Philippine Independent Church
The Philippine Independent Church (Iglesia Filipina Independiente, Philippine Independent Church, also: Aglipay - Church or Aglipayan Church ) is an independent Catholic Church, in communion with the member churches of the Anglican Communion of the Polish National Catholic Church and the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches stands.
It was founded in 1902 under the leadership of Gregorio Aglipay y Labayán, a Roman Catholic priest and freedom fighter, as a kind of Catholic National Church in the Philippines. The church was built at a time when it was on the predominantly Catholic Philippines, sought independence from Spain and therefore - and also because of ecclesiastical abuses - wanted to distance themselves from the Spanish -dominated Roman Catholic church hierarchy. Gregorio Aglipay was excommunicated in 1899. Subsequently, on August 3, 1902 The Iglesia Filipina Independiente proclaimed rejected the authority of the Pope as well as celibacy. She was oriented in their theology and liturgy rather to genuinely Filipino traditions. There were temporarily currents in the Church, which even rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but in 1947, the church known in adopting the constitution of the church to officially Trinitätsglauben. In 1959, the PIC member church of the World Council of Churches.
The Iglesia Filipina Independiente is now about 3 million believers in the Philippines, the United States and Canada. Close relationships exist for the Anglican Church or to the Episcopal Church (1961 full sacramental communion ) and the Old Catholic Churches ( since 1965 church community with the Union of Utrecht ).