Manila's shopping malls mix the commercial and the spiritual

Feb 25, 2010, 6:23 GMT

Manila - It was Sunday afternoon and Greenbelt was packed as usual. Diesel, Lacoste, Burberry - business was humming in the stores of the shopping mall in Manila's upscale Makati district. The most crowded place, however, was a pavilion among the cafes and restaurants in a small park at the centre of the huge complex.

The domed, open-air structure is the Greenbelt Chapel, spiritual home of the Roman Catholic Santo Nino de Paz Community. Seven masses are celebrated there every Sunday, each one of them well-frequented.

In the midst of a steady storm of consumption, thousands of shoppers regularly pause. The pews, which seat about 600, are occupied long before the masses begin. More people gather around the chapel, where they stand in rapt silence and follow the religious services from outside.

'The church goes to the people and on Sundays in big cities they're mainly at shopping malls,' said a member of the staff in the chapel's office.

'I come every Sunday,' remarked a 23-year-old female university student. 'I drink coffee with my girlfriends, we go for a stroll and then to mass.'

A young salesman who works in one of the mall's clothing stores said he attended mass during his break. Three high school students, whose ages ranged from 16 to 17, also said they attendedm though they seldom went to church in the neighbourhood where they lived.

'Here it's easy,' one of them pointed out. 'You can hang out, go to an internet cafe and drop in to a mass.'

Masses are an integral part of shopping malls in the Philippine capital. They are also a standard element in the programme of SM Prime Holdings, the largest mall operator in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines.

'We offer convenience - you can take care of all your needs at once,' said Steven Tan, head of Manila's SM Mall of Asia. SM's places of worship perform weddings and baptisms, while offering gown rentals, photographers and restaurants catering to wedding parties right next door.

On this particular Sunday, James Ferry was preaching at the Greenbelt Chapel. 'Our aim is not to chase after material things,' he said without a trace of irony while shopping bags rustled in the pews in front of him. 'We know that real value doesn't lie in possessions.'

The visitors appreciate the admonitions. 'I like the homilies here. They're plain and simple and you always learn something that's useful in your life,' commented Rosemarie Balana, 53. She has been a member of the Santo Nino de Paz Community from the very beginning.

The chapel was inaugurated in 1983, when Makati was primarily a business district. It is the brainchild of the late Fanny del Rosario Diploma, then dean of the nearby Institute of Social Work, who wanted to establish a house of worship close to people's workplaces.

Many workers in the surrounding office buildings still visit the chapel, particularly for the early Mass at 7:15 am on weekdays. But the bulk of the chapelgoers now are shoppers, some of whom take a break from bargain-hunting to confess their sins or say the rosary.

The chapel-going shoppers are generous, always filling the collection plate. Through its Love-a-Parish Program, the Santo Nino de Paz Community has helped more than 400 parishes nationwide with monthly donations. Its institutional beneficiaries include Caritas Manila, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, the Poor Clares and the Carmelite Sisters of Bacolod.