https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/631 2026-04-13T13:50:27Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/3746 Harnessing social media for religious peacebuilding: Faith in the digital age Jalando-on, Francis Neil G. This study explores social media’s potential as a tool for religious peacebuilding, focusing on its capacity to foster harmony through faith-based values in a digitally connected world. With 5.24 billion users globally and 90.8 million in the Philippines, where religion shapes cultural identity, social media offers unprecedented opportunities to connect faith communities, amplify sacred narratives, mobilize action, and educate for peace. Drawing on global and Philippine examples, we examine how platforms like Facebook, X, and TikTok channel religious teachings to promote reconciliation, while addressing challenges like polarization, misinformation, hostility, and slacktivism. Historical narratives, including Hong Kong’s Yellow Umbrella Movement and the Philippines’ #FaithForTruth campaign, illustrate faith’s role in digital peacebuilding. Eight strategies, grounded in religious ethics, propose harnessing social media’s strengths: global reach, real-time engagement, education, and community-building to counter division. By embedding values like forgiveness and truth, religion transforms social media into a sacred space for peace, offering a model for conflict-affected regions like Mindanao. Journal article 2025-06-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/3745 From ABCUSA to CPBC: A historical analysis of Baptist local church autonomy Jalando-on, Francis Neil G. This paper investigates how the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC) can draw valuable lessons from the American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) in applying the principle of local church autonomy. The concept of local autonomy was first introduced to the Philippines by American Baptist missionaries, profoundly shaping the development of Baptist ecclesiology in the country. Employing a historical research method, the study traces the evolution of local autonomy within the ABCUSA and examines its subsequent influence on the CPBC. The analysis reveals both strengths and challenges in implementing this principle across different cultural and organizational contexts. Key findings emphasize the importance of achieving a balanced approach to autonomy: one that preserves local church independence while fostering meaningful collaboration within the wider convention. To this end, the study recommends establishing clear operational guidelines, thoughtfully integrating Filipino cultural values such as bayanihan (community spirit) and the barangay system of communal thinking, and promoting inclusive, shared decision-making processes. The barangay tradition, rooted in precolonial community cooperation, encourages collective effort and mutual support, which can help bridge individual church autonomy with convention-wide unity by prioritizing shared goals and interconnected responsibility. Ultimately, the research concludes that true local autonomy for the CPBC does not equate to absolute independence or isolation. Instead, it involves empowering individual congregations to exercise responsible self-governance while nurturing interconnectedness, mutual support, and cooperative mission efforts across the convention. By adopting these insights from the ABCUSA experience and adapting them to the Philippine context, the CPBC can strengthen its organizational vitality and ecclesial unity. Journal article 2026-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/1924 Angelina B. Buensuceso: Harbinger of Baptist ordination of women in the Philippines Romarate-Knipel, Carla Gay A. In 1934, a seventeen-year-old student named Angelina Belluga enrolled in the Baptist Missionary Training School (BMTS) in Iloilo City on Panay Island in the Philippines. Her enrollment was the culmination of the first leg of a spiritual journey that had begun three years before. It was the beginning of the second leg of a journey that still continues more than seventy years later. Who could have known at that time that this unassuming but tenaciously committed teenager was embarking on a vocational odyssey that would change the course of Baptist history in the Philippines? Journal article 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12852/1923 One mission, different voices: Overseas missions of the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches Romarate-Knipel, Carla Gay A. This brief survey of the history of overseas missions undertaken by an association of local churches in the Philippines known as the Convention of Philippine Baptist churches (CPBC) covers the period from the inception of the CPBC's overseas missions work in 1969 through 2003. Journal article 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z