It is a rare honor to stand before you today and to greet you, our brethren of the National Council of Churches, in the name of our Lord.

As the first President of the Philippines who is a Protestant by religious affiliation in a predominantly Catholic country, I am sometimes called upon by circumstances to demonstrate that the president’s high office is to paraphrase President Jack Kennedy who said, “neither humbled by making it the instrument of any religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its influence for helping members of any religious group who need help.”

Catholicism in the Philippines was introduced in the 1500s by the Spaniards who ruled our land for more than 300 years. That is why 85% of our people are Roman Catholics, and that is why most of us have Spanish names.

Protestantism and the English language were introduced to our country by the Americans — missionaries and school teachers — at the turn of the century.

There are now only a handful missionaries from the US mainline churches still working in the Philippines. But that is not because our people and the Filipino church leaders do not welcome missionaries anymore. The truth is that the American missionaries themselves who worked for their own gradual withdrawal by training Filipino pastors and church workers to take over the leadership of the churches in the Philippines.

But now times have changed. I am told that American church leaders decided, as you well know, that Christian mission need not be a one-way traffic — from the United States out to the rest of the world.

I am told that a good number of churches in this country now welcome missionaries from Asia, from Africa, from Latin America, and from many parts of God’s wide world.

“Mission in reverse” — that is what you call it. You enable church leaders from other countries, the Philippines included, to come to your fair land and to minister to your people for a period of time, in the belief that such an exchange of mission personnel enriches your people not only culturally but also spiritually.

The full development of my country was greatly retarded by 14 years of martial rule in the 70’s and early 80’s, but we restored our democracy in February 1986 through a non-violent people power revolution that threw out a dictatorship.

And as I greet you today, I also ask for your prayers for the well-being of the Filipino people and for the continued close relations between the Philippines and the United States — now partners on the basis of sovereign relationship and a shared commitment to democracy and freedom. For it is only by the grace of our God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that the salvation of all peoples can come.

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity to worship with you.