Today’s View: The Aglipayan Church in my Hometown

But in the 1970s, at the height of the student movement to which I belonged, I learned about the history of the Aglipayan Church or the Philippine Independent Church founded by Gregorio Aglipay and Isabelo de los Reyes. I found out, to my remorseful realization, that it was the Church of the Filipino revolutionaries!

By DON J. PAGUSARA

Davao Today
June 27, 2013

In my hometown, the Church of the Aglipayan Sect was just a block away from that of the Roman Catholic Church. It sat on a lot at a street corner big enough for the church building to occupy. It had no churchyard to speak of, its main entrance opened into a space just a few feet from the side of the street. It was a solitary structure within that narrow space where it occupied.


But the Roman Catholic Church nearby was at the middle of some three or four hectares of level grassland, sliced into unequal parts by Gumamelas, Violetas and Cucharitas, and dotted with wide-spreading Acacia trees. The entire spread of land was enclosed by barbed wires and Tubatuba hedges.

The Catholics were most numerous among the Christian believers. The Aglipayans could only be counted as so many families by our 10 fingers. But as far as I knew they were the oldest settler families in the place. The first mayor (during US colonial time) was a member of the Aglipayan church.

Being a Catholic was to enjoy the self-consciousness of being favored as a member of the true Church of Christ. And this self-conscious feeling of being favored translates in social practice into a kind of tyranny of the majority.

Even as a young boy I was one of those who regard the Aglipayans as members of a bogus church. We scoff at the fact that Aglipayan priests are Filipinos and are married or are family men and therefore less blessed than the Catholic priests.

We could not reconcile the fact that their priests have children, in defiance to the vow of celibacy supposedly mandated by Christ himself(?). We thought they were recalcitrant Christians who had not gone through real scholastic training required of the priestly vocation.

Also, we gloated over the fact that our priests are Caucasians — mostly Irish or Irish-Americans, whereas theirs are “locals” or ordinary Filipinos, if not in fact Bisaya.

We ridiculed their conduct in the celebration of the Mass which was said in the Cebuano language. We burst out in disdainful giggles at the liturgical dialog between their priest and faithfuls in chants that went this way: “Ang Ginoo anaa kaninyo [the Lord be with you],” and promptly answered by their choir and faithfuls with “Ug anaa usab sa imong ispiritu [And also in your spirit]. ”

We strongly believe our Catholic Mass is superior because it is in Latin, the language of the Pope of Rome who is the true Vicar of Christ. We regard the Aglipayans, especially their priest, with distrust, avoiding him whenever we happened to meet him in the street.

But in the 1970s, at the height of the student movement to which I belonged, I learned about the history of the Aglipayan Church or the Philippine Independent Church founded by Gregorio Aglipay and Isabelo de los Reyes. I found out, to my remorseful realization, that it was the Church of the Filipino revolutionaries!

And I soon totally changed my attitude towards Aglipayans. I now admired them, their tenacity and loyal adherence to their congregation even if they were a small minority in most places. And above all, to be in the forefront of the revolutionary struggle against Spain!

Then. . .! Vatican II Reforms came! Ecumenism became a catchword and a welcome happenstance in the history of world religions. And to my triumphant joy, the Aglipayans were vindicated! Their conduct in the celebration of the Mass was, after all, in keeping with the spirit of the Pope-initiated reforms! The Church Mass ceremony should adopt the people’s language!

Indeed, why should the language in the Mass be in a language akin to voodoo magic? — something the people cannot understand?

But the Filipino people, inured to slavish obeisance after 300 years of colonial subjection, would find it blissfully exhilarating to be muttering in the language of the deities.

To a lesser degree, such is likewise the rare feeling of being able to mumble a smattering of English words. Our minds and hearts have been psychologically conditioned to love the language of the colonialists — Spanish and English. To the extent that we despise our own native tongue.

Thanks to the Aglipayans, they have demonstrated what is right and proper. It is not surprising that even in the Arts and Letters, the Aglipayans were the avid practitioners of the Cebuano language in their poetry and other literary expressions.

Fernando Buyser, an Aglipayan bishop of Cebu during the American colonial era, was a much respected and admired literary figure in Cebuano poetry. He could be considered “a prince of Cebuano poetry.” As a matter of fact, he invented a poetic form called Sonanoy (sonatang mananoy or melodious sonnet).

Reflecting on the role of the Aglipayan or Philippine Independent Church during the Philippine Revolution of 1896, I cannot help but wish my family (my father and mother) were members of this much maligned religious sect in our place during my childhood days. And I wouldn’t have been part of those who maligned it.

Don J. Pagusara is a native of Mindanao, a multi-awarded author and a Palanca-awardee.

SOURCE:

Pagusara, Don J. (2013, June 27). Today’s View: The Aglipayan Church in my Hometown. Davao Today. Retrieved from http://davaotoday.com/main/2013/06/27/todays-view-the-aglipayan-church-in-my-hometown/

Kaanyag

By madrilena de la cerna

Cebu Daily News

The second lecture series on the Writers of Carcar resumed last March 2 at the St. Catherine’s College Audio-Visual Room with Jovito Abellana and Diosdado Alesna as the featured writers. Althea Capacio raised many questions in her presentation “In Search of a Cebuano Epic” with concentration on Jovito Abellana’s “Ang Bayok: Aginid sa Kampong Tawilik.” Capacio’s conscientiousness in her research brought about a rich glossary of Cebuano terms.

Kyle Matthew Q. Santelices made an interesting presentation on “Si Maming ug Uban Pa: An Inquiry into Female Beauty in the works of Diosdado Alesna” and I found it fitting for Women’s Month. Alesna started writing in 1920 when he was in his teens. He was honored as one of the outstanding poets of LUDABI (Lubas sa Dagang Bisaya) for the last ten years. He is considered a natural poet according to D.M. Estabaya: “…Matagik ni Dadong bisan unsang matang sa balak sa bisan unsang takna, adlaw o gabii.”

He created the verse form siniloy inspired by the siloy or Black Shama which is endemic in the Visayas and was often used as symbols for poets. The siniloy is often taken to approximate to the six-note like song of the siloy. The siniloy also shows the influence of the sonanoy (Cebuano for sonnet) which was created by Fernando Buyser who also made many different kinds of poems in Cebuano. Poet Marjorie Evasco, in discussing the similarities in Buyser’s and Alesna’s poetry, said Alesna “pays homage to the power of music” but removes the sonnet form” to bring attention to “free speech as song.” Alesna’s best poems are “Ang Gahum sa Awit,” ug “Kalimti ug Biyai.” Kyle Santelices made the audience participate in the music of Alesna’s poetry by letting them read “Ang Gahum sa Awit ” where the first lines run – “Ang awit, nasangit, inanay – mingkanay, milagbas ning dughan, midulot, gikumhan…”

The topic central to Alesna’s poetry is about Kaanyag. His poems usually talk about a “woman” but he sends them off almost like letters to other women. “Maming “ (Kang Gn. Maming Mercado) and “Mahibagong Kaanyag” Kang Crisanta Caballero) reflect that. In “Maming,” the lines “..Mopahid niining nagpanubod tang luha, Kana, si Maming nga hinatag sa langit” refer to the female body of the “mother.” Words like “hiyas,” “makabihag,” and “larawan” reflect the alluring figure like the image of Virgin Mary as that “venerated” piece of female beauty. Re Santelices in most Filipino and Christian associations) the Virgin Mary is the perfect example of venerated beauty that holds both the mystery of sensuality (a mortal woman) and transcendence (an immortalized idea). It justifies Alesna’s myth of the mother figure and his personal, mobile message of Maming as “everlasting.” In Mahibagong Kaanyag, the last stanza, “Bulak padayon sa imong kaanyag, sa kainit ug bugnaw ayaw kalarag. Kon Kanimo adunay nasilag, Pagnga sa kasilaw mo ug kaanyag” shows the empowered mother figure is still present, “beyond angelic figure.” This verifies the poet’s importance in shaping the beauty of this venerated female. According to D. M. Estabaya, Alesna’s poems reached a great height when his mother died in 1922. This may be believed as to why Alesna depicts his women with Kaanyag, who are not simply beautiful but they transcend a human body.

Congratulations again to the Cebuano Studies Center through its head Dr. Hope Yu and the Literature Section of the University of San Carlos for a very enriching project. Kudos also to the presentors Kyle Matthew Santelices and Althea Capacio for making vernacular literature alive and interesting. The Third Carcar Lecture Series will be on April 13, 2013 at 2 p.m.in the St. Catherine’s College Audio Visual Room featuring Sinforosa Alcordo and Epifanio Alfafara. The Alcordos and Alfafaras are among the largest and oldest clans in Carcar, so we expect a bigger crowd this time.

SOURCE:

Dela Cerna, Madrilena (2013, March 17). Kaanyag. INQUIRER.net. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/374985/kaanyag