The people of the Philippines, their religious progress and preparation for spiritual leadership in the Far East,

CHAPTER XII

ADVENTURES IN COOPERATION AND UNITY
Scarcely had the missionaries arrived when they began to
get together. A Ministerial Alliance 1 was formed on June I,
900o. The name of Dr. James B. Rodgers holds a prominent
place in this as in nearly all union efforts since. While many
other have toiled equally hard they will wish the name of this
pioneer church union advocate to be given first place. In
September, 900o, he read a paper before the Ministerial Alliance advocating a better form of denominational cooperation.
The following April, three Presbyterians, Dr. Rodgers, Rev.
Davidson, and Dr. Ewing of India, issued an invitation to the
other missions to join them "in a conference concerning questions of mission polity." The four matters which they suggested for discussion were:
I. Territorial division of the Philippines among the missions.
2. The matter of a common name for the churches, "Iglesia
Evangelica" being suggested.
3. The possibility and methods of so directing growth as
to produce, in the end, one national Evangelical Church.
4. Cooperation in schools, presses, newspapers, etc.
Representatives of six organizations, Methodists, Presbyterians, Young Men's Christian Association, Christian Missionary Alliance, The British and Foreign Bible Society, and
The American Bible Society, responded to this call; and at
the first meeting appointed two committees, (I) to draw up
a constitution for a Union, and (2) to submit a plan for an
equitable division of the Philippine Islands among the missions.
Philippine Presbyterian, April 1921.
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