, she added.
On July 29, a group of United Methodists organized in Manila to form Philippines Caucus 2000, calling for the active participation of all Filipino United Methodists in the election of three bishops and the promotion of a democratic style of leadership.
The group also expressed support for an autonomous structure for the Philippine church based on its assessment that the church's current relationship with the United Methodist Church in the United States is hampering growth.
The caucus cited as an example the church's inability to enter directly into dialogues for Christian unity with churches in the Philippines because of disciplinary constraints. It also expressed dissatisfaction that the church's membership in various ecumenical bodies like the World Council of Churches, the Christian Conference of Asia and the World Methodist Council is channeled through the United Methodist Church in the United States.
In the statement issued at its launching, the Philippines Caucus 2000 group challenged the Central Conference to focus its agenda not merely on the election of bishops, but also on developing a program of mission that is relevant to its context.
"We are not only Filipino United Methodists," the group said. "We are Filipino United Methodists whose witness and service issue from and are challenged by the social, economic, political, cultural and religious contexts in which we demonstrate, manifest and make known the love and the redemptive work of Jesus Christ."
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*Asedillo is a free-lance writer. This article originally appeared on the Web site of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
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