16.07.2024

“At that Moment, the Reformation Became Radical!”

For Eric Baldonado, religion and political action are closely tied together. Photo by: Johannes Schermuly, UEM

UEM scholarship holder Eric Baldonado has visited the Mission House of UEM in Wuppertal, Germany. He is a pastor of UCCP*, a member church of UEM in the Philippines, working there as an academic teacher and a local pastor: “Because, in order to educate the next generations of pastors, we must stand in the service ourselves! We must know what we are talking about.”

Currently he is finishing his PhD studies on the 1978 UCCP statement against martial law in the Philippines under then President Ferdinand Marcos. “Christianity in the Philippines has inherited some personal, individualistic traits from the American tradition. With the statement from 1978 that I am researching, the theology of UCCP became prophetic again. It raised its voice to reclaim justice in society. At that moment, the reformation became radical in our church!”

Although Eric is focusing his PhD writings on this statement in particular, the movement didn’t stop there: “During the people power revolution from 1986, we discovered an encompassing way of ecumenism.” In February 1986, a peaceful and nonviolent revolution ended the dictatorship and made the way for a new Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. “UCCP learned and is still learning in contact with other movements in civil society. They give substance to UCCP’s theology”, he says: “The national situation is the context of our mission.”

The theologian got to know UEM as a South-South Volunteer in Indonesia in 2002 and during a visit to the centers of Reformation in Germany at the occasion of the 2017 Reformation Anniversary. In 2022, he started his PhD studies at the Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and after some months changed his place of study to the Theological University of Kampen/Utrecht, also Netherlands. UEM facilitates his research with a scholarship, also in support of its member church UCCP, for which Eric will continue to work, as both a teacher and a pastor. The context of his missionary work will be the national situation of the Philippines.

*UCCP = United Church of Christ in the Philippines