Key Points:
- United Methodist Norma P. Dollaga receives World Methodist Peace Award for four decades of service focusing on peace and justice.
- The World Methodist Council recognized her efforts to establish safe havens for those targeted by extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
- A former national in mission through the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, Dollaga said the church has affirmed and supported her work.
Norma P. Dollaga’s tireless efforts to establish safe havens for those targeted by extrajudicial killings in the Philippines have earned her the World Methodist Council’s prestigious 2024 World Methodist Peace Award.
She was honored for her four decades of service as a United Methodist deaconess dedicated to peace and justice. Her reaction to the award was deeply emotional, she said.
“When I first read Bishop Ivan Abraham’s message,” she said of the World Methodist Council’s general secretary, “I was overwhelmed. I took a moment to pray and meditate, seeking God’s guidance and peace if I were to accept this recognition.
“When the sun rises, every waking up leads me to renewed power and inspiration to carry on the tasks and mission entrusted. When the moon rises and concludes the night to rest my body from all that gives me reason to carry on, I am thankful that the day passed with meaningful endeavors.”
Dollaga said her faith instills in her a profound belief that justice and peace can prevail, even in the face of immense hardship and challenges.
“Hope is a force that binds us to our beliefs as human beings,” she said. “Love, in its nurturing and transformative power, sustains us in our journey.”
The World Methodist Council bestows the award with stringent criteria that includes courage and a willingness to face physical danger or put personal interests at risk, creativity to initiate new grounds for progress, and consistency and commitment to sustain efforts despite setbacks.
“What we do in the engagement for justice is as normal as breathing,” Dollaga said. “There is nothing special in what we do. I share the suffering of people victimized by an unjust system.”
She said that it is essential to participate in the people’s communion of struggle and hope so that the promise of abundant life will be fulfilled.
“Resistance is a gift,” she said of her quest to sensitize people and seek justice. “Redemption and liberation (are) what we need. Justice will shepherd us through,” she said during a 2017 interview with UM News.
Dollaga is a co-founder of Rise Up for Life and for Rights, an ecumenical alliance campaigning against extrajudicial killings that have resulted from the country’s “war on drugs” launched in 2016. The group and Dollaga are committed to remembering the victims and calling for justice for those who were killed without legal process.
An active deaconess in the Philippines Annual Conference, Dollaga currently works at the Ecumenical Center for Development or KASIMBAYAN. She said she cherishes her experience as a deaconess.
“The training and the practical ministries that nurture our spiritual and social connections with people became helpful strength in embracing the ministry of compassion, solidarity and action,” she said. “Over time, the blending of deaconess work with social justice advocacies becomes a process of embracing prophetic witness.”
A former national in mission through the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, Dollaga said the church has affirmed and supported her work and the organization that she represents.
“For the long years that I have known Norma,” said Darlene Marquez-Caramanzana, Global Ministries area liaison for Asia and the Pacific, “I have witnessed her consistent bias for the poorest among us and those who have been victims of injustices. Her life and how she lives out her spirituality remind me of the persistent woman who did not waver in demanding justice from the judge. The judge eventually gave in to her demand, and she got justice.
“From a missional perspective, (Dollaga’s) engagement in God’s mission involves living in solidarity with victims of empirical rule and denouncing the present-day empire that perpetuates unpeace and injustice. As she engages in solidarity, she speaks truth to power and exposes the lived realities of people who suffer at the hands of the state and the powers that be.”
Rebecca C. Asedillo, former Global Ministries area liaison for Asia and the Pacific, said Dollaga is more than deserving of the award.
“I have, through the years, held my breath for her in fear for her safety as she courageously went about her advocacy for justice on behalf of those without power and voice,” Asedillo said. “Her work has also resulted in the voiceless and powerless being empowered and mobilized to challenge injustice and the violation of their rights.
“Norma’s compassion is bottomless, as (is) the well of spiritual resources from which she draws strength and wisdom. Her empathy is always with the marginalized. Norma’s sense of humor and joy shine through in the midst of darkness and despair. She is ineffable.”
Liberato Bautista, assistant general secretary for United Nations and International Affairs at the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, said, “Norma’s activism is deeply formed by her steadfast faith in God and honed by her immersion in people’s struggles to live out God’s justice and peace. She richly deserves the award and adds prestige to it.”
Dollaga said she thinks of unnamed people whose work is worth emulating. She recalled a favorite hymn, “I Would Be True” by H. A. Walter.
The hymn, she said, “encourages me to hold fast to what I think. When we dream for a better life for everyone (and) when we long for a day when every child … has a community that cares and learns to serve others as well, we are nurturing the humanity that is in us. Every farmer, worker, member of the Indigenous community and urban poor longs for that excellent life for the present and the future. It is not an empty dream.”
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Dollaga said she is humbled by the recognition.
“I receive the award with gratitude,” she said, “on behalf of the people who have an unbending will to redeem us from all forms of oppression and exploitation. I am reminded of a farmer in a poor rural community who said, ‘The unjust system leaves us an option between being in a prison cell or a cemetery. We choose neither, for we want life with dignity. And we will fight for it.’”
The award, she said, is like bread and wine shared with the people, “co-workers in the peace and justice work and for the many martyrs who suffered and died because they love the people nearest to God’s heart.
“The award is both an honor and a responsibility. Let us continue to pray and be the voice for justice.”
Mangiduyos is a communicator in the Philippines.
News media contact: Julie Dwyer at newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.
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