Home! part 1

The first installment of the lecture given by Dr Benjamin Vallejo Jr to the Catholic students ministry of the University of the Philippines, January 25, 2012, Delaney Hall, UP Diliman. 

Home!

Who are the Anglicans?

I always believed that Anglicans do not convert to become Catholics. They just come home. After all the word “Anglican” means “of England” and could also be used to describe the Catholic faith as practiced by the English, especially before the Reformation. But then the Reformation happened.

Father Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk nailed his 95 theses on the west door of Wittenberg Church on October 31, 1517, a date so important in Church history which the Protestant Churches celebrate as Reformation Day. The theses are nothing but academic points of debate on certain church practices that Fr Luther found unacceptable. It is true that the Medieval Roman Church has abused its power to care for souls. Fr Luther objected the “sale of indulgences” simply because another priest Johann Tetzel made the whole idea of praying for the souls in Purgatory a business transaction. The Church needed the money to finish constructing St Peter’s Basilica.

If one day if you have the chance to visit Rome,  I bet that you will marvel at the priceless expression of the Catholic faith in St Peter’s especially in art but was St Peter’s worth the Reformation that made it possible?

Perhaps all Christians whether they be Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox or Anglican may have asked the question. St Peter’s is both a sign of our division and our unity as Christians. St Peter’s Basilica can both repel us with its ostentation and the cost of dividing the church but still unite us since all of this was made for God’s glory. But still we are drawn to St Peter’s and to  most of all to St Peter. St Peter is probably the wimpiest of the Apostles, yet even if he denied the Lord and was hesitant to lead, the Lord selected him and gave him a great responsibility. He was already old when he was crucified like Jesus but upside down exactly on the place where St Peter's Basilica stands today. Jesus foretold of this and even in his weakness Peter accepted the commission.  And for that the great church is built on Peter's grave.

The Church is built on Peter since he received that important commission from Christ which you can read or better yet hear in the Gospels at Mass. What we recall of that commission is the "Keys" and that Hell won't prevail over the Church. But the Reformation made it more difficult to see that truth since there was a Holy Catholic Church but she was run by sinners and the holy alike. But most of the time, it was the sinners who were on top.  But it is Faith that allows us to see beyond the shadows and darkness, thanks to the witness of the Saints, whose vocation was really authentic reformation. For that truth many Catholics gave their lives and for me the most notable would be Thomas More and Cardinal John Fisher, who gave their lives when the Reformation came to England. Many followed Peter to martyrdom. Thus England has been blessed by the witness of hundreds of martrys some of which are known only to God. Of these we know probably at most 80, forty of which have been canonized as the "Forty Martyrs of England and Wales". 

King Henry VIII in 1536 since he had no male heir would do anything to annul his marriage to Queen Catherine who gave him only a daughter. For this he in a series of acts of parliament, separated the Church in England from the Catholic Church and made himself the “Supreme Head of the Church” in England. This is a new title for the Pope never had considered himself as the “Supreme Head” which is a title only for Christ. The Pope as we all know, even today is the Bishop of Rome (his most important title) and with it “Vicar of Christ”, which means only that he only acts in the name of Christ. King Henry appropriated a title which is not by the law of God, his. For this More and Fisher lost their heads and became Catholic saints. 

The Ecclesia Anglicana or the Church of England was created by the King’s wish. It considered itself as a continuation of  the Catholic Church but reformed by doing away with the perceived abuses of the Pope. The doctrine of the Catholic Church was held and Henry did not tolerate the Lutheran doctrine (much earlier the Pope granted his the title Fidei Defensor).  But the Reformed doctrine was influential among the aristocracy who benefitted from Henry’s dissolution of the monasteries. The English people resisted the Reformation for at least three generations that by the time of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558, a religious settlement had to be made since the people had shed much blood in matters of religion.  Mary I, Elizabeth’s elder half sister brought the English back to the Roman obedience but it was not to last. The Reformation had made its impact. The Church of England will have the Queen as “Supreme Governor”, a title roughly equivalent to the Pope’s title as “Vicar of Christ”.  Elizabeth’s title was granted by Parliament while the Pope was by Christ through St Peter’s. And as a result of the religious settlement Anglican belief would be defined in such a way that it is possible for it to be understood in both the Roman Catholic and Protestant sense.  The result is a large degree of ambiguity. This is so evident in the Anglican belief in the Eucharist which I shall touch on later.

After King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I, the Roman Church had to meet the challenges of the Reformation in the Council of Trent which successfully reformed the Church in what historians would rather inaccurately call the Counter Reformation. The Anglican Church will go on its separate way and developing its own distinct liturgies and spirituality. Yet in this separate way, many elements of Catholic Church belief and practice were preserved. The Anglican Church preserved the ministries of the bishop, priest and deacons but the Eucharist was said in English and no longer in Latin. Anglican clergy can be married while Roman Catholic clergy can’t. The Roman Catholic Church insisted on Latin until after the Second Vatican Council when the Mass could be celebrated in the vernacular languages. Thus in a way the Catholic Church followed the Anglican reforms in liturgy, although 500 years late.

With England becoming a world power in the 17^th to the early 20^th centuries, she planted Anglican Churches in her colonies including what became the United States. These churches eventually became independent of the Church of England headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. They became the Anglican Communion since they are in communion with Canterbury. In the United States, the Anglican Church is called the Episcopal Church since this church had its first bishop consecrated by the Scottish Episcopal Church (which is not under the Church of England).  When the Philippines became under the Americans in 1898, The Episcopal Church sent its missionaries to the Philippines and later on the Anglican/Episcopal church in our country became the Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP). The ECP is notable in our church history since right from the start in 1902, she refused to convert Roman Catholics instead focused her missionary efforts on non-Christians. The first Episcopal Bishop of the Philippines the Rt Rev Charles Henry Brent would not “build an altar over another”. Of all the non- Catholic (Protestant) missionaries in the Philippines, only Bishop Brent recognized that Roman Catholics were Christians too!

But with so much in common even if we are separated, it would be inevitable that many Anglicans would feel an affinity for the Church of Rome. Thus in the five centuries of separation, Anglican theologians would take great care in differentiating what they believed in from Protestantism while maintaining their difference from Roman Catholicism. They believed they are the middle way or in Latin “Via Media”.  Fundamental aspects of Protestant (Puritan) practice were suppressed as well as Roman Catholic devotions like those to the Virgin Mary. The Anglican Church is the church of the English state and any excessive emphasis on Protestantism (Puritan) or Catholicism was considered a threat to the state. Elizabeth I famously said she “won’t look into men’s souls” which meant that one can hold Roman Catholic or Puritan beliefs as long as one keeps this private.  If not Elizabeth I considered these grounds for treason.  Many martyrs both on the Roman Catholic and Puritan side lost their heads for their conscience since they rejected the idea that they should live their faith in private.

Of course the Via Media won’t hold as John Henry Newman realized. The Rev Dr Newman, perhaps the most renowned 19^th century Anglican theologian or Divine as the English would say it, was one of the founders of the Oxford Movement in the  mid 19^th century which sought to restore the Catholic element in the Anglican Church.  The Oxford Movement restored to the Church of England the Devotion to the Blessed Virgin especially in her title of Our Lady of Walsingham. It also restored a more sacramental way of celebrating the liturgy.  Thus many Anglicans today have a deep devotion to the Blessed Mother.  While this led many Anglicans to believe in many things Catholics believe in, but even so Newman in his studies and prayerful reflection realized that the idea of a Church of England would make no sense unless it is united with the Church of Rome, where she came from.  [It was a Pope, St Gregory the Great, who sent St Augustine to Canterbury to preach the Gospel to the English].  Newman also rejected the idea that the state should have anything to do with Christian doctrine. Newman became a Catholic, was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and became a Cardinal. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in 2010. It was not only Newman who came home but many Anglican clergy and laypeople, some very famous, some are celebrities but most are ordinary men, women and children. And they are still coming home as of this minute. They reached the same conclusion as Newman did more than 150 years earlier.

And most of them don’t consider themselves converts but just people who came home!

Ad orientem, worshiping to the East and English church ordering

A medieval English priest offers Mass according to the Sarum Use

Mass celebrated with priest and laypeople  facing the geographical east is really an English custom. In the 7th century, Catholic churches in England were built on the feast day of the saint on which the church when completed will be dedicated. The earliest churches in Rome had the sanctuary at the western end and the entrance at the eastern end due to peculiarities of Rome's geography. The priest thus celebrated mass ad orientem and versus populum.  A prime example is mass in St Peter's Basilica and St Paul's Outside the Walls. However,  the Apostolic Constitution of 472 mandated the worship of the True God to the east which later became universal in the Latin Church until the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.  In England where there was a pagan cult of the Sun, in 597 Pope St Gregory counselled St Augustine of Canterbury, the first Archbishop of that see to deal gently with these customs and henceforth the first Archbishop of Canterbury ordered all English churches be ordered with the altar at the east end and that the celebrant should be bathed in the full light of the morning sun through the East window. Since then this has been a feature of the English parish church.

A  defining feature of the English church is a square chancel which is often rounded in continental European medieval churches. In the medieval Slipper Chapel shown above which is now England's Roman Catholic National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in Norfolk, we see the great East window and the square chancel. These medieval churches had their orientation to the East where the sun will rise at the Spring and Autumn equinoxes. How did the medieval masons figure this out?

Masons will patiently wait for sun to rise and with the use of a gnomon placed at the centre of the proposed church site, the shadow lines at dawn or dusk of the gnomon were marked off on a circle, giving a true east west axis. The resulting east and west points were used as centres marking off two circles that intersect forming a fish shape or vesica pisces. A line drawn between the vertices of the vesica pisces gives the true north south axis. The church plan can now be executed and the church built. Usually the chancel and choir are built first and consecrated

English medieval plan to orient a church

Even the Episcopal Church cathedral in Quezon City show traces of this English ordering of a square chancel and an East window although in this cathedral these are three small windows. The Cathedral of St Mary and St John is oriented to the geographical east like its predecessor in Ermita, Manila which was destroyed in World War II.

St Mary and St John Cathedral in Quezon City

Old St Mary and St John in Ermita, Manila (destroyed in WW 2)

Thus when some cradle Catholics (who have been habituated to versus populum masses) asked the Ordinariate Catholics why they insist on an ad orientem way of worshiping, the reason they gave is that this way is part of the Anglican patrimony which predates the Reformation. Thus it is authentically Roman Catholic.

Reference: Paul NP (1995) Enjoying Old Parish Churches. Vol. 1 Pentland Press, Durham, England.

Talks on Anglicans and the Catholic Church at UP

Please keep posted on a series of talks on the ecumenical developments between Anglicans and Roman Catholics at the University of the Philippines. Coming soon!

And at the end of each talk will be a service of Evensong!

Filipino Episcopalians debate about purgatory while Catholics no longer bother about it!

This is how the Medievals thought about Purgatory!

At the Pinoy Episcopalians Facebook group, someone posted if "Episcopalians are to believe in purgatory". This post sparked a lively discussion which has touched on the relationship of Scripture and Tradition and how classical Anglicanism has received these and if these are relevant to the 21st century. Of course the debate extended beyond Purgatory but to the importance of Authority in the Church. This is so related to the troubles plaguing Anglicans now and how the Anglican Communion may be able to preserve her unity.

Here is how one Filipino Episcopal priest has it

"Luther did not oppose the idea. he only opposed the wrong means on how to pass through it. Purgatory is not for the lost, only for believers already on the way to heaven yet have to take the long journey to life because of their attachment to the world that they live in and a world they are leaving. Purgatory is connected to fire purification, which is really meant the fiery trial a Christian has to experience due to sanctification."

Thanks to depictions by countless artists throughout the ages, many Catholics and Protestants think Purgatory is a place where there is fire to cleanse sinners. This has led to many misconceptions but the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1030-1032) states that Purgatory is a condition rather than a place and states Scriptural references that support this understanding. Blessed Pope John Paul II restated the teaching in a papal audience. The Church however teaches that there is a "cleansing fire" in Purgatory and tradition is that this is understood not in a metaphorical sense but in a real sense. Mystics have understood this as a purifying inner fire, an understanding that Pope Benedict XVI appears to endorse.

The Thirty Nine Articles of Religion of the Church of England in Article XXII explicitly reject the doctrine of Purgatory as being without "warrant in Scripture" However, the Articles are not binding on Anglicans as the CCC is upon Catholics. For many Episcopalians, the Articles are of historical interest. Thus there is a wide spectrum of belief among Anglicans as as the debate on Pinoy Episcopalians would suggest, many still adhere to the idea that Purgatory is indeed a condition where  souls are purified. However many Episcopalians will still have difficulty in accepting the Roman Catholic belief on indulgences. This is at the root of medieval abuses that brought upon the Reformation. A famous Anglican, CS Lewis accepted belief in Purgatory in the way the Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman understood it.

But as I had posted I am amazed that Filipino Episcopalians debate about Purgatory when Filipino Roman Catholics hardly bother about it! In fact I have never heard the doctrine being the subject of a Sunday Mass homily in the last 20 years! It must be that the subject is too pre Vatican II and it deals with the afterlife rather than this life. And many priests don't want to scare the worshipers out of their wits with talk of eternal damnation and purification!

Some Roman Catholic priests tend to believe that we are experiencing Purgatory  right now, since we have a corrupt government and we ourselves are party to this and we have cut down all the trees and so we are in an environmental mess etc. Perhaps that is true but it misses out on what the Church teaches about it and the real costs of God's purifying love.

And so it takes our Anglican brethren to remind Roman Catholics of this teaching, at least to me. I have not bothered with that doctrine ever since I was received into the Church 25 years ago!

What the Pope did to the BCP, TEC parish swims the Tiber and the Photoshop argument

What the Pope did to the BCP

Dr William Oddie has written something that makes for interesting reading at the Catholic Herald. Dr Oddie writes that the Pope has made the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) (well much of it) into a Catholic liturgy! This was something no one would have thought possible as late as 30 years ago.

Evensong is now sung at Roman Catholic places of worship in England, the United States, Canada and Australia, and soon, the Philippines. We prayed this office at the University of the Philippines.  What was considered quite Protestant is now wedded with a traditional Roman Catholic devotion, the Benediction. Evensong is now the Ordinariate's evening office .  Dr Oddie sums up what I have consistently reminded my Anglican/Episcopal friends. Anglicans will restore to the Roman Catholic Church what has been lost or forgotten.

Reformation historian Diarmid MacCulloch was more blunt. He was quoted saying that "The Anglican Communion preserved much of what the post Vatican II Catholic Church threw out"

And here writes Dr Oddie "these Anglican converts are bringing with them derives from Catholic sources that we have lost or at least temporarily mislaid"


Well that is what it really is. The BCP is as everyone knows was influenced by older Catholic liturgies such as the Sarum Use and the reforms of the Roman Breviary by Cardinal Quiñones of Spain.  While Archbishop Thomas Cranmer made sure that the denial of Catholic belief in the Mass was explicit, this was placed in a liturgical setting that resembled the Mass, but really wasn't. And only the theologically astute among the churchgoers could detect the difference. Thus the Anglican Eucharist could be celebrated with Tridentine panoply, or even in the most Protestant way of celebrating the valid Catholic mass called the Novus Ordo, which the present Pope calls the "Ordinary Form". While the former may impress 21st century Tridentine traddies, the latter does give them apoplexy!


Thus this are Anglican treasures being shared to the Catholics. I wonder if the Catholics will appreciate these?


This we will have to see. In the meantime I was shocked to hear from a Filipino cradle Catholic that he thought the Evening Prayer  we were saying was a Protestant invention!


Episcopal Parish swims the Tiber


St Luke's Episcopal Parish near Washington DC in Blandensburg, Maryland has decided to join the Catholic Church. The parish becomes the second Episcopal parish after Mt Calvary Parish in Baltimore to join the Catholic Church after Anglicanorum coetibus was published. St Luke's is now under the pastoral care of the Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Wuerl.  The parish was under the Episcopal Bishop of Washington John Chane who graciously supported (with the Catholic Archbishop of Washington), the parish discernment process. The parish will continue to worship in their church building, which will be leased to them by the Episcopal diocese with an option to purchase.


Both St Luke's and Mt Calvary will be Ordinariate bound and they will undergo a formation program before formally being received in the Church.


Why women cannot be priests: An image processing analogy!


Both the Catholic and Evangelical wings of the Anglican Communion are against the ordination of women as priests since it has no Scriptural basis and is not in accordance with the ancient tradition of the undivided Church.


Women's ordination is a very divisive issue in the Anglican Communion. However a majority of provinces allow it, with some provinces providing "alternative episcopal oversight" to parishes who don't agree with it.


The consecration of women bishops (which naturally follows if women become priests) has ignited more discord in the Church of England and threatens an irreparable Anglican split if no arrangements are made to protect the conscience of people who can't accept this.


Catholics and the Orthodox hold on to the "alter Christus" argument why women can't be priests. They believe that the Christ who sacrificed himself for us was a man, therefore the priest who offers the same sacrifice on the altar should be a man. The Evangelicals hold on to the "headship of the family" argument which says that the head of a natural order such as the family is a man and by extension, the church should be headed by a man.


Nonetheless I received an email from an Anglican who tends to accept the Catholic argument. He says that since the priest images Christ at the altar, a woman simply can't do. Then he gives the Photoshop argument. If we image process a man, and we expect him to look or do things like a man, then we don't do much to the image. But if we image process a woman and we expect him to look or do things like a man, then we have to tweak the image!


And no wonder why some people are never comfortable with the sight of a woman priest or bishop. She in those vestments made for men, will look male!

Episcopal Church in the Philippines concludes 2011 Synod

The Episcopal Church in the Philippines recently concluded its 2011 Synod in Sagada, Mt Province. According to our friends in the ECP, the synod passed resolutions on the following

1.Episcopal Diocese of Southern Phil. officially was divided in two, the name of the new diocese is EDD (Episcopal Diocese of Davao)
2. As of today, we have 47 full fledged-parishes all over the Philippines
3. Resolution in support of the Reproductive Health bill was passed
4. The ECP hymnal became final with the removal of the "Trial Use"
5. The retirement age for ECP clergy remains 60 and not 65.
6. The next synod will be held in May, 2014 in Cathedral Heights, Q.C.

The continued growth of the ECP beyond its traditional mission areas in the Cordilleras is most welcomed. This means the church is becoming more present in the whole Philippines. The erection of a Diocese of Davao is notable for it means a stronger missionary presence in Mindanao.

Also last May 9, the ECP marked the centennial of Bishop Benito Cabanban's birth. Bp Cabanban is the first Filipino bishop of the ECP. He passed away in 1990.

More news on the ECP can be found at the Facebook group of Pinoy Episcopalians.

In the Shadow of the Cross - the Episcopal Church in the Philippines

A video from the Episcopal Church in the Philippines about its missions in the Philippines

Holy Week news, Episcopal Church in the Philippines in Synod, papal interview

Some Holy Week updates. First from the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England. The first former Anglican congregations will be received into the Catholic Church beginning this week. Some pictures from the reception of the first congregation from London (South) are here. Monsignor Keith Newton, the Ordinary received the congregation. While the reception is very low key media-wise, it is of major importance in the history of the Church.

Our brothers and sisters from the Episcopal Church in the Philippines will meet in Provincial Synod at historic St Mary the Virgin in Sagada from May 3-6. This link has articles on the accomplishments of the ECP since its last Synod as well as proposed amendments to the constitutions and canons of the church. Filipino Episcopalians ask the prayers of all, especially from our readers here, so that their synod will be successful.

As a Holy Week reading, we suggest "Benedict XVI, Light of the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald" Ignatius Press, Distributed in the Philippines by National Bookstore at PhP 395.00. His Holiness celebrated his 84th birthday last April 16 and marks 6 years of his pontificate on April 19.

It is very rare for a Pope to give interviews with journalists, It is even rarer to read about his views on many issues in one tome. Pope John Paul II gave interviews and much of his were on theological, philosophical, ecumenical, political and social issues that came out in the best selling "Crossing the Threshold of Hope"(1994) But the interviewer did not ask the Pope questions of a personal nature. In "Light of the World" Mr Seewald asks a variety of questions on challenges facing the Church some of which are personal.

Benedict XVI surprises all by being very candid and true to form, razor sharp. Reading the book, one can imagine a conversation with a literate professor, which Benedict XVI really is.

Some excerpts:
On knowledge:
 B16: "Knowledge is power. That means if I know, then I can also control. Knowledge brought power, but in such a way that with our own we can also now destroy the world that we think we have figured out intellectually. ....an essential perspective is lacking, namely the aspect of the good. What is good?"

On the Anglican Ordinariates: 
B16:"The initiative did not come from us, but from Anglican bishops who entered into dialogue with the CDF.... But it is at any rate a sign, you might say, of the flexibility of the Catholic Church. We don't want to create new uniate churches, but we do want to offer ways for local church traditions that have evolved outside the Roman Church to be brought into communion with the Pope."

On personally meeting victims of priest sex abusers:
B16: "Actually I couldn't say anything special at all to them. I was able to tell them that it affects me very deeply. That I suffer with them. And that was not just an expression, but it really touches my heart. And I was able to tell them that the Church will do everything possible so that this does not happen again."

About using an exercise bike as prescribed by his doctor:
B16: No, I don't get to it at all... thank God!

The Pope gives his thoughts more on the engagement of Catholicism with Islam, the Orthodox, secularism, ecumenism, papal infallibility, clerical celibacy, a Third Vatican Council and the SSPX schism.

The interviews allow us to get a closer look at Benedict's papal program and the future direction of the Roman Church.

What does Anglicanism really have to offer in restoring the Roman Church?

The following essays (the Ordinariates, the Pope and Liturgy parts 1 and 2) by Father Aidan Nichols OP read at the Ordinariate conference in Canada recently tells in a magnificent way the historical background of the Ordinariates and what their being Anglican can offer in the restoration of the Roman Church. The essays also tell us that the other passengers for the "ark" have their own gift to give in restoring the Catholic Church.

Some of Fr Nichols' highlights and my questions

What really has the Anglican Communion preserved which the post Vatican II Roman Catholic Church casually threw out?

"Unlike Roman Catholicism, Anglo-Catholicism in the twentieth century has been largely impervious to the seductions of architectural Modernism, and its iconographical and musicological equivalents, owing to the apologetic concern to demonstrate continuity with the Christian past by using neo-mediaeval forms or perhaps neo-Baroque ones.  One could think here of the patronage given by twentieth century Catholic Anglicans to such influential church designers as John Ninian Comper (whose work synthesises mediaeval, palaeo-Christian and Renaissance features) and (for the Neo-Baroque) Martin Travers."


On Benedict XVI and the Liturgy

" the Pope is aghast, in a manner Anglo-Catholics generally would appreciate, at the present state of much liturgical practice in the West.  The Liturgy has been invaded by politicization, as in milieux affected by Liberation Theology; it has suffered banalisation in populist environments where the mantra has it that modern popular culture just has to be followed; and in less ideologically freighted parish practice its manner of expression has been simplified in a well-meaning but misguided attempt to ensure instant intelligibility such that much of its richness has been lost.'

And perhaps this is what Anglicanism can help repair in the Roman Catholic Church so she can get on the way to a new evangelization

"Unlike the Latin clergy who are principally interested in their own flocks, and where apostolic outreach is concerned, the lapsed members of those flocks, there is something much more potentially universal in the pastoral outreach of the Anglican ministry.  The notion that evangelization should be directed to entire neighbourhoods, and be expressed in general visiting, as well as recognition of the need for involvement in civic life, in voluntary associations, and all the expressions of life together in a given locale, is typical of a Church that conceives itself as responsible for the soul of a society.  It is a Christendom outlook which has, thankfully, survived the disintegration of the mediaeval organism."

And that is why I am not surprised  and very gladdened that the Holy Mass celebrated ad orientem is more often celebrated at the Episcopal Cathedral of St Mary and St John at Cathedral Heights, Quezon City than in the Roman Catholic Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Manila! Also the community orientated pastoral concern of the Episcopal Church towards Filipino society.

On the eve of the Annunciation

Let us recall an important pastoral letter of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines on the Blessed Virgin Mary. This letter read to churches in 1975 remains even more relevant today, where we live in a rapidly secularizing age. While secularism is not bad, it should be anchored on humanistic values and Mary represents what these values are.

The letter is also notable for explicitly mentioning the Episcopal Church of the Philippines (ECP) and its devotion to the Holy Virgin. Truly the Anglican Communion continues to occupy a special place in the heart of the Catholic Church.

The 950th year anniversary of the Visions of Lady Richeldis at Walsingham

Father-Ordinary Keith Newton of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham has made the announcement that this year will be the 950th anniversary of the visions of Lady Richeldis. It is believed that the Virgin Mary appeared to the Lady Richeldis in 1061, at Walsingham, England. In her visions, the Lady Richeldis received a message from the Holy Virgin under the title of the Annunciation. She was instructed to build a Holy House for the Virgin and was given the grace of a vision of Mary's home in Nazareth. You can read more about Our Lady of Walsingham in an earlier blog post here.

Celebrations for the 950th anniversary start on March 26, when the Archbishop of Westminster will celebrate an opening Mass in his London cathedral. The celebrations will reach its climax on September 24, when a Mass will be celebrated at the Walsingham Catholic Shrine. In the opening Mass, the image of Our Lady from the Slipper Chapel will be brought to Westminster Cathedral by three former Anglican nuns now with the Ordinariate together with the Anglican Guardians at the Walsingham Anglican Shrine. Our Lady of Walsingham may be considered as the Mother of Christian Unity. Prayers for her intercession always have an ecumenical dimension. She is venerated under this title in the Anglican and Catholic churches.

We plan to celebrate the event in our own little way in the Philippines. Please keep note on this blog for more announcements!

Filipino Anglicanism

Mike Tan wrote something about a little known church in the Philippines. The Episcopal Church in the Philippines (ECP) is THE Anglican Church in the Philippines. There are at least 3 other churches that carry the Anglican name, but the ECP has the original franchise. The Episcopalians ("Piskies" is a term of endearment) run one of the best hospitals in the country (St Luke's), the best weaving school (Easter's in Baguio), a college now a university with a good track record (Trinity), and the oldest international school (Brent).

For a church with just about 200K members, the ECP has influenced education and ecumenism far beyond its size. Its reason for existence in the Philippines is the key. The first  Episcopal bishop in the Philippines, Charles Henry Brent declared that the church won't build an "altar over another altar".This was during an unecumenical time. When the Americans came, Protestant missionaries divided the country for their mission to preach "the true Christian religion" to a country that is majority Roman Catholic. Brent gave the Philippine Church very prophetic witness. Brent limited his mission to the expat community, the non-Catholic Chinese and the non-Christian tribes. Thus the Cordilleras and parts of Binondo and Sta Cruz Manila are Episcopal Church territories. Perhaps the best known Episcopal church in the region is St Mary's in Sagada. Filipino Unlike its neighbouring South East Asian province, Filipino Anglicanism is historically Anglo-Catholic even if there are Evangelical parishes.

My grandmonther was  of the High Church kind who said the Roman Rosary after Anglican Evening Prayer. The Anglican church can be divided into three streams, the low or evangelical kind, the broad church and the High Church kind. The Low church emphasizes traditionally Protestant positions, the Broad church accomodates elements of both Protestant and Catholic traditions and the High church emphasizes ritual and Catholic tradition. Some high churches are even more Catholic than the St Peter's Basilica! (in terms of ritual). In these high churches, you have to ask the priest if this is really an Anglican church.

We see the same in the Roman Church. Some Catholic churches are as or even more Protestant like than an Anglican low church. The Jesuit Church of the Gesu in the Ateneo campus is my best example!

With diverse views of what the church is or ought to be, Anglicanism has preserved a tradition of tolerance and comprehensiveness. It is not that this is lacking in the Catholic Church (the Roman Catholics are as comprehensive as the Anglicans despite the noise conservatives make), Anglicans don't have a Pope that says that one doctrinal view is unacceptable. The church has to come to a consensus. Since the Elizabethan settlement, this via media has held until very recently.

This via media is almost in tatters with differing views on sexuality and the ordination of women. The debate on contraception which the Anglicans settled in 1938 Lambeth and is still a point of contention among Benedict XVI's flock, is a cakewalk compared to what is tearing at the Anglican Communion today.

The Roman Church in a Vatican II document on ecumenism has very special regard to the Anglican Church. This is because the Anglicans have preserved many Catholic traditions (episcopacy for instance) while maintaining distinctively Protestant ones. This is Anglicanism's greatest gift to the Universal Church.

Some of the Catholic traditions of Anglicanism like parish morning, midday and evening prayer are all but lost in the Post-Vatican II Catholic Church. Pope Benedict's agenda is to recover these in Catholicism. The Novus Ordo in English isn't comparable to Cranmer's English, which is Latinate and shows the inheritance of the English language from the Latin. The New translation of the Missal into English tries to recover some traditional BCP like language but into more modern usage. It is no surpise that Cardinal Kasper paid tribute to these treasures as"Marvellous Evensongs" while giving a frank assessment of Anglicanism's troubles and how these would affect reunion with the Catholic Church in the recently concluded Lambeth Conference.

Anglicanism's troubles I believe stem from it losing its Catholic and Protestant charism in exchange for secular ones. Perhaps this is the reason why Kasper prayed for a new Oxford Movement. The Oxford Movement of the 19th century recovered the Catholic in Anglicanism. Kasper is praying that the Anglicans recover the Christian in Anglicanism!

Anglicanism has its gifts that will make Roman Catholicism less Roman but more Catholic. The Catholic Church can offer the Anglicans the charism of being more universal while recognizing the gifts of authority. The old Catholic bogey that the Anglican Church is a product of Bluff King Hal's lust will have to be laid to rest. Anglicanism is a reflection too of Roman Catholicism and the troubles that afflict it. Kasper's friendly and frank assessment and Pope Benedict's great concern is evidence of that. What really faces the Anglican and Roman Churches is essentially the same. The two churches have to recover that lost catholicity. The Anglicans have lost it due to lack of authority and doctrinal ambiguity while the Roman Catholics have lost it due to over centralized authority and doctrinal praxis inflexibility.

Observers may note that Pope Benedict XVI and Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams have much common theologically than what was assumed. This leads many to say that Benedict is an "Anglican" Pope while Rowan is a "Roman" Archbishop of Canterbury.

Now about Evensong and Common Prayer. This is expressing my Anglican spirituality as a Catholic. It is unfortunate that unlike in English speaking countries, Catholic churches are not across the street from Anglican ones in our country.Whenever I am in an English speaking country, I make it a point to attend Mass in the morning and Evensong in the evening. Sometimes we have to cross the street to really recover what it means to be Catholic.

How does one recover catholicity? St Paul gives the famous answer. Charity.

What do we do with the Anglicans?

I came about this interesting and faith nurturing episode in Father James Reuter SJ's essay entitled "Vatican City" in the University of the Philippines Los Banos centennial coffee table book. This episode of wartime internment tells us what Anglicanism is all about. This episode should be noted by Catholics and Episcopalians in the Philippines.

When the Americans surrendered to the Japanese in 1942, Allied nationals were interned in several camps. The largest of these was the one at the University of Santo Tomas. The clergy, religious and seminarians of different Christian denominations were interned at the UP Los Banos camp. The Catholic clergy (the largest group among them) were billeted in a separate barracks from the Protestants.  The nuns were billeted separately from all the men. The Japanese jailers asked "What do we do with the Anglicans?"

According to Fr Reuter the small group of Anglicans protested to the Japanese about being sent with the rest of the Protestants. The Japanese had no idea what these Anglicans meant and they sought the opinion of the Jesuit superior who said they were Protestants. And yet the Anglicans insisted they were Catholic and for that they stood 3 hours under the burning sun.

In the end, the Japanese arrived at an ingenious solution. They asked the Anglican clergy if they had wives and they admitted they had. The Japanese said "Catholic no wife, Protestant wife" " You Protestant"!

To me the episode demonstrates the faithful witness of the Catholic identity by the Anglicans. The Japanese could have had them shot or beheaded right there and then! This was war. If I were in their place, I could just told the Japanese I was plainly "Protestant"!

Fr Reuter writes that "The Anglicans were close to the Catholics. If you saw the Anglican ministers say Mass, you would think it was a Catholic Mass. The only difference was the language. The Roman Catholics said Mass in Latin and the Anglicans said Mass in English. Aside from that there was nothing that separated us. We were children of God." [Emphasis mine]

More than 70 years separate this small group of Anglicans from us, the Ordinariates and  Anglicanorum Coetibus. Under the Apostolic Constitution, the Ordinariates can have married priests not just at the start but forever. And in the Ordinariates the Anglicans will have the Mass in English (but this is not news really. Catholics have the Mass now in English!). But we can expect the Anglican Ordinariates to have the Mass in an English that is from an earlier use and provides a refreshing difference from the more Modern English of the Mass.

Father Reuter at 95, frail but young at heart still, is the last surviving cleric who was incarcerated. In the essay and other essays on the Los Banos camp he writes about the conversion of the most sadistic Japanese jailer a "Lt Konishi" who was eventually captured by the Americans, tried for war crimes and hanged. Before he was hanged, Konishi received the Sacraments and as Father Reuter notes "went straight to heaven" Such is the mysteries of the Divine workings even in the hell of a concentration camp.

I also found a link on a Roman Catholic site which posts once more the Easter homily of an Episcopal priest whose father was one of the Anglican clerics Fr Reuter wrote about. You can read the reflection on the "Undamaged Chausuble" here.

"What do we do with the Anglicans?" was a question that the Popes have faced. Of course the Popes did not mean to incarcerate them. Benedict XVI gave the now historic answer!

And if this small group of Anglicans were still with us. They would likely have accepted the Papal offer.

TheTraining of Filipino clergy in the Episcopal Church: A History of SATS

The main altar of St Andrews Seminary Chapel from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Andrew%27s_Seminary_Chapel_%28altar%29.jpg

The Rt Rev Edward P Malecdan, Prime Bishop of the Philippines has an interesting essay on the history of the Episcopal Church in the Philippines on the history of St Andrew's Theological Seminary (SATS). You can read it in the 3rd quarter of the ECP online newsletter the "Episcopalian" The question in a missionary endevour is when do we train an indigenous clergy?

This is the same question that faced the Roman Catholic friar missionaries at the onset of Spanish colonization in 1571. The King of Spain wanted native clergy but the friars were hesitant citing their experience in Mexico. So it took more than a hundred years before Filipino priests were ordained. The first priests were ordained in the early 1700s. The PECUSA mission considered training Filipino clergy as early as 1909 buts as Bp Malecdan writes "this was not one of the district missions and goals". ebven Bp Brent was not enthusiastic to the idea noting that Filipinos will have to learn much in governance. Brent also thought that resistance to American rule was latent and that the training of Filipino clergy held in abeyance.

As such the first deacons were ordained only in 1938. This proved a blessing for the church since with the Japanese occupation, all American clergy were interned. One of the deacons became the first Filipino bishop Rt Rev Edward Longid, who is the granddad of my dear friend Conyap Longid.
Rev Longid kept the faith alive by regularly conducting services at St Mary in Sagada. SATS seminary program of formation was monastic.

The rest of the postwar story is interesting to read especially when the ECP main seminary also trained seminarians of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI). There are more IFI clergy trained in the ECP seminary than ECP clergy.

Today, SATS faces the same problems faced by the Catholic seminaries. Vocations are decreasing as the Philippines becomes more secular. Also for those who have the vocation, they don't have the money to pay for the fees. There is a need for contributions, especially for scholarships.

An Evening hymn from the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal

I found this evening hymn from our old 1940 Hymnal. It is true Roman Catholic and Anglican Patrimony! It was St Ambrose of Milan who wrote the words to

O LUX BEATA TRINITAS

"O Trinity of blessed light,
O Unity of princely might,
the fiery sun now goes his way;
shed thou within our hearts thy ray.

To thee our morning song of praise,
to thee our evening prayer we raise;
O grant us with thy saints on high
to praise thee through eternity.

All laud to God the Father be;
all praise, eternal Son, to thee;
all glory, as is ever meet,
to God the holy Paraclete."

AMEN

TEC parish votes to join the Catholic Church as an Anglican Use parish

The Mt Calvary parish in Baltimore, Maryland, USA recently voted to leave the Episcopal Church in the United States. The story is here. Mt Calvary is a parish founded in 1842 and has been staunchly Anglo-Catholic. Now begins the difficult part of their journey. The parish has to settle property issues with the Episcopal Church. We hope that this will be amicable. We pray to God that the Mt Calvary parish and the local Episcopal diocese comes into an agreement. The Episcopalians thanking and waving Godspeed and the Catholics receiving them with open arms.

When did Christianity arrive in the Philippines?

Ren Aguila and I had an interesting discussion on early Christianity in Asia. And naturally this led to some talk on when the first Christians arrived in the Philippines.

Conventional history says that the first Christians came with Magellan in 1521. Here we can't contest for there was Antonio Pigafetta to record all of that in a journal which became a book. It is the first rather accurate (and thus modern) depiction of a voyage to Asia. The earlier works like the one of Marco Polo may be viewed as fantastic. Sceptics say that Marco Polo went to China. mentioned the use of paper money and yet did not even mention the Great Wall (and even dumplings they say)! Pigafetta's journal's mention the Easter Sunday Mass (March 31) celebrated in the Philippines. This "first Mass" (which is the first act of Christian worship in the Philippines) is a bone of contention. Where exactly in the Philippines was the first Mass celebrated?

Pigafetta records an island called "Mazaua" as the site. The problem is that  there is an island in Leyte called "Limasawa" and a place near Butuan as "Masaua". Pigafetta mentions a port with many boats. Today's Limasawa has no anchorage and definitely is not a busy port. Butuan has been proven by archeologists as an ancient trading port (the oldest balanghai boats were dug up there). But Butuan is not an island at all. However it could have been in 1521 since it sits on a river delta.


I won't delve much into this controversy that has the Philippine National Historical Institute in a bind. But there are other places in the Philippines that claim as the site of the first act of Christian worship. The most famous of this is Bolinao, Pangasinan. This northern Luzon town famous for its "bagoong", powdery white sand beaches and  as the site of the University of the Philippines marine laboratory, claims to be as the site of the first Mass in the Philippines. In front of the Spanish colonial Church of St James is a marker documenting this event.

Bolinao townspeople claim that Blessed Odorico of Pordenone landed in Bolinao, Pangasinan and celebrated the Mass in 1324, one hundred ninety seven years before Magellan's priest celebrated his in Mazaua. Odorico is claimed to have baptized the natives and made converts.  The marker in the church plaza was donated by citizens of Pordenone, Italy.

There is no doubt that Odorico went to China, India, perhaps Tibet and Southeast Asia as a missionary. There is documentation to prove this This missionary effort happened during the last period of Eastern Christian flowering in Asia. There is a lot of research that now proves that the Nestorian Church had an extensive presence in China and India.

However, there is no definite proof the Odorico landed in the Philippines. Of course the word "Philippines" had never been coined then! But the historical accounts say that Odorico visited a place called "Thalamasin" somewhere in Southeast Asia. The name "Pangasinan" refers to the widespread activity of making salt, thus the province is literally "the land of Salt". However it is claimed that the creation myth of the Ilocanos of Luzon, "Angalo ken Aran"(put into writing by Godofredo Reyes) mentions "Thalamasin" as a place name in what is now Pangasinan!

Is Thalamasin Pangasinan? The historians will have to dig out the documentation. This is where the Episcopal presence in the Philippines intersects with these controversies. The Episcopalian lay missionary Dr William Henry Scott,  (1921-1993) fondly known as "Scotty" is considered as the authority on pre-colonial Philippine history and the history of the Cordilleras. Scott spent most of his time in Sagada and taught for a time at the University of the Philippines. Scott did his PhD at the University of Santo Tomas where he was supervised by another eminent Filipino historian, Fr Horacio de la Costa. Scott's dissertation demolished the historicity of the Code of Kalantiaw establishing that it is not precolonial but dates back to 1914. He also concluded that there is no evidence that a Datu Kalatiaw ever existed. In his study of the Maragtas, he concluded that while Bornean datus may have arrived in Panay, the account preserved  the memory of an actual event as an oral history.

Scott's "Discovery of the Igorots" remains as the definitive work on Cordillera history but Scott's essays on Igorot religion and belief as this culture meets Christianity is important reading for any missionary. I like what he writes in "Worship in Igorot Life"

"The practice of religion as a literal way of life is precisely what any Christian body must attain if it is to be a Christian community at all., and such a Christian way of life should flow from the Christian faith and not vice versa".... "Therefore however imperative it may appear to modify the pagan's daily conduct out of allegiance to Christian charity or dogma, the stones with which to build a new way of life dare not be confused with food for a children hungering after the Living Bread"

There is still much to learn about the first time Christianity was planted in the Philippines. It is not a far out idea that the first Mass may have been Eastern Christian rather than Roman Catholic. Nestorians or Malabar Christians may have wandered onto Pangasinan's white beaches for the islands were trading with Asia. We have archeological evidence that there were Hindu and Buddhist missions in the precolonial Philippines. We have written accounts of Islamic missionaries. So it is not far fetched if there were Eastern Christians. But like Scott would challenge historians, find the documentation first.

John Staunton, Sagada and an Anglo Catholic journey

Sagada in the Mountain Province, Philippines is the only Anglican/Episcopal town in the Philippines. Today it is a small municipality with 11,000 residents and is a major ecotourism and cultural attraction. It's main attraction are the "hanging coffins" a traditional burial practice of the Igorot people which is no longer done.

The town was a small tribal settlement and in 1884 Spanish Roman Catholic missionaries established a presence there but due to the Philippine Revolution left. In 1904 the Rev John A Staunton Jr (1864-1944) established the first Episcopal mission among the Bontoc Igorots. The Bontocs welcomed the Episcopal missionaries.

Staunton was priest of St Mary the Virgin in New York, a church that  today still is staunchly Anglo-Catholic. The New York Sun reported that it was difficult to differentiate the Mass celebrated there from the Mass said at nearby St Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral. Staunton came from a family of Episcopal priests. He did a degree in mining engineering at Columbia University, attended Harvard before attending the General Theological Seminary. In college he was attracted to Anglo Catholicism. He considered himself as a Catholic during his entire career as a priest. Although at first not as a Roman Catholic, but a Catholic nonetheless.

He had a deep reverence for the Catholic liturgy and traditional devotional practices. This he brought when he established the mission in Sagada. The mission church in Sagada was dedicated to St Mary and was from the start an Anglo Catholic foundation.

Staunton the engineer-priest started building the community in tandem with preaching the Gospel. He built a sawmill, kilns, mines, taught the Bontoc to plant vegetables that gave the natives a means of employment. Machinery had to be imported to Sagada from the US, carried piece by piece from Manila to the mountains of the Cordillera. Eleven years later, Sagada was a wonder, a Christian town  of 2000 with industries in a largely non-Christian region.

Staunton was a strong authoritarian personality who required the natives to attend Mass. His wife Eliza, a nurse by profession, balanced  him in this regard and taught the women livelihoods at the time centered on the domestic arts.

The mission was supported by contributions from US Episcopalians largely through the efforts of Bishop Brent and Rev Staunton. However the financial effects of World War I and Great Depression the 1920s resulted in the drying up of donations. Many of the what Staunton wanted for Sagada, like a hydroelectric plant for energy self sufficiency, never came to pass.

Staunton's Anglo Catholicism were not without critics and opponents both from the Episcopal/Anglican and the Roman Catholic side. His reports to Bishop Brent clearly outlined the Anglo Catholic direction of the mission. Brent did not oppose his emphasis perhaps Brent realized that  his policy of "not building an altar over another" was consistent with allowing Anglo Catholic practice to flourish.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nueva Segovia (Vigan. Ilocos Sur) sent Belgian missionaries to get the Episcopalians out of Sagada. It was a less ecumenical age but still Staunton lived up to the ecumenical ideals we in the 21st century now take for granted and in the end, had good relations with the Roman Catholic priests. When he resigned the Sagada mission, he even suggested to turn over the mission to the Roman Catholics.

Things went head to head when Brent resigned his missionary bishopric in 1918. Temporary Episcopal oversight of the Philippine diocese came under the Anglican Bishop of Shanghai, Bishop Frederick Graves. Graves visited Sagada soon after and was appalled at the Roman Catholic practices  (veneration of the Virgin's icon, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, the Rosary etc) instituted by Staunton. Graves forbade these rites. Staunton then wrote an open letter to the Bishop which remains as  definitive about the problems of living the Catholic faith within Anglicanism. The significance of the letter is that this deals with the problem of living the Catholic faith within Anglicanism and of BEING A MISSIONARY in a non-European land.

Bishop Governeur Mosher took over the Philippine missionary diocese and while he tolerated Staunton's Anglo Catholicism now called the "Sagada Rite", he passed Staunton's funding requests to the American Board of Missions who declined most of his requests. The result was Mosher and Staunton had a falling out. Several letters followed about "pan-Protestant virus" and accusations of "Protestantizing the missions" which even those sympathetic to Anglo Catholicism had to conclude that Staunton's nerves "were highly strung"

Staunton resigned his mission in September 1924 which Mosher accepted. In December of that year the American Board of Missions accepted it. He left the Philippines for the last time on Feb 23, 1925 at the age of 60. He then assumed the curacy of  an Episcopal parish in the USA but never was a successful priest like he was in Sagada. In 1930 came the definitive point in his Anglo-Catholic priesthood. In that year the Lambeth Conference allowed contraception in certain circumstances thus departing from traditional teaching. Staunton was received into the Catholic Church on September 22, 1930.  His wife missed Sagada  and died of illness in 1933. Staunton then entered the Pontifical Beda College in Rome as a seminarian. With failing health and eyesight, he was unable to finish his seminary studies but the Catholic hierarchy in Rome was moved by his circumstances, granted a dispensation and he was finally ordained as a Catholic priest. He celebrated his first Mass as a Roman Catholic. A month later he retired and spent his last years at a nursing home. He was called by his Maker in 1944.

In Staunton's day going to Sagada was difficult often on horseback. In the 21st century, we can get there by airconditioned bus to Baguio (300 km from Manila) and another bus for the  8 hour, 140 km  trip to Sagada. We now have mobile phones and Internet and so Sagada is a tad less  difficult to get to and less isolated than it was when Staunton came there in 1904!  Visitors to Sagada today will note that St Mary's Episcopal Church and St Mary's School remain  as the best monuments to Father Staunton. His career and ministry is a example of the journeys taken by numerous Anglo Catholics who in the end entered their own house as Pope Paul VI would tell the Archbishop of Canterbury. Many Anglo Catholics who completed their journeys in the Catholic Church are not clergy, but a vast majority of them are laypeople. No journey is the same. Mine is not the same as other Anglicans and cannot compare to the most famous one of all,  the one by John Henry Newman, but Staunton's journey remains remarkable indeed. First of all it was a true ecumenical journey. Staunton like Bishop Brent laboured to be on good relations with Roman Catholics and other Protestants. Only those who have visited Sagada, would know what I mean. The landscape, culture and people of this part of the Cordilleras are breathtaking. And at silent reflection and prayer in St Mary's we come home.

While St Mary's is only one of two non- Roman Catholic churches in the list of notable Filipino churches (the other one is the central temple of the Iglesia ni Cristo), no one goes to Sagada as pilgrims but as tourists, more likely as ecotourists. Sagada today faces the problems that befall such picturesque towns. Ms Danilova Molintas, a good friend of mine and debating "opponent" who attended the UP in Diliman and hails from the town has written an essay on the social costs of tourism in her Episcopalian town.

She told me that people go to Sagada to "find something or to run away from something" How true is that in the story of Father John A Staunton, Jr!

Charles Henry Brent, Episcopal Bishop of the Philippines and Witness for Ecumenism

Bishop Charles Henry Brent (1862-1929) was the first Episcopal bishop of the Philippines. Just a few years after American sovereignty was established in the country, he arrived on the same ship with Governor-General William H Taft as a missionary bishop. Thus the Episcopal mission in the Philippines from the start carried the prestige of American rule.

However Brent who prior to his consecration ministered to slums in Boston, was acutely aware of the poverty situation in the Philippines. He noted that Filipinos were not food secure and this was compounded that the majority of Filipinos did not have access to technical education. Brent also was a firm supporter of the University of the Philippines which was established in 1908. He believed the University will be an excellent institution for the nation.

Brent broke from the Protestant approach of dividing the archipelago for their missions in order to convert the Filipinos. He recognized that the Roman Catholic Church (which commanded the religious affiliation of the majority) was a Christian church. Thus he desisted in building "an altar over another". The Episcopal Church thus focused its missionary work on non-Christians and the expatriate community.

For this Brent is remembered as one of the first witnesses of ecumenism. He supported the work of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Manila and was ready to cooperate with him. He promoted harmony among the Protestant missions.

He declined to be named to any American see until 1918 when he assumed the bishopric of Western New York. He helped organize the World Conference on Faith and Order in Lausanne, Switzerland. This organization later became the World Council of Churches. Also he campaigned against substance abuse and asked the British government to stop the production of opium. In this he was unsuccessful as the British made money from the trade. But he continued to protest until his death on March 27, 1929.

Filipinos today know Brent as the man who gave the name to Brent School. But little do they know that  the good bishop was far ahead of his time in addressing social issues and in his ecumenism. What Brent rallied against are still our problems in the 21st century; poverty, an insensitive elite class, substance abuse, access to quality education and most of all corruption in government. In a New York Times interview published on December 4, 1910 he noted that the Philippine government "was practically free from graft". But that was the government run by Americans like Taft and like heaven according to upcoming politician Manuel Quezon, which later on became first President of the Philippine Commonwealth. These Americans like Brent were progressive.

Brent noted too the hostility showed by the elite class to the Americans and their reforms in government.  But the elite were hostile because the Americans conquered the Philippines.

The Episcopal Church in the United States commemorates Bishop Brent on March 27 while the Episcopal Church in the Philippines commemorates him on August 25.