On a Sunday, March 5, 1899, Bishop Thoburn delivered his first sermon in a worship service held a... Harris Memorial College...
On a Sunday, March 5, 1899, Bishop Thoburn delivered his first sermon in a worship service held at Teatro Filipino in Manila to about seventy American soldiers and fifty Filipinos. This event marked the official beginning of the Methodist missionary work and Methodism in the Philippines.
The first four missionaries, who arrived in Manila to begin mission work were: Mary A. Cody, kindergarten teacher; Cornelia Moots, evangelistic worker; Anna J. Norton, medical doctor; and Julia F. Wisner, teacher from the Girl’s School in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). They rented a Spanish house on 168 Calle Nueva, Ermita and in May opened a boarding and day school for Filipino, Spanish, and mestizo girls. This venture did not prosper as the society envisioned. The four missionaries were then reassigned to other mission work.
The Philippine Islands District of the Malaysia Conference was organized in the same year, 1900. Thomas H. Martin, the first regular missionary, arrived, followed by Jesse L. McLaughlin and wife Myrtle Ward, and William G. Fritz and his wife.
More missionaries came in 1901: Homer C. Stuntz and wife Estelle Clark; Willard A. Goodell; Fred McCarl and wife Kathryn Bentley; A.E. Chenoweth and wife Minnie Sprout. In 1902, William A. Brown and wife Dora Taggart arrived. All missionaries who served between 1901-1902 worked in Pampanga, Bulacan, and Manila.
Regular WFMS missionaries organized themselves into a Woman’s Conference, the official body, which met separately from the Clergy District Conference. Their minutes were included in the annual conference journals.
Also in 1902, Anna Norton began a Bible class for women, an Epworth League for the Youth, and a Sabbath School for children. Dora Taggart Brown organized a Junior League.
In the same year, the Philippine Islands District Conference, with Presiding Elder Homer C. Stuntz, approved the immediate opening of a deaconess training school in Manila. The General Board of the WFMS purchased an old Spanish house in Nozaleda Street for the deaconess home and training school.
Winifred Spaulding, a deaconess and director of the Kansas City Deaconess Training School, responded to Rev. Stuntz’ appeal to go to the Philippines. Sent and supported by the Topeka Branch of the WFMS, she arrived on May 1, 1903. On the same boat with Miss Spaulding were Rev. and Mrs. Marvin Rader, who were sent by the Missionary Board.
Many events followed since then. As years passed by, the old campus became insufficient for the needs of the whole school. In 1988, Harris Memorial College relocated to the 1.5- hectare campus in Taytay, Rizal. Fresh air, wide open spaces, and fields of green welcomed the Harris family as they trekked into the new campus from the overcrowding and pollution of the city.
Harris Memorial College is an educational institution ministering to 742 students from pre-school to college. It has 79 faculty, staff, and support staff. One hundred thirty students are taking up collegiate deaconess program. Another group composes the non- deaconess students, male and female, who are taking Bachelor of Kindergarten Education, Bachelor of Secondary Education, and Bachelor in Elementary Education. The college also has five special students (with ADDS, Autism) in the elementary and high school. Others are international students.
In addition, the College has its Center for Community Development (Outreach Program), the Center for Christian Education and Discipleship, and the Doris Lou Willis Center for Early Childhood Education.
The College has identified five major areas to focus on in order to fulfill its Vision, Mission, and Goals. These are Deaconess Formation, Faculty Development, Curriculum Enhancement, Buildings, Grounds and Facilities Improvement, and Fiscal Responsibility.
The Deaconess Formation is the centerpiece of its educational institution. Therefore, it continues to improve its deaconess training program. Among other things, it listens to the churches for feedback and suggestion regarding its deaconesses and seriously consider them.
As a teaching college, it believes that the quality of education depends on better trained teachers. Therefore, it encourages its teachers to pursue graduate work. This is also in line with the requirement of the CHED for faculty, especially department heads, to have advance degrees.
The College is also working on its buildings, grounds and facilities Improvement. It focuses on four major tasks: a) Maintenance work on the buildings in need of immediate attention before they continue to deteriorate; b) Renovation of the first floor of the Huck Hall, the ladies dormitory; c) The wiring of offices for internet connection; and d) Cleanliness and beautification of the campus grounds.
The multi-million renovation project of the first floor of Huck Hall, the deaconess dormitory, is already complete. This will be the Harris Seminar House. The college is ready to host the Asian Women’s Conference in Higher Education in 2007 to be participated in by Southeast Asian Women’s colleges founded by the WFMS.
When it comes to its Fiscal Responsibility, the forces behind the college are happy to say that with the valuable help from Mr. Romulo Sison, the BOT treasurer who is also the financial consultant, business office, and the Comptroller’s office were reorganized for increased efficiency, resulting to an improvement in cash flow processes and redefined responsibilities. Stewardship of financial resources is closely monitored.
The college needs more mature young women for deaconess service. Local churches/districts and annual conferences and the commission on deaconess services (CODS) have been tasked to identify and nurture better quality young women for deaconess service and provide scholarship for them.
"We wish the churches to understand that the quality of the students we graduate will also significantly depend upon the quality of students they send," a college official said.
Open to increased enrolment in all levels, the Harris Memorial College accepts all students, male and female, from any denomination in the country. College courses that they can take are Bachelor of Kindergarten Education, Bachelor of Secondary Education, and Bachelor of Elementary Education. Complete classes in high school, elementary, and kindergarten levels are also available.
Harris Memorial College marches on, doing what it was called to do, "to develop responsive and effective servant leaders." Its administrators, faculty and staff are called to train students in word and deed to become "rooted in the word of God" so they can make a positive influence in their home, workplace, society, and the world.
Harris Memorial College Program offerings include Bachelor of Arts in Christian Education, Bachelor of Kindergarten Education, Bachelor of Elementary Education, Bachelor of Secondary , Education, Bachelor of Arts in Church Music, Certificate in Early Childhood Education, High School, Elementary, and Preschool.
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