Postage stamps
honour
Methodist
hospital in
Philippines

MANILA - Two new postage stamps in the Philippines honour a 100-year-old Methodist hospital and its founder.


Bishop Solito K. Toquero, President of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, said that the Philippine Government created the stamps to express appreciation for the Mary Johnston Hospital in Tondo, Manila.


The commission, which serves as the official archival and historical centre for the denomination, learned that one stamp features a historical picture of the hospital with its founder, Dr Rebecca Parish, a Methodist Episcopal missionary. The other stamp pictures the current hospital, the hospital seal and surgeons performing an operation.


"It's the only United Methodist hospital in the Philippines and is in an extremely poor section where there are many gangs and victims of gang warfare," Bishop Toquero said.


"The Methodist Episcopal Church sent Rebecca Parish, a medical doctor at the beginning of the 20th century, and here she started a small clinic."


With the needs of the population, the clinic expanded into a hospital and today serves an indigenous population and the poor, among others.


Bishop Toquero said the hospital is still supported by Methodist churches in the Tondo area as well as the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
He said the hospital is known throughout the country for its training of doctors, community education and outreach. It is also well known as a cancer centre. - United Methodist News Service.