A Healing Narrative to Achieve Christian Unity: The Case of the Catholic Church and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente

Abstract

This paper presents a story of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) employing the ecumenical perspective. IFI’s existence was basically shaped by the birth of the Philippines as a nation. Moreover, this paper seeks to uphold a spirit of openness to come up with a reconciling narrative between the IFI and the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines (RCCP) by highlighting their shared history and sentiments. The discussion of the eventual separation of the IFI from the Catholic Church highlights the grounds that the former firmly maintained and the reasons for holding on to them. One of the reasons was the desire to be more responsive to the changes that the Philippines was experiencing during that time; included in this response was the need to assume new roles as expected of a mature Church in the Philippines. The reforms that RCCP carried after the 1896 Revolution was an affirmation to a certain extent of the claims of the IFI, although it might have been a case of a ‘little too late.' However, it could also be a case of ‘more had yet to be done,’ which required a lot of patience for both the RCCP and the IFI. If these were considered, schism might have been prevented. By highlighting this standpoint, this paper uses Receptive Ecumenical Learning. This paper aims to demonstrate that there is a way to heal the pain of division by framing the narrative from the point of view of the need for church reform.