Philippines, Christianity in the

Philippines, Christianity in the. Christianity was introduced with the Spanish conquest and occupation in the 16th cent. From the beginning of Spanish rule in 1565 until the end of the 19th cent., the RC Church was supported and largely controlled by the Spanish Crown. Missionary work among the Filipino people was undertaken by religious orders from Spain and Mexico and by the late 18th cent. most of the population was baptized. In the 1890s, resentment against the continued domination of the RC Church by Spanish clergy and against the wealth of the friars led to the emergence of a national Church independent of Rome: the Philippine Independent Church was founded in 1902. In 1961 it entered into full communion with the Episcopal Church in the USA.

With the cession of the Philippines to the USA in 1898, the way was open for Protestant missionary activity. In 1948 several denominations merged to form the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, and in 1963 the National Council of Churches of the Philippines was established, but most Evangelical Protestants belong to sects not affiliated to the National Council. The Philippines, which became an independent republic in 1946, has the largest Christian population in Asia. Over 80 per cent of Filipinos are RC; there is a sharp division between those influenced by Liberation Theology and the conservatives.