History In Detail
On June 8, 1986, the Filipino United Community Church was formally organized as the desire of a group of men and women belonging to different denominations in the Philippines to have a church called their own; a church that would be able to minister to their needs as Filipinos in a foreign land. The very first fellowship was held at the Crescent Park in St. Vital, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
On June 18, 1986, the second worship service was held at a room in Union Center, Portage Avenue.
Rev. Marwood Retig, Conference Minister of the United Board of Homeland Ministries, United Church of Christ through the North Dakota Conference now named Northern Plains Conference in North Dakota, USA, came to meet with the group. He challenged everyone to continue praying, to be united and to trust God.
Agripina Garcia was the first moderator to be elected and she served until 1989.
On September 1986, the North Dakota Conference offered the Salem Church Building at 235 Andrews St. The Building was bought for $55,000.00 US, with the help of the Homeland Ministries.
God used pastors and other individuals to help the Church during its beginning stages.
Pastor Erasto Arenas from San Bruno, California came to minister the Word during the first fellowship at Crescent Park and to assist the members organize the church.
Pastor Rolando Lazaro, ministered to the congregation from June to October 1986.
Rev. Jose Ormeo came in November 1, 1986 sent from California to help while the church was in search of a fulltime pastor. He and his wife stayed for three weeks and left before Christmas.
The Lord also used Renato Gonzales, Mariano Soriano and Rollie David to share His Word at the time when the church didn’t have a pastor.
February 5, 1987, Rev. David S. B. Alvarez came to Winnipeg after attending a Conference for Evangelism in the U.S. He was granted a work permit so that he could serve as the interim pastor while the church was in the process of sponsoring another pastor from the Philippines. He served until September 1988.
Azel Navarro was the first choir director. She faithfully came every weekend driving from Brandon for choir practices and the church services. Under her direction, the choir performed their very first Christmas Cantata entitled “A King Comes”. She served from August 1987 – April 1989.
The “Buong Makakaya” Campaign was launched to raise funds to pay for the mortgage of the church building.
Pastor Socrates Herrera came in as a sponsored pastor of the Church. He arrived in September 5, 1988. He served until April 1994. During Pastor Herrera’s ministry, the church was nurtured in their faith and many accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. They also had a 24 hour Prayer Vigil to request the Lord to help them to be able to pay off the balance of $3,000. The Lord answered through His children and the members took up the challenge to raise funds for the church and in the end had extra funds of close to $2,000.
The church had their first Vacation Bible School.
The choir performed the Easter Cantata “We Have Seen the Lord” by Marty R. Parks and in December, Joe E. Parks’ “That’s Christmas” both conducted by Azel Navarro.
The Children’s Choir performed “If I Were A King” by Tommy Melendez as conducted by Azel Navarro.
In March, the choir performed Don Krueger’s “Behold the Lamb” under the direction of Azel Navarro.
On December 24, the Junior Choir did “Wise Guys and Starry Skies” by Kathie Hill directed by the Sunday School Teachers.
Josefina “Josie” David served as the Moderator from 1990 – 1991.
The first youth Church Camp was held at the Spruce Woods Provincial Park.
The Young Adults Band led the Worship thru Music
A Discipleship Training was conducted February 17 – 19 entitled “Growing Strong in God’s Family”.
The FUCC Choir sang at the 4th year anniversary of the “Born Again” TV program hosted by Mariano Soriano.
The Christmas presentation had two parts: the first part had the theme “Pasko sa Pilipinas” presented by the Seniors, Young People, Young Married and Young Adults; the second part were selections from “He Came to Love” words and music by Don and Loral Marsh, conducted by Edith Camandang.
The church had the first family camp at Spruce Woods Provincial Park in August with the theme “Maintaining Unity among God’s Family.”
A Sunday School Teachers Training was held in April.
The young people performed the Christmas Cantata entitled “It’s Christmas Around the World” with the participation of the congregation.
The first Fun Night was held in October.
The Leaders Retreat was held at the church led by Pastor Socrates Herrera.
In 1992, Renato Gonzales was elected as the Moderator and served until 1995
The church held the 6th year anniversary lunch and sportsfest at Little Mountain Park; the Young Adults led the games.
The Young Married group held a yard sale.
In August, a Baptismal Class was taught by Pastor Herrera.
The Family Camp was held at Birds Hill Provincial Park.
Three mothers were awarded “Mothers of the Year” namely Marcosa Reynoso (Lourdes Labayan’s mother), Magdalena “Enang” Garcia (Mar Garcia’s mother) and Fidela Saratan (Zarina Singh’s grandmother).
Edith Camandang conducted the performance of the “Man of Destiny,” a Musical Drama written by Mosie Lister in June 5 in celebration of the 7th Anniversary.
The Family Camp was held at Birds Hill Provincial Park.
The Young People had their retreat.
The Young People sponsored the Children’s Fair which was held in August 22 at the back of the church.
From May to October, the church was without a pastor in charge. Guest speakers were invited to keep the church’s worship service going.
On the last week of October, Pastor Abel Amago came as an interim pastor until the church could find a full time pastor. He stayed for ten months until the second week of July 1995. Though his stay was brief, he was able to challenge the members to increase their giving. He also started to conduct two worship services, one in English and the other one in Tagalog.
Irene Legaspi (now Irene Thiessen) started playing the piano for the choir.
Also in this year, Delia Alvarez served as choir director.
Rev. Cipriano Pasoquen together with his wife, Precy and son, Cyril, arrived in Winnipeg to serve the church. He held seminars among the church leaders called TEACH (Teaching Everyone About Christ at Homes). The program was to help the leaders handle a Bible study for members to strengthen their faith and at the same time reach out to non-believers. He also taught a series on “Christian Foundation,” which was to help increase the members’ knowledge of their faith and beliefs. The Alpha Course was taught to the congregation and they were later assigned to do outreach to practice what they had learned. Rev. Pasoquen served until July 1998.
The 9th Anniversary was celebrated with a lunch fellowship at the Crescent Park.
In December 1995, a Children’s Christmas Concert/Play was held at the church at Andrews St. which Maripin Garcia – Europa conducted. After two weeks from that a Youth Christmas concert was held featuring Michael W. Smith’s “Born is the King.”
The Rev. Jack J. Seville Jr. was the Conference Minister at the time.
Church members had a trip to Chicago and the young people sang in some churches in the city.
The Church celebrated its 10th anniversary!
Edith Camandang was elected Moderator and served from January 1996 – September 1997. Edith and her family moved to Vancouver before her term ended thus Vice Moderator Cely Sarte took over from October to December 1997.
The Discovery Talents Night showcased the various talents of the church members. The program was emceed by Renato Gonzales and Maripin Garcia (now Maripin Europa).
In March 1997, the church building at 235 Andrews Street was sold for $84,000 and the church purchased the church building on 1039 Pritchard Avenue for $179, 000.
The “Project Temple Campaign” was launched to finance the mortgage of $120, 000 and used to do some major renovations on the church building.
Maripin Garcia served the Adult choir from 1997 to 1999.
Josie David was elected a second time as Moderator.
The Alpha Band and the Teens’ Band was formed.
From August 1998 – April 1999, Rev. Noriel Capulong and his wife, Rebecca helped the church during the time the church was waiting for Rev. Ed Capillar to arrive from the Philippines.
Rev. Eduardo Capillar together with his family arrived in July 1999 as sponsored by the church.
He served until 2008.
From 2000 – 2001, Carmen Laurel served as Moderator
In June 2001, the church hosted the 38th Annual Meeting of the Northern Plains Conference for the first time. The Lord used “Kapit Kamay in Faith” to bless the participants who came to attend the conference. Members of the different groups did a Filipiniana presentation and had the hand song or hand mime as it’s presently called, doing three songs. This showcased the vast talents in the church and most of all, the unity of the members.
From 2002 – 2003, Marina “Marie” Atanacio served as the Moderator
In 2003, Emie Lasala came to serve as the choir director for a year
Copies of the By-laws, constitution and policies of the church were distributed in April 12, 2003 and ratified by the congregation on May 4, 2003. The by-laws took effect in June.
From 2004 – 2005, was Adriana “Ading” Genido’s turn to be Moderator
Rev. Ed Capillar doubled as choir director and administrative pastor from 2004 – 2006
Prasia had a concert at the church.
Pastor Ezekiel “Khel” De Castro came on board to serve as the youth worker from 2004 – 2006.
The church celebrated its 20th anniversary.
Cely Sarte was elected to serve as Moderator from 2006 – 2007
Jean Cuanan volunteered as choir director for eight months and led the Easter Cantata that year.
September 2006, Jean Padrinao joined the church to help with the music ministry and continues to serve the Lord together with her family.
The church celebrated its 21st anniversary
The Adult Choir did excerpts from the Easter Cantata, “Rose of Calvary” composed by Joseph Martin.
The Mizpah concert was held in October.
Val Malinis served as Moderator from 2008 – 2009
Joe Pelayo and Glen Saria graduated from Yankton College, North Dakota, U.S.A. and became Licensed Ministers
Also awarded their certificates as Authorized Lay Worship Leaders were: Valentino “Val” Malinis and Pastor Lito Rodriguez while ALWL Resty Atanacio and Elmo Rivera received their renewal certificates
In June the church launched its website.
Pastor Lito Rodriguez joined the church to serve in July.
Mizpah had a concert dubbed “Sounds of Praise” with guest performers Noel and Emelie Pa-a, Harold Alvarez of Broadway Disciples United Church (BDUC). Richard Hernandez also of BDUC helped with the choreography.
Bible Studies by areas was organized.
The Chancel Choir performed “Joyful and Triumphant” composed by Claire Cloninger.
The Audio Visual equipment was upgraded in August.
The first Encounter God Retreat was conducted with the Partners for Christ and the second one was with the Young Adults/Young Married
In September 2009, the YWAM team came to conduct the “Plumbline Seminar,” which was a discipleship training for the youth and basic counselling seminar for all organizations
A Youth Camp was held at Camp Arnes
The Purpose Driven Life book by Pastor Rick Warren was used as a Sunday School material.
The Music Ministry organized the Children’s Choir with Aera Estoesta and Lyn Leyba as co-directors.
Pastor Khel De Castro rejoined the church as Youth Pastor.
“The Same Ground” Concert was put together by the Music Ministry to help raise funds for missions.
Cely Sarte was elected as Moderator a second time to serve from 2010 – 2011
January 2010, the church held its very first congregational business meeting
Singer, songwriter and composer Becky Thomas led the workshop for the Music Ministry from February 19 and 20.
In April 16 and 17, Pastor Tammy Toepke conducted the Sunday School Training.
The Evangelism and Missions Committee had the “Pass It On” training for cell group leaders
The Music Ministry had its first Encounter God Retreat on May 21 – 23 at Camp Arnes.
In June, due to the growing number of members, the Council decided to revive the two services to cater to the needs of the members. It was decided to hold the Tagalog Service (liturgical style) at 9:00 am and the English Service (contemporary style) at 11:30 am
“The Promise”, Fil-UCC’s newsletter was released
The church hired the first part time Administrative Assistant, Lilia Reyes.
In September, Sunday School month, was the first Bible Quiz for all levels.
In November, the Zimri Band had its first concert called “A Night of Godlywood”.
The Evangelism and Missions Committee together with Y.O.U and Partners for Christ did an outreach at Siloam Mission.