Conflict at Cosmopolitan Church

Should a conflict within a church be exposed to the public? This question was raised when a chaotic row at the Cosmopolitan Church of Manila occurred. To put it briefly, trouble erupted when a group in the congregation prevented members from running for the church council on the ground that they do not live moral lives.

No, the trouble may be taking place in a church, and has no national significance, so let’s not let the world know about it, said one concerned sector. Unbeknownst to this sector, the protagonists who believe that only moral persons, based on their interpretation of the 12th chapter of Hebrews, should lead church affairs, issued press releases to the media, with claims showing they had been kicked out of the church premises, and deprived of due process. Not only that, the pastors leading the insurrection have been defrocked, so to speak, or stripped of their authority as pastors of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, under which Cosmopolitan is a member church.

Having read the documents on the conflict and the press releases and statements on the stand of the so-called “aggrieved” party, this columnist, who would attend services in the church from time to time, presents the side of the church officers made to look as “aggressors.”

The conflict began to brew when on Nov. 28, 2010, at a congregational meeting and election of officers, businessman Bernabe Soledad and Marlene Suarez were barred from running for church council positions for the next year’s set of officers. A month prior, on October 23, Cosmopolitan Church’s election nominations committee (NOMELEC), had issued invitations for nominations to church officers which included a Self Disclosure Form (SDF) where a nominee discloses present circumstance in his life that may affect his performance as a church officer.

On Nov. 6, 2011, the list of nominees for the 2012 set of officers did not include Soledad and Suarez either as in the previous year. For two weeks, an open letter to the congregation was circulated by protesting members opposed to the SDF and the disqualification of Bernabe and Suarez. This time, NOMELEC added to the disqualification list Perfecto Yasay Jr.

The ground for disqualifying Bernabe was his having been divorced and married to a new wife; for Suarez, for her being married to Dr. Oscar Suarez, former president of Philippine Christian University who was reputed to have been involved in a wrong money deal, although no criminal complaint had been filed against him in the courts, and what remains is an intra-corporate dispute involving himself and several persons with the PCU, and for Yasay, for his alleged involvement in an imbroglio with Banco Pilipino and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, although no actual case was filed against him in court. Cosmopolitan Chairman Mel Morales told me, the accusations have remained verbal and in whispers, but never filed in court. Is that morally right, he asks, to convict someone by hearsay?

On Dec. 7, 2011, Yasay et al filed a Petition and Request for Advisory Opinion on the matter with the National Commission on Discipline and Conflict Resolution (NCDCR) of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines which on Dec. 9, 2011, issued a Temporary Restraining Order to the proposed December 18 elections. The TRO was delivered to Cosmopolitan Church. Three days later, on December 18, Cosmopolitan Church, headed by Rev. Dakanay’s pastoral team and 80 percent of the congregation, proceeded with the election of officers for 2012, disregarding the TRO because, in Rev. Dakanay’s statement, the NCDCR “did not observe the process prescribed in the UCCP and Cosmopolitan Church By Laws.”

The NCDCR is the highest body appointed by the UCCP General Assembly, which settles conflicts within churches which need not be thrown to the civil courts. It is made up of highly respected persons — a judge, a lawyer, a pastor, a retired Armed Forces of the Philippines chaplain, and an educator.

On December 21, Yasay et al filed a motion to declare Cosmopolitan Church in contempt, although this was delivered to the church office only on Jan. 25, 2012.  

On March 12, 2012, the NCDCR invalidated the December 18 elections and directed the hold-over Church Council chaired by Mel Morales to conduct new elections, and suspended Rev. Dakanay for at least one month without pay until cleared by the Council of Bishops, “for her disobedience and rebellious demeanor, which threatened the peace, order and harmony of the Church.”

 On April 11, 2012, NCDCR issued a Supplemental Order for the Conference Minister to suspend Pastor Dakanay and ordered the Council Chairman Melchor Morales to hold new elections. On April 17, NCDR issued a Second Supplemental Order against Pastor Dakanay.

On May 8, NCDCR ordered the expulsion of Pastor Dakanay and her pastoral team (Jonathan Patadlas, Agustina Gervacio, Jeffrey Gatdula, and Dennis Diamante) from the Roll of Ministers of the UCCP and directed that they be immediately barred from entering and staying in the Church and its premises.

For some time, Rev. Dakanay et al occupied the physical assets of the church, including the main sanctuary, the parsonage and offices, compelling members and the newly appointed interim pastor, Dr. Jose Andres Sotto, to hold worship services on the second floor of the sanctuary. Repulsed by the finding that church deposits had been withdrawn from the banks, members, under the leadership of Morales, Yasay and Suarez, and in the presence of UCCP bishops and lay leaders, had the administrative office locks forced open; there they found some cash undeposited with the banks for unexplained reasons. For some unexplained reason too, the electrical and telephone utilities had been ordered cut off although payments had been made on them. Investigations with the utility firm personnel showed the disconnection had been ordered by “someone” from the church.

The original Cosmopolitan Church leadership and its loyal congregation have retrieved all the church assets, although the pews are not filled, as 80 percent of the congregation had followed Rev. Dakanay’s cause. They may have formed another church treading on what Morales terms “a doctrine of righteousness.”

Dakanay has complained in her press statements that her group has been forced to hold services in less mighty places, such as the Girl Scouts of the Philippines. Morales, however, said that the group held their first service in the swanky, expensive Peninsula Hotel.

Dakanay’s father, E.P. Dakanay Jr., said in a statement, “It has been a festering problem of Cosmopolitan Church for some years that individuals among its membership with blighted moral reputation had been officers in its official boards and council.” Which is why the church council’s commission in charge of conducting elections “strictly imposed the Church’s criteria for reputation of moral rectitude of the candidates,” Dakanay added.

In another statement, he questioned the acts of the NCDCR as showing that “it lends itself to be a tool of aberrant groups such as Yasay et al, unfit to be an instrument for dispensing justice in the UCCP community of churches. The highest officers of  the UCCP and members of Cosmopolitan Church who countenance the abusive and vicious conduct of NCDCR share the onus for the chaos that has been sown at Cosmopolitan Church.”

Reverend Dakanay’s refusal to heed the letters sent her by NCDCR has been due to her and her group’s non-recognition of the authority of the UCCP body.

This is a sad story of a Protestant church being split in two: one of the members said to be the righteous, and the other alleged to be sinful. Atty. Steve Salonga, Bible study leader at Cosmo delivered the homily two Sundays ago that touched the core of moral dilemma. Essentially he said the church is not made up only of righteous people, of angels, but of sinners as well, who want to live lives according to the will of God. Who is one to drive them out of the church?

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