Sunday, February 6, 2011

Iglesia Filipina Indepediente (Aglipay) in Rosario, Batangas

* Iglesia Filipina Indepediente: Sa Diyos at sa Bayan – Bibliya, Agham, Kawanggawa, Kalayaan; notice the flag in this seal, it is as if they are at war

* the Aglipay church’s exterior

Tours and revisits definitely expand one’s knowledge of places and their past. This was true of a revisit to the town of Rosario, Batangas. Tucked just behind the municipal building, the church of the Iglesia Filipina Indepediente (IFI) turns out to be the oldest church in the town of Rosario. The church was founded on January 19, 1909 and was visited by none other than the Iglesia’s father himself: Gregorio L. Aglipay. (As a side note, I think it would be good to discuss Aglipay’s story here in Back Trails).

The church’s interior do not lack the features found also in Catholic churches – images, religious items, among other. One eye catcher inside, however, was the choice of colors for their altar, which seemed to me a bit brighter than the eye can handle. Also, I found it surprising to find a grave inside the church.* some of the images found inside

* views of the church on the inside

The church’s Adoration Chapel was donated by the Luansing Family to IFI. It was inaugurated and blessed by Rev. Fr. Christian Sage Rey and Rt. Rev. Rowel Arevalo on December 16, 2008.

It is good to realize that traces of our past, whether they have strong bearing to our history or do not, inspires a starting history enthusiast to go and explore many different places. I see that I still have a lot of things to learn as I go and visit places here in the country.

4 comments:

  1. good day! I am a member of Youth of Iglesia FIlipina Independiente - Rosario, Batangas.

    thank you for visiting our church, The Parish of the Most Holy Rosary. i have read your article. it feels great that people like you really alloted time to visit the church which cradled me since birth. Thank you for the compliments we gained from your article.

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  2. Thank you for reading through this blog entry. We did enjoy visiting your church. Perhaps we could do a revisit there so you can discuss with us more about your church's history? Hope you could invite your friends to read this blog entry and maybe check out the whole blog as well. Salamat muli!

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  3. i was the same person who commented here...

    i was glad you enjoyed visiting our church. It would be our pleasure to share to discuss some on our church's history, how it has stood for 102 years and how my fellow Aglipayans(this is how we are called in rosario) unified on making this church on what it is now. God Bless.

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  4. It would be great to meet you guys! I have relatives in the town of Rosario and when time permits, I could stay with them and make a revisit to your church. You can check out my contact details in the 'Contact Pransisem' page. Again, thank you!

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