The historical context of the Iglesia ni Cristo lies in a period of the early 20th century characterised by a variety of rural anti-colonialism movements, often with religious undertones, in the Philippines. At this time, U.S. missionary work was exposing Filipino culture to many alternatives to the Catholicism installed under earlier Spanish rule. [7]
After Felix Manalo joined and left many religious organizations as a young adult, [8] he claimed that God gave him a mission to preach the gospel and to reestablish the first church founded by Jesus. [9]
Iglesia ni Cristo's first chapel
The INC began with a handful of followers on July 27, 1914 in Punta, Santa Ana, Manila; with Manalo as its head minister. [10] Manalo propagated his message within his local area, growing the Iglesia ni Cristo and converting members of other religions. As membership increased, he delegated others to spread the teachings of the INC and it eventually spread throughout the Philippines and to other countries. After Felix Manalo's death in 1963, his son Eraño took over duties as executive minister and Eduardo V. Manalo is the deputy executive minister.[11] The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,in the chapter of Southeast Asian Christian religions names the INC as the most important of "quasi-Christian" churches, [12], a term used to classify groups whose beliefs differ from mainstream Christianity. [13][14]
By 1988, INC has grown to about 2,635 congregations called locales, in which 220 of them cover sixty-seven countries outside the Philippines. [15] According to various sources, including the 1997 Britannica Book of the Year, INC had a worldwide population of over one million members by the early 1980s. [16][17] According the 2000 census of the Philippine National Statistics Office, 2.3 percent of the population in the Philippines are affiliated with the Iglesia ni Cristo. [18].
The Manila city government recently declared July 27th a holiday, and allowed members of the Iglesia ni Cristo paid leave, in order to celebrate the anniversary of the Iglesia ni Cristo. On July 27, 2006, the Philippine House of Representatives passed a resolution commending the INC on its 92nd anniversary. [19] [20]