Philippines celebrates
40th anniversary

By Bill Sidney
Regional director

QUEZON CITY, Philippines—The Philippine church is celebrating in 2002 the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Philippine Office.

The theme for this milestone year is "40 Years and Beyond—Delighting in God’s Faithfulness." It will be a yearlong celebration highlighted by a series of nationwide fellowships and prayer, reunions, cultural fests and outreach programs in different regions of the country. These will culminate with a grand celebration and worship congress in Quezon City.

1962 Gerald Waterhouse opens the Philippine Office in Makati, Metro Manila, as a growing number of Filipinos express interest in the magazine and other publications.

1965 The Manila congregation is born. Circulation peaks at about 200,000.

1970 The World Tomorrow television program is aired over Channel 7. More congregations are raised up and a number of Filipino men are ordained to pastor them. The Philippine Office begins to oversee church members scattered in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Micronesia.

1976 Herbert W. Armstrong conducts an evangelistic campaign at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City for the first time.

1984 Membership in the Philippines reaches 5,000.

1990 The church is registered locally with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The church buys several units of office space at the Peak Tower in Makati.

1995 The WCG is in the height of transformation and moves toward Christian orthodoxy. The church’s new covenant teaching cuts hard through the Philippine members. A large number of members leave the church.

1996 WCG publishes the magazine, New Life Asia. The Servant-Leaders Development Program (SLDP) is offered to potential and current WCG leaders by the WCG Leadership Development Institute (LDI). LDI would later become the Institute of Family, Leadership and Biblical Studies (IFLBS), which would then offer courses such as the Certificate in Christian Transformational Leadership in partnership with the Lay Institute of the Asian Theological Seminary and Foundations for Christian Leadership (FCL) in partnership with the International School of Theology in Asia.

1998 Pastor General Joseph Tkach visits the Philippines and meets with Philippine evangelical leaders in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

1999 The regional office moves to 60 Matahimik Street, Teachers’ Village. The WCG is recognized as a member of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches.

2001 WCG graduates of the World Mission Course total more than 400. Six WCG missionaries are based in the 10/40 Window. Several tribal outreaches are flourishing in Luzon and one in a Muslim territory in Mindanao. Church planting goes on in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Thirty-five WCG leaders have finished the SLDP, while about 50 leaders have finished the FCL.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2002