United Methodists in the Philippines move toward autonomy
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Bishop Solito Toquero |
Dec. 8, 2004By Elliott Wright* NEW
YORK (UMNS)-- United Methodists in the Philippines have re-elected
three episcopal leaders and moved closer to setting up an autonomous
Methodist Church in the island nation. The
Philippines Central Conference, made up of clergy and lay delegates
from 19 annual (regional) conferences, met in late November and
re-elected and reassigned to their current posts Bishop Benjamin Justo
of Baguio, Bishop Solito Toquero of Manila, and Bishop Leo Soriano of
Davao. Each presides over several annual conferences. All
three bishops were initially elected four years ago and all support an
autonomous, affiliated relationship with the United Methodist Church.
The Philippines church is now an organic part of the United Methodist
denomination. United
Methodist bishops outside the United States serve a "term episcopacy"
that requires an election every four years at meetings of "central
conferences," which are comparable to jurisdictional conferences in the
United States. Convened
in Manila, the 2004 Philippines Central Conference took no definitive
action on the autonomy issue, which has been under consideration for
many years. However, a procedure was laid out that clearly moves in that
direction and plans made for the conference to meet in 2006 to consider
the issue. "The
sentiment for autonomy was very strong," said Bishop Warner H. Brown,
Jr., of Denver, who presided at the Philippines Central Conference on
behalf of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, in a telephone
interview.
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Bishop Leo Soriano |
Methodism was
introduced in the Philippines by Americans more than a century ago. The
church today has a membership of more than 600,000 and serves a
constituency of about one million people."The
Church in the Philippines is an integral part of our global mission
network," said the Rev. R. Randy Day, chief executive of the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries. "It is a mature Church that
continues to be remarkable in its evangelistic zeal and its social
ministries. Our mission partnership will remain vibrant whatever
structures exist in the future." Day
also extended his congratulations to the three returning bishops.
Justo, re-elected on the 6th ballot, is a former college president and
theological seminary professor. He served as an exchange pastor in
Tarzana, Calif., in 1997. He and his wife Elizabeth have two grown
children. Justo is a director of the Board of Global Ministries. Toquero was
re-elected on the 13th ballot. He is a former pastor and educator in
the Philippines and was a missionary in Hong Kong. The bishop and his
wife Alegria have two grown children. Soriano,
who was re-elected on the 17th ballot, is active in ecumenical affairs
and is also a medical doctor. He has done medical mission work in the
Davao region. Soriano and his wife Denia have four grown children. Support for autonomy has increased in recent years. The process of becoming autonomous is guided by the Book of Discipline, the United Methodist book of law, and rulings of the Judicial Council, the church’s highest court. This
year, 16 of 19 annual conferences presented petitions for autonomy to
the central conference. Nine were accepted and seven were ruled out of
order on technical grounds, according to Brown. Two new annual
conferences were created this year in Manila. Delegates
decided to hold an "adjourned session" of the central conference in
2006 to consider autonomy. This will provide time to correct the
technical flaws of the "out of order" petitions and to let the other
annual conferences vote on the autonomy question. *Elliott Wright is the public information officer for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. News media contact: Linda Bloom·(646)369-3759·New York· E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.
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