I’ll admit, I had very little information and even less of
an idea what was going to go on when Attorney Floyd called me up a month ago
and told me I was going to go to the JCPC conference in Manila. I wasn’t even
sure what JCPC was. That didn’t stop me
from saying yes to going, of course. If
I had to know what I was getting into before I did it, I never would have
joined YASC or come to the Philippines.
Looking back, even if Attorney Floyd had explained what JCPC was, I
wouldn’t have expected this conference.
JCPC, for those not intimately aware of the relationship
between the Episcopal Churches in the Philippines and the US, means Joint
Committee on Provincial Companionship.
It is a group with a nearly 30 year long history, beginning when the
Episcopal Church in the Philippines first decided to become an autonomous
church within the Anglican Communion, as opposed to a mission church under the
jurisdiction of the Episcopal Church in the US.
The JCPC was put together to plan and monitor the transitional period,
and as a method of maintaining the ties of friendship between the two churches
in the process and beyond. These JCPC
conferences occur every 18 months or so, hosted alternately by the delegates in
America and the Philippines. This year
it was the Philippine Church’s turn, and we in YASC were invited specifically
to help boost the American numbers if it came to a fist fight. Well, also because we serve as living
examples of the partnership between both churches, but the fist fight idea was
more fun.
Aside from my fellow YASC members and I, there were a few
other people who were newish to the JCPC, including, I think I heard correctly,
both American bishops present. (Bishop
Bob Fitzpatrick of Hawaii and Bishop Dave Bailey of Navajoland, both absolutely
fantastic human beings.) Therefore, one
of the first things that happened during the conference was Attorney Floyd
telling the story of how the ECP became financially independent from the ECUSA. I can’t do it justice in this blog post, but
the essence is that at a certain point in the proceedings, the ECP took a giant
leap of faith, cut the umbilical cord, and started focusing on what they could
do for themselves rather than on what they needed to get. Everyone involved thought it was going to be
a disaster to cut the funding early, but as they put it at the time, “If we are
to die, better to die early and resurrect early as well.” It succeeded beyond their wildest imaginings:
the first year they were entirely financially independent they went from a 6.3
million peso shortfall, even with the financial support from the ECUSA, to a 3
million peso surplus.
What American community developers are starting to call
ABCD, Asset-Based Community Development, is something the Philippine Episcopal
Church developed the hard way, by putting it into practice and developing the
theory later. This principle still
governs how the Philippine church plans new churches and communities, as well
as how it does aid work.
With the reality of the financial autonomy of the ECP as
well as the legal/jurisdictional autonomy, the JCPC has found its focus
shifting. The common metaphor within the
conference was that now instead of being a parent-child relationship, with the
ECUSA as a mother providing extra resources and guidance, it is now becoming a
relationship of true equals. Part of
that relationship is deciding how the two churches are to interact, and whether
we should remain so tightly bonded. The
fact that we are keeping the JCPC going is now a choice to remain closely
aligned friends, a choice that recognizes that the ECUSA will have as much to
gain and learn from the ECP as the ECP does from the ECUSA.
And that truly was the main theme of the conference. We were there to tell each church stories of
what is going on, to build more bridges and learn from one another. It was just as common for one of the American
bishops to start frantically jotting down notes as an ECP member told their
story about solving difficulties as it was for an ECP delegate to do the same,
especially as the conference transitioned into the storytelling. Both American bishops are from dioceses that
are primarily indigenous groups, and the ECP is primarily an indigenous church
as well, given where in the Philippines it has its strongest roots, and there
was a good deal of discussion of what it means to be a member of a church that
has strong missionary roots but still respect the native culture.
There was also the point where all the delegates put us YASC
members on the spot. We had very little
warning when the bishop from Northern Luzon turned and said that as they were
discussing the partnerships between the churches and the focus of YASC, that
they’d like to hear a bit from each of us about what our YASC year was about. I have no idea how Andrew and Ashley managed
to speak as eloquently as they did, I was trying not to trip over my own tongue
as I described the year I’ve had and tried to boil down something so
marvelously complex into a few minutes’ worth speech.
And nothing I’ve written so far has, I think, gotten across
how fun this conference was. Possibly
because there was no need to talk about a budget or finances, or to justify
money matters, everyone was rather relaxed throughout, and we spent a good deal
of time laughing and enjoying ourselves throughout. And being fed, because this is the
Philippines and food is important for fellowship, so every few hours we stopped
and ate, having some more relaxed/unstructured time for conversation. Relaxed bishops/upper muckity mucks of two
different churches means that there are people with a lot of absolutely
hilarious stories, and the long-running friendships in many cases meant that
they all had a lot of fun telling them, and coming up with “can you top this”
style stories. Bruce Woodcock, in
particular, who came as a representative from the Church Pension Group and also
because he’s been visiting the Philippines for the past 30 years, had some of
the best, mostly focusing on things which happened as a Peace Corps volunteer in
Africa.
