UCCP in crisis

(First of two parts)

It is saddening that at its 71st  year of existence, the United Church of Christ in the Philippines is in the grip of disunity. On May 25, 2019, two opposing groups celebrated the anniversary in separate venues – one at Ellinwood-Malate Church, venue of the formal signing of the union of churches that formed the UCCP in 1948, and the other at Union Theological Seminary in Cavite. 

The union was made up of three representative church traditions: Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregational. It counts one half million members today. Its core ministries are preaching, teaching, healing and social concerns.

Social media and other sources have disclosed the unhappy relationship between the group of theologian Dr. Everett Mendoza, Dr. Noriel Capulong, chair of the Faith and Order Commission, ministers and lay persons on one hand, and the UCCP national leadership headed by Bishop Melzar D. Labuntog, secretary general; Lauro J. Millan, corporate treasurer, and bishops and officers on the other hand.

The online exchanges between the two groups and their supporters are unsettling as they accuse each other of bad faith, of being wily, of falsehoods, cheating, and other unpleasant terms. 

It is apropos to bring up what triggered the crisis: the employment of the corporatization process in dealing with the church’s real estate properties. The process is believed (by the national leadership) to come to the aid of church pastors, especially in the rural areas, who for decades, have been living under miserable conditions. Relying only on their churches’ earnings (from the congregations’ tithes, pledges and donations a good percentage of which is remitted to the national office), they enjoy no entitlements such as retirement pension, medical and hospital care, education for their children, and burial expenses. 

To be sure, previous UCCP national administrations were not remiss in making attempts to ease the workers’ burden, but, says a writer, “were too cautious, others say, passive”. 

Yet the churches, national and local, are not poor, considering that they own real estate properties in Metro Manila and everywhere else. Many of these have lain idle, unutilized, or underutilized. Such assets are estimated to cost P50 billion. Can they be made use of to answer the supplicants’ prayers for help?

Now enters the current national leadership, which sees as its stewardship function using such properties to make money to support programs and pastors’ needs through corporatization. 

Corporatization is the crux of the matter, putting the church in deep crisis, dividing the membership into two unequal parts. It is feared that the crisis – although for another reason – might split the church as what happened to the Methodist Church in the Philippines.

The trouble began when the UCCP’s Bethany Mission Hospital in Tacloban City was hit by super typhoon Yolanda in November 2013.  In 2014 the UCCP General Assembly – the highest policy-making body of the church – tasked the National Executive Council (NEC) to immediately rehabilitate and reopen Bethany. But later that year the National Council (NC), the interim body of the General Assembly, not heeding NEC’s order, closed it down on the ground of huge financial losses. The national leadership, through its creation, a One Management Board, signed a 40-year lease agreement with the Gaisano-owned Metro Rail Inc., allowing it to build a shopping mall on one-half of the 4,000 sq.m. property. The hospital was standing in the way of the mall, so it had to be demolished; in its place a United Shalom Medical Center was created on a remaining building in the adjacent lot.

Fast on the heels of the Gaisano deal is the joint venture agreement between the UCCP and the Villar-owned Vista Land. This involves the construction of a 42-story twin-tower condominium on a 3,500 sq.m. lot adjacent to the existing UCCP Shalom Center in Malate, Manila. A portion of the prime lot is being occupied by the Union Elementary School, which is attached to the Philippine Christian University. The school has to vacate the property to give way to the high-rise condominium.

Mendoza, et al, expressed support to the idea of developing the church’s idle and unutilized properties, but objected to the manner by which such projects were going to be implemented, “that is, mainly through corporate takeovers of such properties, by organizing separate corporations to handle and control the ownership and manage the investments on such properties. Such manner of developing church properties does not conform to the processes and procedures and basic policies laid down by both the Constitution and By-laws, and the policies laid down by the General Assembly.”

The Gaisano and the Vista Land deals came about through amendments made by the national leadership in the UCCP’s Constitution and By-laws, followed by the creation of the UCCP as a stock-for-profit corporation which, Capulong and Mendoza et al, said are unconstitutional, and bypassed church rules and procedures. 

To backtrack, in 1978 UCCP launched a ten-year Self-Reliance program and in 2002 created the Commission on Stewardship and Resource Development (CSRD) – to oversee the development of real and other properties of the church. A UCCP Resource Development Foundation was also created to establish a non-stock, non-profit foundation which, as UCCP’s holding company, would lead in the task of utilizing “properties under its (UCCP’s) care toward self-reliance and support of various ministries.” 

An astute writer comments, “It would take a huge leap of 13 years (2002 to 2015) from a careful (others say passive) stewardship of properties to a dramatic and aggressive shift toward corporatization.”

The serious attempt to implement the Corporatist Model, according to Capulong, began when Lauro Millan became the national treasurer, and quickly, with the approval of the National Council, to corporate treasurer.

In just a matter of one year, a series of amendments were introduced for ratification by the NEC to change the orientation of UCCP from a church to a corporation, supposedly all in the name of progress, development and better life of the church especially the pastors, said Mendoza.

The new orientation, Mendoza said, means a new way of thinking and dealing with the properties and resources of the church, including, but not limited to, the creation of NEC as the Board of Trustees, a realty and holding corporations, and others. The new orientation will radically alter church programs and structures, especially the local, conference, and the General Assembly.” 

In an interview with this columnist at the national UCCP headquarters on 877 EDSA, Quezon City, Millan said, “I want our church to be sustainable and do social justice both inside and outside by providing for the needs and welfare of church workers. What good is it to talk about social justice if we do not prioritize right wages required by law?”

The UCCP-Vista Land joint venture is expected to yield P1 billion for UCCP, half of which is designated for capital build up and the other half reserved for church workers’ benefit (CWB). UCCP’s participation is the P500-million lot, while Vista Land has an exposure of P3 billion for the cost of the construction. This is the basis of the 15%-85% sharing of sales of units. Mendoza says, “In the end, UCCP stands to lose the whole property once all the shares are sold. Ownership and control will be by the condominium buyers.”

At the UCCP Forever website, Millan said an Endowment Fund will be “wisely and properly” invested to earn an interest income of around P25 million every year (hopefully starting 2024-2025). The yearly income is envisioned as a steady and adequate source to address the church workers’ welfare and benefits, particularly for the more than 550 retirees.”

Millan ended his report with, “A billion thanks to God from whom all blessings flow!”

Followers of the national leadership see Millan’s 20-year stewardship program as dazzling, and will end the church’s blues.

But, from the theological viewpoint, Mendoza says in the website, Pagmata, UCCP (UCCP, arise!), no way. (To be continued)

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