Bacolod Evangelical Church

History

The Bacolod Evangelical Church emerged when the people of the Philippines rejected the Spanish religious and political control at the time. The religious shift was enhanced by the political control from American occupying forces on the island. On the island of Negros, this control was welcomed by the leaders of the Republic of Negros. They welcomed the American Army and one of the island leaders, Don Eusebio Luzuriaga, requested the participation of several American Protestant ministers in local affairs. Thus, when the American Protestant Mission Board met in the United States to plan a strategy for a cooperative evangelization of the island, the American Baptist Board favored working in Western Visayas.

The first Baptist missionary in the Philippines was Dr. Eric Lund who, along with Braulio Manikan, the first Filipino missionary, arrived in Iloilo City on May 3, 1900. They translated several of the gospels into Ilonggo, a Filipino dialect. In 1900, Dr. Lund and John Dean, a YMCA secretary, made their first visit to Bacolod City. They called on the civil governor and a number of prominent families to secure permission to hold religious services for Filipinos in the local military hospital.

On February 3, 1901, Charles Briggs baptized Cornelio Samson, a Tagalog machinist in Jaro, the first person to be baptized by the mission. Soon after being baptized, Samson settled in Talisay and organized a small group of people interested in the evangelical faith.

Early in 1902, Reverend and Mrs. Archibald Forshee of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society came to Bacolod City on the lorcha Hidalgo. They befriended Glicerio Segovia who carried them on his back from their boat to the shore. Later, they took Segovia into their household, sent him to school, and taught him how to preach. Glicerio Segovia became a lay preacher. Rev. Forshee held religious services in Bago, Murcia, Sum-ag, Silay, Saravia, Victorias, and Tobooso. Among his early converts were Don Juan Araneta, Don Quintin Maravilla, Don Eusebio Luzuriaga, and Doña Felina Luzuriaga.

Don Eusebio Luzuriaga donated the lot at the corner of San Sebastian and San Juan Streets where the house of attorney Amado Parreño is presently located, and he provided funds for the construction of a chapel. This chapel was the first Bacolod Evangelical Church.

In 1903, Rev. Forshee opened the Baptist Boys Dormitory on the lot where the Bacolod Evangelical Church now stands. In 1905, he opened the Baptist Girls Dormitory, which would later become the Bacolod Christian College.

Affiliations

The Bacolod Evangelical Church is a member of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC). The CPBC is a member of the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation and the Baptist World Alliance. The convention is associated with the World Council of Churches and National Council of Churches in the Philippines.