Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations Secretaries' Files: Philippine Mission

Descriptive Summary

Title

United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations Secretaries' Files: Philippine Mission

Inclusive Dates

1903-1973

Call Number

RG 85

Creator(s)

United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations

Quantity

21.00 cubic feet

Restrictions on Access

Open for research. Medical, educational, and psychological records of living people are closed.

Digital Content

To browse this collection's digitized content visit Pearl.

Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.

Repository

Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147-1516 USA

Biographical Note / Administrative History

Administrative History

Presbyterian mission work in the Philippines commenced shortly after Admiral Dewey's victory in Manila in 1898. By April of 1899, missionaries had begun arriving in the Philippines and by January of 1900, a Filipino Church had been organized and the Mission was formally constituted.

The Presbyterian Church was the first Protestant denomination to recognize the duty of American Christians to provide spiritual guidance to the Filipino peoples. In 1901, the Executive Committee of the Board of Foreign Missions called a conference in Manila with representatives from the American Board, the Baptist Missionary Union, the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Board of Foreign and Domestic Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church and the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America to formulate a strategy of evangelization for the Philippines. This conference resulted in the creation of the Evangelical Union of the Philippine Islands, the purpose of which was to unite all evangelical forces operative in the Philippines. Originally comprised of Methodists, Presbyterians, United Brethren, Baptists and Congregationalists, the Union was reconstituted in 1929 as the National Christian Council and included representatives of the Baptists, Disciples, Methodists, Union and United Evangelical Missions (Presbyterians, Congregationalists, United Brethren) and churches, as well as the American Bible Society and the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

As a result of the 1901 accord, Presbyterian work in the Philippines was to encompass various stations on the islands of Luzon, Negros, Leyte, Panay and Samar. On Luzon, stations were established in Laguna (1902), Albay (1903), Tayabus (1905), Camarines (1911), Batangas (1917) and in Manila, which had first been occupied in 1899 and was to be divided equally between the Presbyterian and Baptist missions. On the island of Negros, a station was opened in Dumaguete (1901). Stations on Cebu and Bohol were commenced in 1902 and 1909 respectively. Tacloban on the island of Leyte was opened in 1903 and Iloilo on Panay was jointly occupied by both the Presbyterian and Baptist missions until 1925. On Samar, the station at Catbalogan was occupied in 1930.

The Presbyterian Church's ministry in the Philippines was medical, educational and evangelical nature. Medical work was first initiated in Iloilo in 1900 with hospitals, dispensaries and nurses' training facilities later established at Albay, Bohol, Dumaguete and Tacloban. Because of the elaborate and costly educational program established by the American occupation, the Board of Foreign Missions limited its educational efforts to three institutions. These included Silliman University in Dumaguete, the first Protestant school established in the Philippines; the Ellinwood Bible School and Union Theological Seminary, established in 1899 and 1907 respectively and both located in Manila.
The Board of Foreign Missions encouraged the Filipino Church to be self-supporting and its
plans for evangelizing the vast untouched regions were contingent upon this concept. Evangelization was effected via weekend and bi-monthly Bible institutes, annual Vacation Bible Schools, kindergarten instruction and informal home visitations.

The goal of the Church's work in the Philippines has been to establish a self-supporting indigenous national church. This has not yet been realized, and although the Filipino people are for the most part at the head of their churches, these churches and their related institutions are still heavily dependent on support from the United States.

Collection Overview

Record Group 85 documents the work of the PCUSA and its successor, the UPCUSA, in the Philippines, 1903-1973. It consists primarily of minutes, reports, and correspondence that evidence the Board of Foreign Missions' medical, educational and evangelistic ministry to the Filipino people.

Organization and Arrangement

Series 1: Minutes, 1911-1964 Box 1
Series 2: Reports, 1911-1972 Boxes 1-3
Series 3: Correspondence, 1904-1971 Boxes 4-18
Series 4: Miscellany, 1903-1973 Boxes 19-21

Alternative Formats

To browse this collection's digitized content visit Pearl.

Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Processing Information

A knowledge of the numbering system used by the office of origin will be of assistance in locating specific items. The Philippine Mission was given the designation of #22. A number following this designation described the type of material. These numbers were:
1 Minutes
2 Station reports, educational reports, general reports
3 Correspondence to and from non-missionaries
4 Cables
5 Standardized Board letters, usually numbered sequentially
6 Printed materials
7 Executive committee correspondence
8 Personal reports
9 Statistical reports/summaries
10 Property correspondence, legal documents pertaining to property
11 Correspondence to/from missionaries

Catalog Headings

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in the society’s electronic catalog.

Corporate Subject

Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Missions Philippines.

Topical Subject

Missions Philippines Educational work.

Missions, Medical Philippines.

Genre-form

Minutes. aat

Corporate Added Name

Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Philippine Mission.

United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Philippine Mission.

Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions.

United Evangelical Church of the Philippines.

Collection Inventory

Box	Folder	Description	Alternative Formats

1	1	Finding Aid to Record Group 85

		SERIES 1: MINUTES, 1911-1964

1	2-5	Mission Minutes, 1911-52
	6-8	Executive Committee Minutes, 1911-63
	9	Personnel Committee Minutes, 1958-63
	10	Missionary Maintenance Committee Minutes, 1953-67
	11	Missionary Committee Minutes, 1948-51
	12	Miscellaneous Minutes, 1958-64

		SERIES 2: REPORTS, 1904-1972

1	13	Annual Mission Report, 1904
	14-15	Deputation Reports, 1916; 1946
	16-25	Personal Reports, 1911-55

2	1-3	Personal Reports, 1956-70
	4-7	Station/General Reports, 1911-21

3	1-15	Station/General Reports, 1922-72
	16-19	Statistical Reports, 1911-27

4	1-4	Statistical Reports, 1928-34

		SERIES 3: CORRESPONDENCE, 1904-1971

4	5-19	Board Letters, 1911-48

5	1-15	Calendared Letters, 1911-25
	16-26	Church Correspondence, 1948-57

6	1-12	Church Correspondence, 1958-71
	13-20	Executive Correspondence, 1926-36

7	1-20	Executive Correspondence, 1937-62

8	1-6	Executive Correspondence, 1963-71
	7-17	Field Administrator Correspondence, 1947-53

9	1-9	1954-57

		Subseries 1: Institutional Correspondence, 1904-1971

10	1	Albay station/Milwaukee Hospital, 1912-47
	2	Cebu Hospital, 1929-31; 1940
	3	Culion Leper Colony, 1922-46
	4	Ellinwood Training School, girls' department, 1911-47
	5	Leyte Hospital, 1915-21
	6	Los Banos College Church, 1913-40
	7	Iloilo Hospital, 1911-25
	8	Manila Union University, 1936-47
	9	Silliman Institute, 1912-1914
	10	Silliman Institute extension fund, 1915-1920
	11	Silliman Institute minutes and reports, 1915-16; 1920; 1938-40; 1944; 1946
	12	Silliman Institute, 1915-1919
	13	Silliman Institute, 1920-1922
	14	Silliman Institute, 1923-1927
	15	Silliman Institute, 1928-1930
	16	Silliman Institute, 1931-1934
	17	Silliman Institute, 1935-1936
	18	Silliman Institute, 1937-1938
	19	Silliman University, 1938-1940
	20	Silliman Institute, 1939-1941
	21	Silliman Institute, 1941-1948

11	1	Silliman Institute, Jan.-June 1947
	2	Silliman Institute, July-Dec 1947
	3	Silliman University minutes, 1959
	4	Silliman University minutes, 1965
	5	Silliman University minutes, 1966
	6	Silliman University minutes, 1967
	7	Silliman University minutes, 1968
	8	Silliman University minutes, 1970
	9	Tondo Evangelical Church, 1929-47
	10	Union College, 1910-22
	11	United Evangelical Church of the Philippines, 1933-45
	12	United Evangelical Church of the Philippines, 1945-49
	13	Union of Evangelical Churches, 1945-47
	14	Union Church, 1905-39
	15	Union Church, 1914-39
	16	Union Theological Seminary, 1904-47
	17	Union Theological Seminary, 1904-19
	18	Union Theological Seminary, 1916-46
	19	Union Theological Seminary, 1919-24

12	1	Union Theological Seminary, 1923-27
	2	Union Theological Seminary, 1925-40
	3	Union Theological Seminary, 1928-32
	4	Union Theological Seminary, 1933-47
	5-18	Institutional Correspondence, 1948-54

13	1-17	Institutional Correspondence, 1954-63

14	1-9	Institutional Correspondence, 1963-68

		Subseries 2: Missionary Correspondence, 1915-1965

15	1-19	1915-32

16	1-20	1933-41

17	1-17	1942-58

18	1-5	1960-65

		SERIES 4: MISCELLANY, 1903-1973

19	1-9	Appropriations/budgets, 1957-70
	10	Audio-Visual, 1949-65
	12	Cebu Urban Church Survey, 1964
	13	Christian Literature in the Philippines, 1930-42; 1968
	14	Church World Service, 1962-63
	15	Cooperating Committee for Christian Work in the Philippines, 1918-34
	16	East Asia Office--Administrative correspondence, 1965
	17	East Asia Office--Interboard committee, 1965
	18	East Asia Office--Institutions; property; Fifty Million Fund, 1965
	19	East Asia Office--Minutes, 1966
	20	East Asia Office--Administrative correspondence, budget, Philippine Church, 1966
	21	East Asia Office--Personnel; property, 1966
	22	General; budget, 1967
	23	Medical work; property, institutions, 1968

20	1	Evangelical Union, 1905; "Practical Workings of Church Federation in the Philippines Islands" by Rev. James B. Rodgers, D.D.	Digital
	2	Fil-American Team, 1968-69
	3	Five Year Program, 1948-56
	4-6	General correspondence, 1927-71
	7	Iloilo station, 1903-27	Digital
	8	Independent Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Philippine Islands, 1914-15
	9-12	Industrial Evangelism, 1958-61
	13	Interboard Committee, 1968-69
	14	Leadership development, 1966-71
	15	Manual for missionaries/fraternal workers, 1956
	16	Miller, Dr. Warren J, 1923-27
	17	Mindanao, joint-occupation, 1913-40
	18	Miscellaneous correspondence, 1904-1924	Digital
	19	Miscellaneous clippings, 1906-56
	20	Miscellaneous clippings, n.d.
	21	Miscellaneous mission history items, 1919-68
	22	Missionary maintenance, 1965-68
	23	Moros, 1913-27
	24	National Council of Churches in the Philippines, 1964; 1967; 1969
	25	Non-missionary correspondence, 1926-40
	26	Philippine Federation of Evangelical Churches, 1929-47
	28	Philippine Society, 1913-14

21	1	Property, 1915-16; 1950-62
	2	Property, 1963-73
	3	Radio Station, DYSR, 1946-49; 1951-1953; 1964
	4	Standing rules of the Philippine Mission, 1924; 1933; 1938
	5	Station letters, 1919
	6	Station correspondence, 1941-50
	7	Sunday School correspondence, 1914-15
	8	Treasurer, 1969-70
	9	United Church of Christ in the Philippines, 1958
	10	War claims, 1958-59

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Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations Secretaries' Files: Philippine Mission

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