Protestantism in the Philippines

Protestant Christianity arrived in the Philippines during the late 19th and the early 20th century. American missionaries were mostly responsible for introducing Protestantism, but some denominations were founded locally by indigenous people. They comprise about 10%-15% of the population.

Protestantism developed in the Philippines after the Spanish–American 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:

"That the power of God will use this day to make a good Catholic better, any weak American stronger, any backslider ashamed, and the gloomy old dungeon the beginning of wonderful things in these Islands, is my prayer."

After the defeat of the Spanish in the Battle of Manila Bay by the U.S. Navy's Asiatic Squadron, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist leaders met in New York to discuss how to bring Protestants to the Philippines in 1898. The result was a comity agreement of the missionary enterprises, dividing up places of ministry to avoid future conflicts among themselves and their converts. Only one Protestant church would be started in each area. The comity agreement, which led to the territorial division of the Philippines, was one of the accomplishments of mission enterprises in the Philippines. The meeting was followed by another gathering in 1901 by the early missionaries in Manila to further discuss the comity agreement with three specific major agenda items:

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