Churches of Cebu

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 9:16 pm

Saints Peter and Paul Church at Bantayan Island

As many of you know, I try to visit and photograph one church in the Philippines each month. Last month I went to the nearly 500 year old church on Bantayan Island.

: Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Bantayan Island, Cebu Philippines

The church and island has some interesting history but I’m not going to repeat that here. If you’d like to see the pictures and read what I learned about it please visit Churches in Cebu on my Living in Cebu site.

Bantayan Island is becoming my favorite place in the Philippines. I wish I was there now!

This week is Holy Week though and the island is over run with people, expats, tourist, .and Filipino too. I would like to go to Bantayan Island this week for a day trip and see some of the remembrances going on.

There is a lot of controversy this year, there is a bikini contest scheduled for this week. This is probably out of place as this is not a period of celebration. It is very solemn remembrance. Six priest from Northern Cebu Province have contact the governor asking her to ban this type of entertainment during Holy Week. The priest from Saints Peter and Paul has been quoted as saying that “fun has no place during Holy Week.”

Indeed, Holy Week is treated as a sad time among the majority of Filipino. The country is estimated to be 80% catholic. Long before I came here, Filipina were telling me how there was to be no music during black Saturday but some of those that told me that they played music. Their heart was in the right place. :) Few of us completely meet the goals we set for ourselves.