(Eagle News) – The Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church Of Christ) has set its fourth record title for its historic May 6 Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty with the announcement from Guinness that the INC had broken its own record for the largest charity walk in multiple venues.
Guinness awarded on Tuesday, June 12, the official certificates for the four new world record titles that the INC had set for its historic global march.
With this, the Iglesia Ni Cristo now has four Guinness world record titles for its May 6 Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty, and had set a total of 24 Guinness world records, in all, since July 2012.
The four official Guinness world record titles that the INC had set for its May 6 global march was for the largest human sentence with 23,235 participants, the largest picture mosaic formed by people with 9,000 participants, the largest charity walk in a single venue with 238,171 participants, and the largest charity walk in multiple venues with 773,136 participants.
The announcement was made by Guinness official adjudicator Paulina Sapinska who came from the Guinness headquarters in London to award the latest four Guinness validated certificates to the INC on Tuesday, June 12, at the Church’s Central Office in Quezon City, Philippines.
“Iglesia Ni Cristo beginning July 7, 2012, had already set 20 Guinness world record titles,” Sapinska announced during the event as the audience applauded.
“On May 6, 2018, Iglesia Ni Cristo set four additional titles, including the largest human sentence consisting of 23,235 participants. The sentence read, ‘Proud to be a Member of the Iglesia Ni Cristo,’” she continued.
“The second Guinness world record title that was set was the largest picture mosaic formed by people consisting of 9,000 people which doubled the previous record of 4,500,” she said.
The picture mosaic formed was the Church’s green, white and red flag with the biblical golden menorah in the middle.
“The largest charity walk run consisting of 283,171 people was also set. This record was previously held by Iglesia Ni Cristo, so the record was once again broken. The previous one was for 175,509 which was set on the 15th of Feb 2014,” Sapinska said.
“The fourth record title was for the largest charity walk/run in multiple venues which was 773,136,” she announced.
This latest record beat the INC’s previous record of 519,221 participants set on February 15, 2014 during the first INC Worldwide Walk which benefited victims of super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in the Philippines.
“You are officially amazing,” Sapinska announced after she had given all four official verified certificates validated by Guinness to INC ministers who were members of the Church’s council or Sanggunian led by INC General Auditor minister Glicerio B. Santos Jr.
Getting four Guinness world record titles that involved a lot of coordination and teamwork was a feat in itself, she noted.
“I think with any record there’s a lot of organization and teamwork that needs to come together to break it, so it says a lot when records are broken especially by such large numbers. It shows a real sense of community,” Sapinska said in an interview after the announcement and the awarding of Guinness certificates.
She noted that even the latest Guinness world record title that the INC had set – for the largest charity walk in multiple venues – was already a big achievement, and the number of participants at 773,136 was already hard to overcome.
“Yes, it’s a really large number, and it’s difficult to coordinate so many people around the world. That’s why we can only announce the record title now,” she said.
“I’ve worked with the Iglesia Ni Cristo over all, (there was) a lot of paper work as well. They had people on site at all of the locations. There’s actually 10 adjudicators involved around the world on this one record attempt,” the Guinness official said, explaining the difficulty of the process of validation and verification for the attempt on the largest charity walk in multiple venues.
The Church’s worldwide walk to fight poverty had more than 300 sites across 18 time zones around the world that participated in the simultaneous event on May 6, 2018.
Because of the tedious process involved with the Guinness verification and validation of all sites involved, it took more than a month after the event itself for Guinness to make the announcement and award the record title.
“Iglesia Ni Cristo had set 20 Guinness world record titles in the past. And then today I have awarded four titles. In total, there had been 24 that had been set,” Sapinska said.
INC General Auditor, INC minister Glicerio B. Santos Jr., accepted the verified certificate for the largest charity walk in multiple venues from Sapinska.
He raised the Guinness certificate which represented the 24th Guinness record title set by the Church since it started setting world records in July 2012, mostly for socio-civic actions that aimed to help the poor and those in need.
“Yung nakamit natin sa Guinness world record ay 24 certificates. Sabi nga ng iba, yung pagkakaroon natin ng 24 certificates ay record na yun. (What we got from Guinness world records are 24 certificates. As what the others have said, having 24 certificates is a record by itself),” Santos noted.
Santos said the various victories of the Church was because of God’s help. Because of this, he said, the whole Church Of Christ will be praising God for these blessings to the Church.
He said that there were also other “amazing” victories and achievements that the Church had achieved, through God’s help, and that these involved other works that showed how the Church administration and the whole of the Church membership is showing their love for their fellowmen.
“Ang lahat ng kagila-gilalas at kamanghamanghang mga tagumpay na nangyari sa Iglesia Ni Cristo ngayon, ang lahat ng ito ay ibinabalik natin ang kapurihan sa ating Panginoong Diyos,” said the INC General Auditor after the Guinness certificates had been awarded.
(All these awe-inspiring and amazing victories that are happening in the Church Of Christ today, we bring back the glory to God and we praise Him for all of these.)
-God guiding INC Church Administration-
Santos said this also served as a testament as to how God was guiding INC Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V. Manalo in his stewardship of the Church, as all these victories were happening during the time of his administration of the INC.
“Sa panahon ng kanyang Pamamahala ay nangyayari ang lahat ng mga tagumpay at kahanga-hangang mga gawang ito ng Diyos sa Iglesia. Ito ang katunayan na ang kapatid na Eduardo Manalo ay hawak ng ating Panginoong Diyos,” he said.
(It is during his [Brother Eduardo’s] administration that all these victories and amazing works of God is happening in the Church. This is testament that our Lord God is guiding Brother Eduardo Manalo.)
The INC’s May 6 Worldwide Walk to Fight Poverty was held in more than 300 sites across 18 time zones that will benefit poor communities in Africa.
The Church had set eco-farming sites in Ladybrand and another site in Africa to help poor communities in the region.
He said that the Church, under the leadership of INC Executive Minister Brother Eduardo V. Manalo, will continue to conduct outreach and socio-civic activities all over the world.
Next week, he said, the INC will also hold more outreach activities in Africa, particularly in Malawi and Kibera in Kenya.
Santos said the whole Church membership is showing their unity to support the Church Administration’s programs, including those that would help people in need as part of the biblical teaching for Church members to love their fellowmen. (Eagle News Service)
