Dionisio Deista Alejandro was the first native Filipino elected a bishop of the Methodist Church in the Philippines. In his lifetime of ministry, he served as an editor and educator and was well known as a gifted evangelist and leader.
The first American Methodist missionaries arrived in Manila in 1898. As a young boy, Dionisio became an interpreter for American missionaries in his hometown of San Isidro, Nueva Ecija. His contact with the missionaries ignited an early passion for the church. He was baptized at the age of 13 and became an active member of the Methodist youth group. It was also in his hometown where he encountered Rev. Cirilo Kasiguran, the first Filipino evangelist in Nueva Ecija, whose profound effect on him led him to become an evangelist himself.
In the summer of 1911 at age 18, Alejandro arrived at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky to pursue a degree in philosophy and prepare himself for the ministry. In his final year, he felt an assurance of his salvation similar to John Wesley’s Aldersgate experience. Alejandro wrote in his diary about his “Canaan Land” experience, “For some time I had walked in faith concerning my sanctification, but I had not the witness of the Spirit. This morning I went before Him in prayer, seeking to know His will concerning me. There was a deep consciousness that I was fully cleansed and that my poor heart was flooded with joy unspeakable, and full of glory. Amen! Glory to His name! Praise the Lord! I am sanctified!”
When he returned home in August 1915, he was appointed district evangelist. He held successful revivals throughout the district and became known as a powerful evangelist.
He continued his theological studies for a Bachelor of Divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary in Manila. While there, he taught at both the seminary and Union High School.
In 1919, Alejandro was ordained in the Philippine Islands Annual Conference, serving churches in Manila. In 1924 he was appointed pastor of the English speaking congregation at Knox Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, the first all-Filipino Methodist church organized at the turn of the century.
That same year, he was elected as a clergy delegate to the General Conference held in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was most impressed with the holiness message of Evangeline Booth, head of the Salvation Army. Her call for a “deeper Christian experience and a higher life” saved the conference from being “many a haggling and wrangling about non-essentials.”
He was elected as the first Filipino delegate to the Southeastern Asia Central Conference as well as the first Filipino clergy delegate to the 1936 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 1936 General Conference authorized the creation of a separate Central (regional) Conference for the Philippines with the power to elect their own bishop. Since its creation, the Methodist Church in the Philippines had been led by Americans.
Before these changes could take place, the Second World War brought great challenges to the Philippines. Japan attacked and invaded the Philippines simultaneously with the attack on Pearl Harbor. The occupying Japanese authorities captured and held American missionaries as prisoners of war, maintained tight control over churches and pressed all Protestant denominations to consolidate, modeled after the merger of all Protestant churches in Japan. By the end of 1943, the Japanese Imperial Army ordered all denominations headed by foreigners hostile to Japan to elect Filipino leaders.
Under tremendous pressure, the Philippines Central Conference met at Knox Memorial Methodist Church on January 22, 1944. Rev. Alejandro was elected the first Filipino bishop of The Methodist Church, putting an end to American leadership over the church there. At great risk, the conference also deferred joining the consolidated Protestant church. Bishop Alejandro said that action must be initiated from the annual conferences, in accordance with Methodist polity. When the annual conferences met, they told Japanese officials they must wait until documents on the union they were to join were received. The church had kept its identity. Despite arrest and questioning by the Japanese during their occupation, Bishop Alejandro was able to lead the Filipino Methodist church throughout the war. Since no Methodist bishops could be present to consecrate him during the war, Bishop Alejandro was not consecrated until 1946 after the liberation of the country.
After the war, Bishop Alejandro worked to rebuild Methodist churches and institutions. He helped to reopen Union Theological Seminary, serving as an instructor at the seminary and at Harris Memorial School for deaconesses. When Philippine Wesleyan College was founded in 1946, Bishop Alejandro was chosen as its first president. He also is credited with starting the Ilocano and Tagalog editions of The Upper Room devotional after the war.
Bishop Alejandro served as bishop of the Manila Episcopal Area. He was introduced as the first Filipino member of the Council of Bishops during the 1948 General Conference in Boston. He retired in 1964 and lived in Manila until his death in 1974.
Bishop Alejandro played a significant role in the rise of Methodism, the development of indigenous leaders and the continuation of the Methodist Church in the Philippines despite the hardships of war. His legacy continues through his book “From Darkness to Light,” a history of the early beginnings and spread of Methodism in the Philippines, published by the Philippines Central Conference in 1974 after his death.
Wallace is the retired former director of Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.
