INC marks 107th founding anniversary; Distinct, unique place of worship

TODAY, July 27, the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) is celebrating its 107th founding anniversary.

The INC or Church Of Christ is a Christian religion whose primary purpose is to worship the Almighty God in a manner taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles as recorded in the Bible.

It was preached by founder Felix Manalo and was registered in the Philippines on July 27, 1914.

“The Church Of Christ is a church for all peoples. It is for everyone who will embrace the true faith regardless of race, nationality, cultural background, social standing, economic status, and educational attainment,” the INC posted in its official website.

From its first local congregation in Punta, Sta. Ana, Manila, the INC spread not only throughout the metropolis but also to the neighboring provinces in Luzon and across the islands of Visayas and Mindanao.

When Manalo passed away on April 12, 1963, the INC had already established ecclesiastical districts in more than half of all the provinces in the country.

In 2015, the census by the Philippine Statistics Authority found that 2.64 percent of the population in the Philippines is affiliated with the INC.

In a 2015 report by Rappler, the INC had 5,000 churches and congregations across the country with over two million followers.

INC CHURCHES

INC church buildings primarily serve as places of worship and are used for other religious functions.

These are described by the Culture and Customs of the Philippines, a book published by Greenwood Publishing Group, as structures “which employ exterior neo-Gothic vertical support columns with tall narrow windows between, interlocking trapezoids, and rosette motifs, as well as tower and spires.”

There are multiple entrances leading to the main sanctuary, where males and females sit on either side of the aisle facing a dais where sermons are made. The choir loft is located behind the dais, and in larger churches, a baptistry with pools for immersion baptism is located at the back of the church.

Meanwhile, Fernando Nakpil-Zialcita, an anthropologist from Ateneo de Manila University, said INC churches can be uniquely identified for “its exuberant use of fanciful forms and ornaments [and a] brilliant white facade whose silhouette is a cusped Gothic arch or a flattened Saracenic arch.”

The distinctive spires are said to represent “the reaching out of the faithful to God.”

Who are the key people of the INC’s unique architecture design?

Prominent architects, such as Juan Nakpil (National Artist for Architecture) and Carlos A. Santos-Viola, had been involved in designing INC churches while the Engineering and Construction Department of INC, established in 1971, oversees the uniformity in design of church buildings.

The first chapel was built on Gabriela Street in Tondo, Manila in 1918, fashioned out of sawali (woven leaf panels), nipa and wood, typified the style and materials of the early chapels.

After World War II, INC began to build concrete chapels, the first of these in Washington (Maceda), Sampaloc, Manila completed in 1948. Next came the chapel and former official residence of the executive minister in San Juan, Rizal (now San Juan City, part of Metropolitan Manila), designed by Juan Nakpil.

The INC Central Temple, which opened on July 27, 1984, can accommodate up to 7,000 persons, and was designed by Santos-Viola. It features octagonal spires, “fine latticework” and ribbed windows.

Recent buildings are variations of Santos-Viola’s designs of the Central Temple. These are designed to accommodate 250 to 1,000 persons while larger churches in Metro Manila and provincial capitals can accommodate up to 3,000 persons. (With reports from iglesianicristo.net/wikipedia/PN)