"We need you here!": NCNC reps to monitor Philippine elections

Pastors Kathryn Schreiber (United UCC, Hayward) and Dennis Duhaylungsod (Filipino-American UCC, Fremont) will spend several weeks in the Philippines in May at the invitation of church leaders there to help monitor their national elections and to strengthen ties between the UCC and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP.)

Duyhalungsod is one of the strong NCNC voices who for many years have lifted up the widespread human rights abuses in the Philippines, including the murder and abduction of clergy and laity who speak out against the government and army.  He and others in our Conference, including members of the Council of Filipino Ministries, wrote the "Resolution of Witness in Support of the Persecuted in the Philippines" which passed at General Synod 26 in Atlanta.  From that action came our Conference’s Ministry Network, Justice in the Philippines, which is working on partnership with the UCCP.

Schreiber is co-convenor of our Conference’s Multi-racial Multi-cultural Transformation Team, and her congregation has an active relationship with a sister congregation in the Philippines. "Many of my UCCP friends have requested increased UCC participation in the Philippines this year.  As one UCCP pastor told me, ‘UCC = Social Justice.  We need you here!’"

The two will be going as members of the People’s International Observers’ Mission 2010, a non-profit dedicated to supporting democracy in the Philippines.  Monitors commit to being politically neutral, standing in solidarity with the rights of the people to cast their votes and have them justly recorded.

Schreiber and Duhaylungsod will also seek to strengthen ties and partnership with the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, a denomination formed before the UCC in the US.  The UCCP is a Protestant denomination which includes churches founded by Presbyterians, Methodists and Congregationalists.
 
Schreiber will visit her congregation’s sister church, Luisiana Evangelical Church, UCCP in the Laguna region of Luzon, which will be celebrating its anniversary May 16.  Duhaylungsod will be spending time on Mindanao strengthening ties with the Northwest Mindanao conference of the UCCP, the region with which the NCNC UCC is hoping to form an official partnership.
 
They have also been invited, as UCC representatives, to visit the Metropolitan Community Church in Quezon City, north of Manila (one of three in the Philippines) to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community. They plan to visit farmers, factory workers, and other Filipinos to learn first-hand about the impact of globalization upon the land and her people, especially regarding environmental concerns.

Schreiber wrote to her congregation and friends recently, "In February I was in San Francisco to hear Marie Hilao Enriquez, Director of Karapatan Human Rights Alliance in the Philippines, speak.  After the meeting we talked, privately, as women of faith.  She was deeply moved that a European-American female pastor and her congregation prayed for her country weekly.  She held both of my hands, looked into my eyes and quoted the words of St. Paul, saying: ‘When one part of the body suffers, all feel its pain.’  That’s the real reason I’m dedicated to this work.  Our ang Kapatid sa Pilipinas are suffering and I feel that pain.  But bigger than their pain, I feel God’s Big Love holding us together in compassion and hope.  If you feel a bit of this, too, please support this trip with your prayers, your curiosity, and if you can, your donations.  Maraming Salamat (Thank you very much) and God Bless! Sa Aking Kapatid (in the Big Love)."

Funding for this trip is coming from individuals, local churches, associations, conference and national settings.  For more information contact Schreiber at <haywarducc@earthlink.net> or Duhaylungsod at <dc2towns@yahoo.com>