Jesus said to His disciples as recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew(18:20, KJV). “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
This is the most basic, essential, fundamental — the very core — definition of what the Christian church should be.
When Rev. and Mrs. David S. Hibbard first set foot in a place called Dumaguete in the year 1901 — their heart and mind, which is to say, motivated by, and focused on what this scriptural passage is set forth to mean — they acted on planting the seed of the church.
For what is the church, essentially? It is fundamentally and basically people.
When the Hibbards invited people to come and join fellowship in the name and spirit of the Christ, that was the church.
It, therefore, goes without saying that Silliman University Church is intrinsically bound to Silliman Institute, which later evolved into what we now call Silliman University.
To celebrate the origin of SU Church other than 1901 is to mar the meaning of what SU Founders Day comes every 28th day of August every year, aren’t the celebratory activities begun with worship at the SU Church; and concluded, supposedly, with the church-pastor’s/ worker’s convocation? This is the undesturbable tradition at Silliman, lest we forget!
As far as beginnings are concerned, Silliman Church and Silliman University are intertwined. They are co-terminus, since day one. And so may it be, henceforth.
Rev. Prof. Salvador B. Vista
Silliman Campus,
Dumaguete City
