Let us go back to our Traditional Faith

Episcopalians for Traditional Faith

Preserving and promoting use of the

1928 Book of Common Prayer

within the Episcopal Church

Where will the money come from to keep the Episcopal Church afloat?    

How much longer can the well-heeled Northeast foot the bill while tiny off-shore dioceses are along for the ride and Church legal bills pile up? Read this commentary by ETF reporter Jay Akasie.

*Visit this website often to read the latest articles and opinion pieces by ETF reporters, as TEC turns its back on the global Anglican Communion; withholds information on how many millions of dollars it has spent on lawsuits against its parishes and dioceses; adopts abortion rites; affirms homosexual priests and bishops; plans funeral rites for animals; and moves forward with same-sex “marriage.”

*The 1928 Book of Common Prayer unites all in prayer and praise. We can maintain our religion by insisting, respectfully and persistently, that our clergy use the 1928, not the clutter of rites Church revisionists plan to offer on the TEC website as cut-and-paste options — a different experience from church to church! Let’s unite our fragmented Church in common worship with our time-tested 1928 BCP.

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To read ETF reports direct from the

General Convention floor, click here.

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Sign captures mood of Episcopal Church General Convention --jm photo

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EPISCOPALIANS FOR TRADITIONAL FAITH is a nonprofit organization of volunteers dedicated to preserving and promoting the use of the classic, traditional 1928 Book of Common Prayer within The Episcopal Church.

We invite you to browse through this website to learn what ETF is doing to encourage 1928 BCP use and how you can help preserve and maintain our religion, heritage, and culture within your own parish church. We welcome your comments and ideas, which you can write on this website or send to us here. Please send your opinions as well as news from your local church and diocese to Attention: Editor in your email or to: ETF, P.O. Box 361, Mill Neck, NY 11765.

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Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

– 1 Thessalonians 5:21

Let us visit the Province of Albay

Province of Albay

............................................................................................................................

Albay Province is where Mayon at 8075 ft is located, one of the highest peaks in the Philippines. It is extolled as "the most nearly perfect conical volcano". This may be rather an exaggeration, but it is certainly a beautiful mountain. However the behaviour of this elegant gaint can sometimes be quite horrible.
Towering right on the edge of the Philippines valley, at a point where, deep below ground, the Eurasian and Philippines tectonic plates grind against each other, the volcano is under constant pressure from the magma pushing up beneath it. Mayon is one of the most active volcanoes in the country and also one of the most destructive, because of the density of the surrounding population. It has erupted several times with devastating consequences. When it is at peace, the mountain is a fascinating place for climbing, although the ascent takes at least two days and is by no means easy. Legapsi City, named after the governor general of the Philippines, Miquel Lopez de Legapsi is the provincial capital and is at the foot of Mayon is worth visiting, especially for the delightful country surrounding it

"Be careful not to sacrifice the permanent on the altar of the immediate."

Portion of this land had been generously given to the Anglican Church in the Philippines (Traditional), Inc.

On this SITE will rise an Anglican Church (ACPT) for the community in Brgy. Dumayop, Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya.




Most Rev'd Frederick M. Belmonte,

Rev'd Henry Chomarsin and

Mr. Elfidyo Sarmiento

Apostolic Successions of ACPT extended by APA

The origin and history of the Apostolic Successions of the Anglican Church in the Philippines (Traditional), Incorporated extended by the Anglican Province of America.

1. For Bishop Pillai, bishop of a body called the 'Indian Orthodox Church,' a jurisdiction affiliated with the 'Catholicate of the West' of Bishop de Willmott Newman, before joining the American Episcopal Church:

A. The Old Catholic Succession of the Church of Utrecht.

Hugh George de Willmott Newman , Mar Georgius, Patriarch of Glastonbury, Catholicos of the West, assisted by John Sebastian Marlow Ward and William John Eaton Jeffrey, on 25th August 1945 consecrated sub conditione at the Cathedral of Christ the King, New Barnet
Joseph K. Chengalvaroyan Chittoor Pillai , Mar James, Archbishop of India and Exarch of the Catholicate of the West and the Indian Orthodox Church and 1st Bishop Primus of the American Episcopal Church, who on 29 th December 1968 at Cincinnati, Ohio consecrated
James Hardin George, Junior, 2nd Bishop Primus of the American Episcopal Church, who on 11th February 1970 , consecrated
Anthony Forbes Moreton Clavier , 3rd Bishop Primus of the American Episcopal Church, who on 26th March 1976 consecrated Walter Howard Grundorf, Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of the Eastern United States.

B. The Syrian Orthodox Succession of the Patriarchate of Antioch:

Benjamin Charles Harris, Bishop of Essex, consecrated in the line of Mar Ignatius Peter III (Mar Bedros), Bishop of Emesa (Homs) and later Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, who consecrated on 2nd June 1866 at Homs, Syria
Julius Ferrete , Mar Julius, Bishop of Iona and Patriarchal Legate for Western Europe --
on
17th November 1944 Bishop Harris consecrated
Joseph K. Chengalvaroyan Chittoor Pillai , Mar James, Metropolitan Archbishop of India and Exarch of the Catholicate of the West and the Indian Orthodox Church and 1st Bishop Primus of the American Episcopal Church, who on 29th December 1968 at Cincinnati, Ohio consecrated
James Hardin George, Junior , 2nd Bishop Primus of the American Episcopal Church, who on 11th February 1970 , consecrated
Anthony Forbes Moreton Clavier , 3rd Bishop Primus of the American Episcopal Church, who on 26th March 1976 consecrated
Walter Howard Grundorf , Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of the Eastern United States .

2. The Philippine Independent Catholic Church line:

Francisco J. Pagtakhan de Jesus, Bishop Secretary for Missions and Ecumenical Affairs and sometime Bishop of Oriental and Occidental Negros Island, an official representative of the Philippine Independent Church, who, with Sergio Mondala and Lope Rosete, Bishops of the IFI, on 26th September 1981 at the Church of Jesus the Nazarene in San Diego, California consecrated sub conditione according to the Anglican rite, Anthony Forbes Moreton Clavier and Walter Howard Grundorf to the Sacred Order of Bishops.

3. The Conditional Consecration by Bishops of the Anglican Communion:

On 3rd October 1991, at the Conference on Anglican Unity held at Deerfield Beach, Florida, Robert William Stanley Mercer, CR, sometime 4th Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of Matabeleland in the Province of Central Africa and 3rd Bishop Ordinary of the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, Robert Herbert Mize, Junior, sometime 6th Bishop Ordinary of Damaraland (now the Diocese of Namibia) in the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, sometime Assistant Bishop of Matabeleland and Assistant Bishop of San Joaquin, and Charles Francis Boynton, sometime Bishop Suffragan of New York and 3rd Missionary Bishop of Puerto Rico, the 442nd Bishop of the American Succession, consecrated sub conditione the Most Reverend Anthony Forbes Moreton Clavier and the Most Reverend Walter Howard Grundorf to the Sacred Order of Bishops. On 1st and 2nd October 1991, successively, Bishop CF Boynton, in anticipation of conditional consecration, ordained sub conditione Bishop Clavier and Bishop Grundorf to the Sacred Order of Deacons and to the Sacred Order of Priests according to the Anglican rite.

On 26th of March 2000 at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in the City of Shoreline, County of Ring in the State of Washington, the Most Reverend Walter Howard Grundorf, Presiding Bishop of Anglican Province of America (Diocese of the East), with Rt. Revs. Richard John Boyce and John Matthew Hammers consecrated Frederick Luis M. Belmonte to the Episcopate for the Anglican Church in the Philippines (Traditional) Inc.

Courtesy of The Reverend Canon Chandler HolderJones,SSC
Rector of St. Barnabas Anglican Church, Dunwoody, Georgia USA

Special thanks to:
The Most Reverend Walter Howard Grundorf
Rt. Rev. John Matthew Hammers
Rt. Rev. Richard John Boyce
who generously extended their Apostolic lines to the Most Rev. Frederick Luis M. Belmonte, Presiding Bishop of ACPT

Ordination of Revs. Robert and Dr. Rico from Bicol region to the Diaconate

Last May 24, 2009 at Our Lady of Peace and Unity Anglican Parish in Nueva Vizcaya Philippines, the Most Rev. Frederick M. Belmonte, Presiding bishop of the Anglican Church in the Philippines(Traditional) also known as ACPT, ordained two deacons: Rev. Robert C. Gerna and Rev. Dr. Rico G.Villanueva of Bicol and appointed them as missionaries for ACPT's missions in the province of Albay and Naga City. The two deacons were given new copies of APA's prayer books donated by Fr. Douglas King and St. Paul's Anglican Church in Melbourne, Fl. The ordination had been attended by parishioners of OLPU, and visitors. A simple reception followed after the service. The church members were so excited to welcome and received the two Rev'ds. after their ordination. Mabuhay! Revs. Robert and Rico. Welcome to ACPT Family.

Historical Background of Naga City

Even before the coming of the Spanish colonial government, Naga, which was then a flourishing village off the riverbanks of the storied Naga River, was already a thriving community. As pointed in the book of Prof. Danilo M. Gerona, a local historian, Naga was then a premier village with a comparatively sophisticated weaponry and surprisingly advanced technology. The name “Naga” derived its origin from the narra trees, which were then in abundance. Thus, in 1573, when the Spanish Troops arrived led by Capt. Juan de Salcedo, the colonizers were amazed to find a community with a fairly well advanced culture. In 1574, Captain Pedro de Chaves founded Ciudad de Nueva Caceres in honor of Don Francisco de Sande, then governor of the province and native of the City of Caceres in Spain. Naga, the premier native village and then a Spanish pueblo, formed part of the Spanish colonial city. Nueva Caceres remained the capital of Ambos Camarines provinces and later of the Camarines Sur province until the formal creation of the independent component city of Naga under the Philippine Republic. Naga’s birth as a chartered city formally took place on December 15, 1948 by virtue of Republic Act No. 305. Rep. Juan Q. Miranda sponsored this legislative act which put flesh into the city’s bid to become among the only few independent component cities in the country.

CIUDAD NIN NAGA has been for hundred of years a center of trade, education and culture, and the seat of governmental and ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

In 1573, on his second expedition to this region, the great conquestador, Juan de Salcedo, discovered here a flourishing Bikol Village called Naga, because it is said, of an abundance of Narra (naga in Bikol) trees about the place. In 1575 (200 years before the start of the American Revolution), Capt. Pedro de Chavez, the commander of the garrison left behind by Salcedo, founded on the site of the present business center (across the river from the original Naga) a Spanish city which he named Ciudad de Caceres, in honor of Francisco de Sande, the governor general and a native of the city of Caceres in Spain. It was still by this name that it was identified in the papal bull of August 14, 1595 that erected the See of Caceres (together with those of Cebu and Nueva Segobia) and made it the seat of the new bishopric.

In time, Spanish city and native village merged into one community and became popularly known as Nueva Caceres, obviously to distinguish it from its namesake in Spain. It had a city government as prescribed by Spanish law, with an ayuntamiento and cabildo of its own. At the beginning of the17th century, there were only five other ciudades in the Philippines.

With the advent of the American rule, it was reduced to a municipality. In 1919, it lost its Spanish name, when, by law, it became officially known as Naga. It acquired its present city charter in 1948, and its city government was inaugurated on December 15 of the same year.

The bishops of Caceres occupied a unique place in the Philippine Catholic hierarchy during most of the Spanish regime. By virtue of the papal brief of Gregory XIII, ecclesiastical cases originating in the Spanish Indies, which ordinarily were appealable to the Pope, were ordered to be terminated there and no longer elevated to Rome. Decisions of bishops were made appealable to the archbishop and those of the latter to the bishop of the nearest see. Thus, in the Philippines, the decisions of the archbishop of Manila were subject to review by the bishop of Caceres whose jurisdiction then extended to the province of Tayabas. In this sense, bishops of Bikol were delegates of the Pope and could be considered primates of the Church of the Philippines.

This was the reason why bishops of Caceres and archbishop of Manila were sometimes engaged in interesting controversies in the sensational Naga case and in such issues as canonical visitation and the secularization of the parishes.
As papal delegate, Bishop Francisco Gainza, then concurrently bishop of Caceres, sat in the special ecclesiastical tribunal which passed upon the civil authorities' petition to divert Fathers Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora of their priestly dignity. Gainza did not only refuse the petition but also urged their pardon.

Situated at the center of the Bikol peninsula and surrounded on all sides by rich agricultural, forest and fishing areas, Naga is also at the confluence of the Naga and Bikol Rivers. Thus, it has always been an ideal place for trade, and as center for schools and church and government offices.

In downtown Naga, just opposite Naga's tallest structure, the Holiday Hotel, you will see a park situated between Peñafrancia Ave. and Elias Angeles Street, and right in the middle of it the lofty monument to Bikol's Quince Martires. Actually, Bikol's martyrs of freedom number in the thousands but these fifteen have been specially singled out as symbols of the rest because on January 4, 1897, just five days after Dr. Rizal was executed, eleven of them were likewise shot at Bagumbayan field in Manila. The others died for country in exile or in prison.They were avenged, however, at the Peñafrancia Fiesta, September 18, 1898 for corporals Elias Angeles and Felix Plazo convinced their fellow members of the guardia civil not to allow the same fate to befall them as had befallen the Daet patriots. So on the night of the fiesta they attacked the Spanish officers' quarters, routed them and then did battle with the rest of the Spanish community who had established themselves in the convento of the historic San Francisco Church (just opposite the Quince Martires monuments, its old bell tower can still be seen). When word of this startling defeat reached Partido, Legazpi, Sorsogon and Catanduanes, all Spanish forces and governmental men withdraw to Iloilo. Sad to say, in January 1900, the American imperialistic forces invaded Camarines Sur and headed for Naga. However, Naga resident General Ludovico Arejola, organized a large guerilla army and fought the Americans at Agdangan, Baao. Afterwards he set up a camp in the mountains of Minalabac and held out for a full year and two and two months more, until rampant sickness forced the surrender of himself and his men in a formal ceremony in Naga on March 31, 1901. In late December 1941, Naga was again put under another foreign power, Japan, but once again on May 1 and 2, 1942; the combined guerilla forces of the province smashed their way into Naga. Their main purpose in doing so was to liberate the 30 American prisoners in the provincial jail. At the risk of their own lives and those of their relatives and neighbors not only freed, but also sheltered their former colonizers in the mountain. On April 9, 1945, a large number of Major Juan Q. Miranda's guerillas again attacked the Japanese forces in Naga. American planes also heavily bombed the city. The American army arrived finally on April 27. Naga became a chartered city in 1948. On the first decade of 1700's the first chapel to the Virgin Mary of Peñafrancia was constructed just above the city and along the banks of Naga River that is the avenue upon which the image is triumphantly borne from downtown Naga on the afternoon of Peñafrancia Saturday. This devotion is an authentic regional fiesta and the population of the city more than doubles on those days as pilgrims come from all over the six Bicol provinces as well as many from Manila and other distant places to share in this great religious experience and festival.Three (3) of the most venerable institutions and structures in Naga are clustered together along the upper part of Elias Angeles Street. They are the Cathedral that begun in the year 1816, the Holy Rosary Seminary and the Colegio de Sta. Isabel. Founded in 1793 as both a college and a seminary, The Holy Rosary Seminary is one of the oldest schools in the republic. It educated literally thousands of the sons of all the leading families from as far north as Mauban, Quezon, and as far south as Leyte. In 1925, the laymen’s department was separated from the seminary and became the Camarines Sur Catholic Academy, which in turn, in 1940 became the Ateneo de Naga. Naga Parochial School took over the training of the elementary boys in 1948.

In 1868, the first normal school for women in the entire Orient was established in Naga as the Colegio de Sta. Isabel. Each parish in Bikol was required to send at least one pensionada to study there that they might be trained to run the parochial school in their own home place. The colegio’s present day population of more than 5,000 shows the appreciation of the Bikol people for its century of work for Bikol youth.The University of Nueva Caceres, adjacent to Naga’s Centro, is the first university in southern Luzon. Over 9,000 students are being trained “non scholae ser vitae” in its halls. Students come from as far south as Zamboanga to attend its law, engineering, commerce, liberal arts courses. Its Bicol Museum is the best in the entire Peninsula.

Naga has a multitude of other fine schools: Naga College Foundation, Camarines Sur National High School, Bicol College of Arts and Trade, Naga City Science High School, St. Joseph School, Hope Christian School, Philippine Union College and many energetic business and fashion academies.

(by Luis General, Jr. and Fr. James J. O’brien, S.J. with updates from CPDO)