ALL ABOUT FELIX Y.

MANALO and IGLESIA NI CRISTO (1)

Felix Y. Manalo, born on May 10, 1886, in Taguig, Philippines, was

baptized in the Catholic Church. In his teenage years, Manalo became
dissatisfied with Catholic theology. According to the National Historical
Commission of the Philippines, the establishment of the Philippine
Independent Church (also called the Aglipayan Church) was his major
turning point, but Manalo remained uninterested since its doctrines
were mainly Catholic. In 1904, he joined the Methodist Episcopal
Church,[18] entered the Methodist seminary, and became a pastor for a
while.[19] He also sought through various denominations, including the
Presbyterian Church, Christian Mission, and finally Seventh-day
Adventist Church in 1911. Manalo left Adventism in 1913 and
associated himself with atheist and agnostic peers.[4][20][21]

In November 1913, Manalo secluded himself with religious literature

and unused notebooks in a friend's house in Pasay, instructing everyone
in the house not to disturb him. He emerged from seclusion three days
later with his new-found doctrines.[4][20][5] Manalo, together with his
wife, went to Punta, Santa Ana, Manila, in November 1913 and started
preaching. He left the congregation in the care of his first ordained
minister and returned to his native Taguig to evangelise; there, he was
ridiculed and stoned at his meetings with locals. He was later able to
baptize a few converts, including some of his persecutors. He later
registered his new-found religion as the Iglesia ni Cristo (English: Church
of Christ; Spanish: Iglesia de Cristo) on July 27, 1914, at the Bureau of
Commerce as a corporation sole, with himself as the first executive
minister.[20][18][21] Expansion followed as INC started building
congregations in the provinces in 1916, with Pasig (then in Rizal
province) having two locals established.[22] The first three ministers
were ordained in 1919.[5]

By 1924, INC had about 3,000 to 5,000 adherents in 43 or 45

congregations in Manila and six nearby provinces.[21] By 1936, INC had
85,000 members. This figure grew to 200,000 by 1954.[22] A Cebu
congregation was built in 1937—the first to be established outside of
Luzon, and the first in the Visayas. The first mission to Mindanao was
commissioned in 1946. Meanwhile, its first concrete chapel was built in
Sampaloc, Manila, in 1948.[21][23] Adherents fleeing for the provinces
away from Manila, where the Japanese forces were concentrated
during World War II, were used for evangelization.[21] As Manalo's
health began to fail in the 1950s, his son Eraño began taking leadership
of the church. Manalo died on April 12, 1963.[22][23]

Reaching the Far West and expansion

INC Central Temple in Quezon City, Philippines

On July 27, 1968, Eraño G. Manalo officiated the inaugural worship
service of the church in Ewa Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii—the first mission
of the church outside the Philippines. The following month, INC
established the San Francisco congregation.[24][25] INC reached
Europe through the United Kingdom in 1971, and Canada in 1973. INC
established its first congregation in South Africa in 1978.[26] INC
established congregations in Rome, Italy on July 27, 1994; Jerusalem,
Israel on March 31, 1996; and Athens, Greece on May 10, 1997.[27] In
1998, INC has established 543 congregations, and missions in 74
countries outside the Philippines.[21]
In 1965, INC launched its first resettlement and land reform program in
Barrio Maligaya, Laur, Nueva Ecija. INC started operating a radio
station in 1969 while its first television program aired in 1983.[22] The
Ministerial Institute of Development, renamed as "Iglesia ni Cristo
(Church Of Christ) School for Ministers", was founded in 1974 in Quiapo,
Manila, and moved in Quezon City in 1978. In 1971, the INC Central
Office building was built in Quezon City. In 1984, the 7,000-seat Central
Temple was added in the complex. The Tabernacle, a multipurpose tent-
like building which can accommodate up to 4,000 people, was finished
in 1989. The complex also includes the New Era University, a tertiary
education institution run by INC.[21] Eraño G. Manalo died on August
31, 2009.[12] His son, Eduardo V. Manalo, succeeded him as executive
minister upon his death.[13]