ANOTHER STEP UP Baclaran Unida Evangelical Church inaugurates another STEP UP through its Baclaran Unida Multimedia Arts for Christ: a podcast titled “Ang Tinig Ng Unida.” And hey, it’s in iTunes! You must download iTunes and we are making that easier for you here. This news is our Gintong Butil 17. We are out there, as in out there! Modern technology has proffered a way and we are taking it. And we are now offering it to our Unida Internet Travelers. An Unida broadcast that you can listen to at your own pleasure, anytime you want and wherever needed. It is as if you are there and you are also here. We are going to reach the world without physically getting out of where we are. We will be there while we are still staying here. We will not be immobile because we now have the capacity to be mobile. The world will know that there is IGLESIA EVANGELICA UNIDA DE CRISTO: A Church that brings the Gospel, yes the Good News, of the Saving Grace of Our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST. We proclaim that there is only One God, there is only One Lord, there is only One Saviour, and there is only One Name given for man’s Salvation: JESUS!
UNIDA DEKADA OTSO “Step Up” By Rev. Gamaliel B. Filio
UNIDA. Baclaran Unida Evangelical Church of the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo, 1932. We are, admittedly, a small church. That is, small in numbers but BIG in Faith. We do not play the numbers game but aim for Quality of Faith through Teaching and Preaching the True Gospel of the Saving Grace of Our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST.
We have reached our 8th decade. No small deal for a church initially ridiculed for being small and penniless at the start.
But this is a church that stood its ground on our faith that God will provide all our needs as He did the apostolic churches that sprouted in the first century of Christianity. UNIDA CHURCH was forged with the fire of Filipino Nationalism that raged at the turn of the 19th century FILIPINAS. This translated into a “Monument of Church Nationalism” that was awakened in the hearts of our forefathers in their struggle to free themselves from the fetters of the Church of Rome.
This “monument” is enshrined in the hearts of the pioneer Unida Pastors who served without remuneration during the first decades of the Church. “Naglingkod sa Dios at hindi sa Piso.” We have produced a Teleplay proclaiming this, titled “DEKADA OTSO” where we pried into the struggles of a Unida Pastor today. The fictional character Pastor Daniel Garcia embodies a composite of a current young Unida pastor.
Si Daniel Garcia. Isang bagong pastor. Inakala niya na ang pagpapastoR ay ganun-ganun lang. Hanggang sumuong siya sa mga pangyayaring sumubok sa tatag ng kaniyang pananampalataya sa Panginoong Jesu-Cristo. At sa iglesiang kaniyang nilakhan at kung saan kinatagpo siya ng Dios. Tunghayan… Ang tele-dulang ito ay batay sa kasaysayan ng Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo.
Baclaran Unida Evangelical Church, a “kapilya” where I grew up, is steeped in a tradition of Christmas Stage Plays, begun by my father, Pastor Genio, followed by Paying Garcia, then by this author, and today by my youngest son Lance. We begin practices in October and by December 23, we erect the stage at the side of the Kapilya. Even during those early years when I was one of the actors we already had musical scoring using long playing wax 45 rpm records played on turntables.
But now we have STEPPED UP from stage plays to Video Plays called nowadays Telenovela. When we produced our first Teleplay titled ‘ANG APAT” and our second one titled “SALVACION”, we used only one video camera. Today for our first full-length Telenovela titled “UNIDA, DEKADA OTSO”, we used five video cameras, have shoot a lot of footages and you can just imagine the post-production work that had to be done. And the cost skyrocketed. Because it has to be PROFESSINALY accomplished. Hindi basta-basta lang. This is for God!
Lance is making a limited copy of this Telenovela. Wait for it. It is worth it.
On January 8th 2012 our kapilya will celebrate its DEKADA OTSO. The theme is “MIGHTY AT EIGHTY” and permit me to add “FOR GOD ALMIGHTY”. Their shout is UNIDA AKO, PROTESTANTE, EBANGHELIKO, FILIPINO. We are self-sustaining, self-governing, and self-propagating. No foreign money and no foreign concept.
Plus, our Baclaran Unida Multi-Media Arts for Christ (BUMAC) is set to inaugurate its initial PODCAST of “ANG TINIG NG UNIDA” with this Intro:
Mula pa nuong 1932, pinag-isa ng Dios ang anim na iglesiang protestante, ebangheliko at pilipino at tinawag itong UNIDA. At humayo ang mga lalaki't babae nang kanilang panahon na hawak ang kanilang mga bukas na bibliya at wala silang ibang ipinakilala kundi ang ebanghelyo ni Kristo bilang tagapagligtas ng buong mundo. Ito ang tinig ng UNIDA na aming ipinapahayag ngayon: makasaysayang pananampalataya para sa nagbabagong mundo. Ito ang “TINIG NG UNIDA”. Pananampalatayang Unida para sa Mananampalatayang Unida.
We invite you to look at three videos, one at www.bagongunida.blogspot.com and two at our Youtube Channel, www.youtube.com/PastorGalying. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
IGLESIA EVANGELICA UNIDA DE CRISTO HAS GROWN THROUGH THE YEARS. And this no more apparent than in the anthology of its music and songs. At the turn of the century its legacy of nationalism and faith in the One True God evolved into what it is right now.
It is truly self-sustaining, self-propagating and self-governing. No foreigners in its fold of leaders. It followed the example of the apostolic churches that spread in the first centuries of Christianity.
ON January 8th 2012 Baclaran Unida Evangelical Church celebrates DEKADA OTSO. The event starts with their declaration: UNIDA AKO, PROTESTANTE, EBANGHELIKO, FILIPINO and their theme is "MIGHTY AT EIGHTY FOR GOD ALMIGHTY."
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. KJV
We now live in a pivotal decade. We have come to a fork in the road. SANGANGDAAN. Right or left? Or should we blaze a new trail straight forward?
It was inevitable. THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. The one He established in Caesaria Philippi. His body, of which he is the head must make a decision. And after doing it, there is no turning back.
It is not easy in our times when a lot are calling our attention, beckoning for us to come and seeing a lot of people answering the call. Leaving only a few behind. With Unida perhaps being the fewest. We live in a generation where definitions are blurred, where meanings have become ambivalent if not turned-around 180 degrees. Where it is so hard to distinguish what is right and what is wrong. Where the church is seemingly traipsing with the world in order to be relevant; so that a lot of people can “ease in” and we can be more in number. But the True God loved the few over the more. That is inescapable.
It is now therefore no longer a wonder that the First of the Ten Commandments is: "I am the LORD your God, You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:2-3
Because right now there are so many gods that men are elevating to Godship, yes, to the top of the mountain. And many are being deceived and misled. But God said I AM, you shall have no other before me. He was emphatic and we should listen.
But when only a few is left behind, do not be distressed nor dismayed. What you must struggle for is to be God’s Own through His Covenant of Grace by the blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Since time in memorial men have tried to reach God by their own efforts, they even invented a Queen of Heaven in Semiramis to intercede for them. They did not reach the TRUE AND ONLY GOD because they also invented their own God in Baal. But there is only one God.
We live in a decade where growth is measured in numbers. Their logic goes like this: Unida has been around since 1932 but it has not shown BIG NUMBERS, therefore Unida has not grown as the scriptures said it should. But I say: through the years the Unida Faithfuls, though small in numbers, had been put through the grinder and they went through it with flying colors for 8 decades. Surviving alone without money is grinder enough but we are still around. Why? Because we are children of a great God.
Growth IS measured in the collective Faith of the individual Christians who are part of the Body Of Christ. Growth is measured in the Faith of the Church. So that when it comes to a pivotal decade, a fork in the road, a sangangdaan, it knows what to do. PUT ITS FAITH IN AN ALL-KNOWING GOD and HIS COVENANT OF GRACE. NO OTHER GOD.
We are commanded to make DISCIPLES of NATIONS. Because within those nations are God’s own people. We must seek and reach them to preach and teach them God’s words and commandments. Lest they hear these they cannot know what God had done for them; that he died for them and that God’s own blood was shed to save them. Because they are incapable of saving themselves by the Covenant of the Law, God had made a New Covenant by His blood. Lest they hear this and have faith they cannot be saved.
For there is only One God. There is only One Lord. There is only One Saviour. There is only One Name given for man’s Salvation. JESUS. Believe.
VISION STATEMENT A serving and caring church faithfully proclaiming Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and commissioning every believer to make disciples of all nations.
MISSION STATEMENT Glorify God by equipping the church in reaching and serving people with the Love of Jesus Christ by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
UNIDA CHURCH has a distinctive name and a place in the history of the Philippines. It followed the prophetic observation in 1903 by Rev. John Bancropt Devins “that Filipino Protestants will be self-supporting”: (Wikipedia Encyclopedia) “In 1932, six of the smaller indigenous denominations formed the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Cristo.”
UNIDA dared to declare economic independence by turning down American dollars to become self-supporting. It was hard going for them because their pastors did not receive anything from the church and the members built churches on their own without aid from the Americans. But with so much faith in God’s provisions they did. Unida is now 77 years old and going strong.
Jose Rizal dreamed of an economically independent Philippines but that remained a dream. For the country, that is. But for 77 years Unida was free from foreign intervention because they were economically independent.
The IGLESIA EVANGELICA UNIDA DE CRISTO or UNIDA CHURCH, the truly Filipino Protestant Church, was born on January 3, 1932 but the seeds that gave birth to it were sown at the turn of the century. It was preceded by the birth pangs of an independent Filipino Nation and emboldened by the coming to the Philippines of Protestantism and consequently the right to read and own a BIBLE. (For more please click for older post "UNIDA: A TRULY FILIPINO PROTESTANT CHURCH"
1 Corinthians 15:52 "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
